A history of the US Marine Corps in the 20th century told through the life and service of it’s most decorated and possibly it’s most outspoken officer, Lt. General Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller. Chesty cut his teeth on the police actions of the Marines in Haiti (1898-1919) and other banana republics in which guardia civilia of incompetent governments were essentially propped up and led by Marine non-coms, who doubled as officers in the constabulary, against the bandit gangs and guerillas. His instinct to attack immediately with overwhelming firepower resulted in his first awards, and his perseverance in applying for billets that would provide training that would lead to a commission finally paid off.
After some tours of duty as a junior officer in China, he joined the few experienced Marines who trained the huge influx of men who volunteered after Pearl Harbor to become the First Marine Division that landed on Guadalcanal in 1942 to stymie the Japanese advance towards Australia. Guadalcanal was a hell on earth of nightly bombardments by the Japanese Navy, which controlled the seas by night and landed fresh troops at will, but the Marines were able to hold the airfield, whose pilots controlled the seas by day, and incredibly to defeat a much larger Japanese army force by aggressively attacking them with overwhelming firepower and, when the ammunition ran low, with bayonets. Puller’s Pacific service included also the landings on Cape Gloucester, Pavuvu and bloody Peleliu, where about half of his regiment were casualties.
After victory over Japan in 1945 the American military was all but demobilized, so that when the Korean war started, the poorly trained Army troops that had been stationed in Japan and the ROK troops were almost driven into the sea by the attacking North Korean army, a situation only avoided by the hasty re-assemblage of the First Marine Division, which landed to the enemy's rear at Inchon and retook the capital of Seoul. Subsequently, the First Marine Division, a couple of US Army Corps and several ROK Army Corps were pushing the North Korean Army northward when a large Chinese force entered the war near the Chosin reservoir. The US and ROK Army units abandoned their equipment and ran southward, leaving the First Marine Division stretched out along frozen roads near the Chosin Reservoir and surrounded by at least six Chinese Divisions. The Marines fought their way out, bringing their equipment, wounded and dead with them, literally destroying the combat capacity of the six Chinese divisions in the process. This probably saved the Marine Corps from President Truman’s effort to “consolidate” them into the Army, but left Chesty outspoken in his criticism of politicians who would let the American military capability degenerate to that shown by the US Army..
Puller himself comes across as a brave man who strongly believed in training, looking out for his men and leading from the front line, and his men loved him for it and followed him anywhere. His undoubted courage aside, his aggressive instinct to attack and disdain for staff work (getting someone else to help you) made him a superb company grade officer, but raised some questions about his performance as a field grade officer in situations where coordination is paramount.
- Paperback: 672 pages
- Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; Reprint edition (August 13, 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 037576044X
- ISBN-13: 978-0375760440
- Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 109 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#174,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #721 in WWII Biographies
- #86 in Korean War History (Books)
- #1828 in World War II History (Books)
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