A Special Valor; The U.S. Marines and the Pacific War

Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press [Bluejacket Books], 2006. First Printing thus [Stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. xi, [1], 466, [2] pages. Frontis Illustrations. Illustrations. Maps. Bibliography. Index. Richard "Dick" Wheeler was an American military historian who authored seventeen books and served as a military consultant for multiple film and television projects. A member of the United States Marine Corps' Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division) during World War II, he was seriously wounded during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Post-war, he penned an account of that battle, The Bloody Battle for Suribachi, and became a military historian. Following his first book's release in 1965, he then published additional works, including Voices of the Civil War in 1976 and Iwo, which was released in 1980. He received a 1973 Christopher Award for Voices of 1776 and the Fletcher Pratt Award for Voices of the Civil War. Richard Wheeler draws extensively on frontline eyewitness accounts of Marines and combat journalists and backs up their stories with official action reports and captured Japanese materials. First published in 1983, the book has earned praise as a one-volume history of all the battles fought by the Marine Corps in the Pacific campaign. The book describes in exciting detail the heroic defense of Wake Island against an overwhelming enemy assault force. It traces the long bloody battle for Guadalcanal that brought the Marines their first victory and gave America and its allies control of the strategically important Solomon Islands. It follows the island-by-island counterattack toward the Japanese homeland when the Marines created new legends at such places as Bougainville, Saipan, Tarawa, Guam, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Here are the remarkable exploits of the Marines holding off Japanese assault waves at Heartbreak Ridge, and struggling up the slopes of Mount Suribachi to raise the Stars and Stripes.