_Jammed all together in the fetid multi-tiered bunks below decks,
Marine troops welcomed being in the fresh air on deck even if they were
also crowded there._]
Out of the deafening din of the ships’ holds, eerily lit by red battle
lamps, down the ramps of the unfolding bows, lurching into the rough
seas whipped up by the wind, the columns of amtracs went to war.
[Sidebar (page 2): Major General Holland M. Smith
One of the most famous Marines of his time, General Smith was born in
1882. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1905. There followed
a series of overseas assignments in the Philippines, Nicaragua,
Santo Domingo, and with the Marine Brigade in France in World War I.
Beginning in the early 1930s, he became increasingly focused on the
development of amphibious warfare concepts. Soon after the outbreak of
war with Japan in 1941, he was assigned to a crucial position, command
of all Marines in the Central Pacific.
As another Marine officer later described him, “He was of medium
height, perhaps five feet nine or ten inches, and somewhat paunchy. His
once-black hair had turned gray. His once close-trimmed mustache was
somewhat scraggly. He wore steel-rimmed glasses and he smoked cigars
incessantly.” There was one other feature that characterized him: a
ferocious temper that earned him the nickname, “Howlin’ Mad” Smith,
although his close friends knew him as “Hoke.”
This characteristic would usually emerge as irritation at what he
felt were sub-standard performances. One famous example of this was
his relief of an Army general from his command. It came when an Army
division was on the line alongside two Marine divisions on Saipan in
the Marianas Islands campaign following the Marshalls operation. A huge
interservice uproar erupted!
Less than two years later, after 41 years of active service, during
which he was awarded four Distinguished Service Medals for his
leadership in four successive successful amphibious operations, he
retired in April 1946, as a four-star general. He died in January 1967.
[Illustration: