THE MARINES' WAR

Comprehensive, subjective and unofficial history of Marine action in the South Pacific, complete except for the old Fourth on Bataan and the defense of Wake. Fletcher Pratt is at his best as an ""unofficial historian"" rather than a ""naval authority"" --better at good old-fashioned journalese than prophecy or opinion. Culling from diaries, letters, official records, etc., he crystallizes the long series of marine campaigns, from now American, now Japanese vantage points. He starts with a section on the Guadalcanal operation with the First Marines; then the peripheral operations that terminated at Munda, on to Tarawa, the Marshalls, Bougainville, the Marianas, Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Cape Gloucester and Willaumez under MacArthur, Pelilin, Iwo Jima and finally Okinawa. The author treats this progression of amphibious landings not only as history but in its strategic and tactical implications as the slow perfection of a new type of warfare....But again, it is necessary to recognize the difficulty of finding a market for books of this type.