The Marshall Islands 1944: Operation Flintlock, the capture of Kwajalein and Eniwetok

Osprey Campaign #146

by Gordon L. Rottman, Howard Gerrard (Illustrations)

Following the capture of Tarawa in November 1943 during World War II (1939-1945), American eyes turned to the Marshall Islands. These were the next vital stepping-stone across the Pacific towards Japan, and would bring the islands of Guam and Saipan within the reach of US forces. In their first amphibious attack, the new 4th Marine Division landed on Roi and Namur islands on 1 February 1944, while US 7th Division landed on Kwajalein. At the time this was the longest shore-to-shore amphibious assault in history. The lessons of the bloody fighting on Tarawa had been well learned and the successful attack on the Marshalls set the pattern for future amphibious operations in the Pacific War.

Genres: History, World War II, Military History

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 22, 2004

About the author

Gordon L. Rottman served for 26 years in the US Army in Special Forces, airborne infantry, long-range reconnaissance patrol, and military intelligence assignments in the Regular Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve. He has worked as a Special Operations Forces scenario writer for 14 years at the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, Louisiana where he developed training exercises for Special Forces.
Gordon began writing military history books in 1984 and is currently a full-time author. He has written 50 books for Osprey. He is married with four children and lives in Cypress, Texas.

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 2 out of 5]

The longer the title, the greater the risk of Osprey alphabet soup... in this case, two divisional action reports are mixed at a (s)pace of a paragraph per day. The regular reason to capture any Pacific island by costly amphibious assault - an airfield for the next "hop" - makes this one of those Pacific battles that you can easily capsule into the introduction for the next battle - and indeed, Rottman sandwiches the Marshalls between Tarawa & Saipan himself in his Osprey on the former.

[Sean Chick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid summation of the campaign with good maps and images but marred by a text that is as dry as the Sahara.

[Steve Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dry narrative packed with an immense amount of information. There are no personal accounts, no “in the trenches” viewpoint of the battles. It isn’t exciting, but it’s a great reference book.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of Osprey's "Campaign" series originally published in the UK, this book seems bizarrely out of context when just grabbed randomly, as I grabbed it, but is of great utility if this is what you're looking for.

It's an extremely detailed battle study of the Marshall Islands campaign. It provides interesting reading for it's amazing detail, though it's probably not of general interest to the casual reader.

It would, however, be of great use to military historians, modelers and wargamers, illustrators, someone reconstructing battle scenes for documentaries or other films, someone writing another book about the campaign, fiction or nonfiction -- that sort of thing. For just sit-down-and-enjoy-it reading, it's too dense and with too much detail.

Great photos, diagrams, maps. Military nerds will be in heaven with this series.

[Norbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very detailed - but I found it boaring