In this Book
- We Were Going to Win, or Die There: With the Marines at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan
- Book
- 2017
- Published by: University of North Texas Press
- Series: North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series
summary
In 1940, native West Texan Roy H. Elrod joined the Marine Corps. A few years later his unit, the 8th Marine Regiment, went into the fight at Guadalcanal, where he commanded a platoon of 37 mm gunners. They endured Japanese attacks, malarial tropical weather, and starvation rations. His combat leadership earned him a Silver Star and a battlefield promotion. On D-Day at Tarawa his platoon waded their 37 mm cannons ashore, each weighing nearly 1,000 pounds, through half a mile of bullet-laced surf to get to an island where the killing never stopped. His was the only platoon to get its guns ashore and into action that first day. At Saipan, Elrod commanded a platoon of 75 mm halftracks, but he was riddled with shrapnel from an enemy artillery shell that took him out of the war. Fred H. Allison interviewed Elrod, drew upon wartime letters home, and provided annotations to the narrative of this young Marine infantry officer, a job that had an extremely low survival potential.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. i-iv
- Introduction
- pp. 1-4
- Chapter Six: New Zealand: Paradise Found
- pp. 135-158
- Chapter Seven: Tarawa: Hell Realized
- pp. 159-184
- Bibliography
- pp. 267-272
Additional Information
ISBN
9781574417005
Related ISBN(s)
9781574416893
MARC Record
OCLC
1004355301
Pages
320
Launched on MUSE
2017-09-27
Language
English
Open Access
No