Follow Me! The Story of the Second Marine Division in World War II, by Johnston, Richard W - 1948

New York1948: Random House, 1948. 305 Pages. Black cloth boards with impressed decorations on spine and front. There are maps of Iceland, Guadalcanal, New Zealand, Betio (Tarawa), Hawaii, Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa. Black and white photographs by official U.S Marine Corps photographers or combat artists on almost every page. No defects noted to this as new book. Woven inseparably into the larger fabric of the story of the recent war against the Japanese enemy are the threads of the story of a fine fighting organization-the 2nd Marine Division. The enviable record of that division will live in American naval history as a monument to the efforts and sacrifices of the officers and men who served with it. The role of the 2nd Marine Division in World War II, and the months preceding its outbreak, included many types of duty in Iceland, Samoa, and New Zealand. More important, that role included bitter action on remote and little-known islands where the Japanese had secured an early lodgment. A grateful country, whose war history includes such names as Lexington and Concord, Gettysburg, and Belleau Wood, will long remember Tarawa and the epic heroism of the men of the 2nd Marine Division during those seventy-six hours of violent action. But the story of the 2nd Marine Division is not confined to one great battle. There was Guadalcanal, where the division first tested its strength against the enemy; Saipan, where the division landed in the face of bitter resistance and went on to help seize from the enemy one of his important bastions of defense; then Tinian, another step in our seizure of important island bases in the Marianas; then the participation of the one regimental combat team from the 2nd Marine Division in the last great battle of the war in the Pacific, Okinawa; and finally, enforcement of the peace in the Japanese homeland. You who served with the 2nd Marine Division have every right to be proud of your division and its magnificent record. You have served your Corps and country well. Contents in Twelve Chapters: The Heritage of Belleau Wood, First to Land Against Japan, Condition "Black" on Guadalcanal, The Mop-Up on Guadalcanal, The Land They Adored, An Island Called Helen, An Atoll Called Tarawa, Enough of Pilikia, To the Heights of Tapotchau, Through the Streets of Garapan, War in the Canebrakes, and The Curtain Falls on Okinawa. Epilogue, The Medal of Honor, and The Division's Commanders. . Assumed First Edition. Hard Back. As New/No Dust Jacket. 9 X 11 1/4.