EDSON'S RAIDERS : The 1st Marine Raider Battalion in World War II by Alexander, Joseph H

Annapolis, 2001, Naval Institute, first US edition, hard bound w/dj, FINE/FINE CONDITION, 6x9, xiv, 345 pages, illus, maps, notes, sources, index. ----------------------------------This is the story of the remarkable men of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion, known by the name of its founding commander, the legendary jungle fighter Merritt A. "Red Mike" Edson. Edson's Raiders provided the vanguard of a U.S. Marine Corps experiment with special lightly armed, mobile commando units in the Pacific. From 1942 to 1943, these highly trained volunteers fought seven critical battles with names like Tulagi, Tasimboko, the Matanikau River, and the Dragon's Peninsula in the Solomon Islands. They were desperate, bloody affairs against some of the most experienced jungle fighters in the Japanese empire. Twenty-four Raiders served with such valor that the U.S. Navy named ships in their honor-all but one designated posthumously.......................................................................Award-winning author Joseph Alexander relates the story of this colorful band in an easy conversational style backed by painstaking research. He provides an abundance of first-person accounts, ranging from Edson and other well-known senior officers to such hard-nosed NCOs as Angus Goss, Walter Burak, and Anthony "Big Stoop" Palonis. Exceptional leathernecks, they caught the imagination of a fearful nation with their stirring victories and gallant defeats during the war's dark years. Alexander's portrayal of the Raiders' most notable battle, the defense of Guadalcanal's Henderson Field along an elevation known ever since as Edson's Ridge, shows why that three-day conflict became an indisputable touchstone of Marine Corps history.