Delivering Destruction: American Firepower and Amphibious Assault from Tarawa to Iwo Jima

Existing literature maintains that the U.S. Marine Corps' operational success in the Pacific War rested upon two dominant themes: committed theoretical preparation and courageous battlefield action. When Japanese forces attacked at Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Corps sent its brave and spirited infantrymen to advance across the enemy-held islands of the South and Central Pacific. Though this conventional narrative captures essential elements of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' triumph, it fails ...