CAST A GIANT SHADOW

One of the most romantic figures of modern warfare was Colonel David Marcus and his life story reads like a hero saga. ""Mickey"" Marcus came from immigrant parents, fought his way out of Brooklyn and was a shining Light at West Point. He made a daredevil landing at Normandy, worked superbly with Clay in postwar Germany. Though neither a practising Jew or Zionist, he accepted the need of survivors of the Nazi terror for a homeland and his own role. Out of a ramshackle youthful citizen army, he built an indomitable striking force and was awarded Israel's first Generalship. Shortly before the young republic's hour of triumph, he was shot down at the gates of Jerusalem. An epic figure -- always -- to Israel, his biography should take a place beside Exodus.