The Island War: The United States Marine Corps in the Pacific

xv, 413 p. Maps on endpapers. CONTENTS: Author's Foreword; The Marine Corps and Its Mission; Days of Disaster; The Turning Point: Guadalcanal; Breathing Spell; Back into the Jungle: Bougainville; Blood, Coral--and History: The Gilberts; Muddy Victory: Cape Gloucester; Enemy Territory: The Marshalls; Westward Toward the Rising Sun; Cracking the Second Line: Saipan; Our First Reconquest: Guam; Gateway to the Philippines: Peleliu; "I Have Returned"; The Inevitable Island: Iwo Jima; The Last Act: Okinawa; Epilogue: Appendix I: Chronology of War in the Pacific; Appendix II: Table of Organization of Marine Division; Appendix III: Order of Battle, U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific; Appendix IV: Lieut. General Saito's Last Message to His Troops; Appendix V: General Erskine's "Smith-Chui" Dispatch; Glossary and Ship Chart; Index.