Paramarine! is devoted to the Marines and Sailors of the Marine Corps parachute units of World War II. It explores in fascinating detail their unique, specially-designed uniforms, equipment, weapons and insignia. For the first time, over 500 photographs and images from World War II and modern collections have been assembled in one volume and combined with a wealth of facts and information about all aspects of Paramarine gear and training. Paramarine is the latest in Schiffer's series of studies on the airborne forces of World War II and is a must for historians and Marine Corps and Airborne collectors around the world.
From August 1942 until February 1943, two armies faced each other amid the malarial jungles and blistering heat of Guadalcanal Island. The Imperial Japanese forces needed to protect and maintain the air base that gave them the ability to interdict enemy supply routes. The Allies were desperate to halt the advance of a foe that so far had inflicted crippling losses on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, then seized the Philippines, Wake Island, the Dutch East Indies, Guam, and other Allied territory. After months of relentless battle, the U.S. troops forced back the determined Japanese, providing what many historians believe was the decisive turning point in the Pacific theater of operations. Stanley Coleman Jersey, a medical air evacuation specialist in the South Pacific during World War II, has spent countless hours combing Australian, Japanese, and U.S. documents and interviewing more than 200 veterans of the Guadalcanal campaign, both Allied and Japanese. Beginning with the events that preceded the battle for Guadalcanal during the Australian defense of the southern Solomon Islands in late 1941, Jersey details the military preparations made in response to intelligence describing the creation of an enemy air base within striking distance of American supply lines and recounts the civilian evacuation that followed the Japanese arrival in New Guinea. With the stage set, he turns to the campaign itself, with particular emphasis on the combat during the critical period of August to December 1942. While Guadalcanal is his primary focus, Jersey also covers the roles played by forces occupying the other Solomon Islands, including the plight of construction laborers, air crews, and ground units. This book, chock-full of gripping battlefield accounts and harrowing first-person narratives, draws together for the first time Allied and Japanese perspectives on the bloody contest. It is certain to become an indispensable asset to historians of World War II.
While the US Marine Corps was one of the smallest of American armed services in World War II, its contribution to the final victory cannot be overstated. The US Marine Corps may have only comprised 5 percent of America's armed forces, but it suffered 10 percent of all World War II combat casualties. Above all, he amphibious nature of the war in the Pacific imposed on the Marine Corps greater tasks than any it had ever before been called upon to perform. This title details the organization, weapons and equipment of the US Marines of World War II.
After college, a tour of duty as a Royal Marine and an apprenticeship in a shipyard, Martin Sommerville goes to America to seek his fortune. The death of his sweetheart in an auto accident causes him to pack up and leave, seeking solace by drowning himself in work at several of the worlds famous shipyards.Finding little comfort in this venture, Marty returns to his old haunts in Northern England.A short time later, after moving to London, he meets a raven-haired beauty and her professor Father, who launch him on an exciting new career with many twists and turns.He ends up as an undercover Agent disguised as a Lecturer in the professor's marine engineering department.Marty succumbs to the raven haired Cybil, as they develop into a crack undercover team, combating international terrorism. Their assignments thrust them into international intrigue in Great Britain, as well as Rome, and the French Riviera, where they become aligned with a wealthy German arms dealer and his Fiancé.
Based primarily on interviews with the marines who were there, this volume reconstructs the six weeks spent in the Pacific theater of World War II by the First Marine Parachute Division. One of the prime impetuses for the volume is to highlight the neglected, yet extremely costly, contributions made by the division to the assault on Guadalcanal in
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Written by an award-winning naval architecture author and former vice-president of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), the fifth edition of Introduction to Naval Architecture has been fully updated to take in advances in the field and is ideal both for those approaching the subject for the first time and those looking to update or refresh their knowledge on areas outside of their direct expertise. This book provides a broad appreciation of the science and art of naval architecture, explaining the subject in physical rather than in mathematical terms. While covering basic principles, such as hull geometry, propulsion, and stability, the book also addresses contemporary topics, such as computer aided design and computer aided manufacture (CAD/CAM). The new edition reflects the continuing developments in technology, changes in international regulations and recent research. Knowledge of the fundamentals of naval architecture is essential not only for newcomers to the field but also the wealth of non-naval architects working in the marine area, including marine engineers, marine surveyors and ship crews. This book provides the most well-known and trusted introduction to the topic, offering a clear and concise take on the basics of this broad field. Praise for previous edition "...a clear and concise introduction to the subject, giving a good grasp of the basics of naval architecture." — Maritime Journal "...my go-to book for understanding the general principles of naval architecture. The book is well-written and easy to understand." — Amazon.com reviewer - Provides a perfect introduction to naval architecture for newcomers to the field and a compact overview for related marine professionals needing a working knowledge of the area - Updated to cover key developments including double-hulled tankers and the increased use of computational methods and modeling in ship design - Draws on the experience of renowned naval architecture author Eric Tupper to provide extensive scope and authoritative detail, all in an accessible and approachable style
The United States Marine Corps was one of the phenomena of the Second World War. Greatly expanded from its prewar order of battle of scattered defense battalions, overseas garrisons and ship detachments, it became a multi-division force bearing the brunt of the hardest fighting across the whole vast expanse of the Pacific theater of operations. In August 1942 Marines were among the first to strike back at the Japanese in the jungles of Guadalcanal; Marine Raider battalions were formed to carry the fight to the enemy; and from the Central Solomon's landings of mid–1943 it was the Marines who spearheaded the 'island hopping' amphibious campaign which brought them to Okinawa, on Japan's doorstep, by VJ-Day. This epic story has been well documented in most respects except one: the uniforms, insignia and personal equipment of the Marines who fought their way across the Pacific. Authoritative, illustrated reference works of this important aspect of World War II's physical history have been notoriously lacking. In this book, longtime collector and researcher Jim Moran fills the gap, with a systematic, detailed guide illustrated with more than 300 photographs, including some 200 close-ups of surviving items in private collections on both sides of the Atlantic. The author covers service and field uniforms at the outbreak of war; the development of the Marine's dungaree's; the introduction and development of the camouflage uniforms which became the Marine's trademark in the popular imagination; the 782 gear webbing equipment; the various packs and other load-carrying items; the uniforms, insignia and equipment special to the elite Marine Raiders and Paramarines; the uniforms and accouterments of the US Marine Corps Women's Reserve; and a range of issue and personal small kit items which collectors may encounter. His research is supported by some 100 wartime photographs showing the identified item in use. Assisted and encouraged by the US Marine Corps Historical Center at Quantico, Virginia, Jim Moran has produced an essential reference for the collector, modeler, illustrator and uniform historian.
In Guadalcanal Marine, Kerry L. Lane recounts the dark reality of combat experienced by the men of the 1st Marine Division fighting on Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester. With eighty gripping photographs and his text, he brings to life the struggles of his companions as they achieve these two astonishing victories. Lane, a sixteen-year-old farm boy from North Carolina, battled the Japanese and rose to heroism powering a bulldozer to bridge "Suicide Creek" in the swamps on Cape Gloucester. There he led his Marine comrades to victory. Lane describes the trials of the common Marine serving in the first grueling island campaign. In vivid prose he tells of joining the service before the war and of training. Soon after the shocking news of Pearl Harbor, he and his trusted comrades fight the Japanese in one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific. In the tropics, Lane and his companions suffer malaria and dysentery, endure jungle rot and oppressive heat, and grapple with an enemy who fights to the death. Throughout the book, Lane bares the experience of the average Marine and his historic World War II journey, revealing how one teenager became a Corps hero and ultimately finished his military career as a lieutenant colonel.
