Bougainville is an island in the South Pacific, named after an 18th century French explorer. In 1943, it was the target of an American invasion force, which was seeking to dislodge the Japanese from the island. The American force included the Third Marine Regiment. John Monks served as a captain in the Third Marines at Bougainville and what he saw and heard is the fiber of this book. Tough, direct, full of Marine talk, and of the grim humor of battle action, crowded with stories of bravery and terror, triumph and death, this is a book that carries the tremendous impact of action experience. This account of one small segment of a campaign, unrelated to the rest of the War, makes war's realities more vivid than any overall view. For it is reporting of the most personal sort, and it bridges the gap in imagination and communicates the actualities of battle to those who have never experienced it.

Reprint of the 1945 ed. published by H. Holt, New York.