Customer Reviews

Small Wars Manual: United States Marine Corps 1940 (Nineteen-Forty)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The history of the Marine Corps is replete with "expeditions": relatively small interventions to protect American life and property in the odd corners of the world.
Finding that they were not retaining the hard-won lessons of previous operations, "Red Mike" Edson (who is, oddly., not credited in the Introduction), and others wrote this encyclopedic guide to every facet of "small wars". They tried to encompass everything: political relationships, logistics, tactics, and useful instruction down to the correct principles for loading pack mules!
Some of the assumptions of the 1930's may jar the sensibilities of the modern reader, but the Manual is a fascinating view into the operations of the Old Corps - and we may some day need the wisdom again.

The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

The preceding review was written 3.5 years before 9/11, when the U.S. was suddenly thrust into places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Talk about prescience.