Osprey Battle Orders 1 : US Marine Corps (1) : Pacific Theater of Operations 1941-1943

The outbreak of World War II set in motion a massive expansion of the United States Marine Corps, leading to a 24-fold increase in size by August 1945. This book is the first of several to examine the Corps's meteoric wartime expansion and the evolution of its units. It covers the immediate pre-war period, the rush to deploy defense forces in the war's early months, and the Marines' first combat operations on Guadalcanal, New Georgia, and Bougainville. It focuses on the 1st, 2nd, and 3nd Marine Divisions (MarDivs) and the provisional 1st, 2nd, and 3nd Marine Brigades (MarBdes). Text by Gordon Rottman.

Contents

• Introduction
• Combat Mssion
• Preparation for War
• Defense Battalions
• Deploying Marine Brigades
• Unit Organization
• Tactics
• Command and Control
• Communications
• Intelligence
• Combat Operations
• Lessons Learned
• Chronology
• Bibliography
• Index