Coral and Brass

This is the autobiography of Marine General Holland ( Howlin Mad) Smith. He got into the Marines by accident, never having heard of them. He tried the Army and they did not want him. The Navy recommended he try the Marines. He went to Officer's school and became a Lt. He served in the Pacific, and saw the Japs use their landing craft for amphibious exersizes. Later he was in the Phillipines and went around setting up sites for future artillery positions, in case we had to fight there. He noticed Jap stakes at some of the sites he was setting up. This was in the 1920's. He did not like the way the Navy treated the Marines while on board ship, charging them twice what the Navy folks were charged for room and board. Smith was part of the new Fleet Marine Force and helped design the landing craft to be used, against much Navy resistance. Smith and John Higgins designed a landing craft with a drop down front that became known as the Higgins boat. This was based on the Jap design that Smith had seen in Asia years earlier. Smith helped write the manual on amphibious operations. When the war broke out, Smith requested a combat command despite his age, and finally got one. He and Admiral Kelly Turner fought each other, and the Japs. Turner, before the battle of Tarawa had refused to ship 50 Landing Vehicle Tracked craft to carry the Marines. Smith threatened to call off the operation unless the craft were provided. Nimitz sided with Smith and the craft were there for the operation, and were critical as the Higgins boats could not get over the Tarawa reefs. In the battle of Saipan, Smith fired Army General Ralph Smith, and this caused a big ruckus when it was publisized. While at Iwo Jima, he was not an active commander, as he had been pushed upstairs. At Okinawa, many wanted Smith's leadership, as the Army General Buckner was slow moving and did not use the Marine resources available to him. Smith was a giant that helped make the Marine Corps what it is today. As Sect Forrestal told him when the flag rose at Iwo Jima, "This guarantees the Marine Corps for another 500 years."

Penned by Smith with the help of Percy Finch in 1948, Coral and Brass is the autobiography of one of the most colorful and controversial commanders of WW II. Prior to the Japanese in the Pacific, Marine "Howlin' Mad" Smith waged war with the Navy and the Army. Never one to back down from a fight, he often railed against real and imagined slights. His resentment against the Navy seemed to stem from the horrible treatment he and his men received aboard ship in 1909. Headed to Nicaragua, the Marines were denied access to the canteen and were forced to pay 10 to 20 times the going rate for cigarettes and candy. At the Naval War College in 1920 he again ran headlong into the Navy's mindset that Marines "...were the lowest form of naval life" and "Marine officers are not qualified...to command large forces in war." It was largely through his efforts and others that the Marines were finally placed on equal footing with the other branches of the service. In 1933, the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) was created and a permanent organization for the study and practice of amphibious warfare was brought into existence. The following year they produced a new doctrine of landing operations - the "Tentative Landing Operations Manual", which was subsequently adopted by the Navy in 1938 and by the Army in 1941. In 1937, then Col. Smith was made Director of Operations and Training and began building a modern amphibious force along the lines of the new doctrine. He later became Commander, V Amphibious Corps and then Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force.Smith and several other men of vision understood the nature of the coming war in the Pacific and set out to train and supply the Corps properly. It was these men who fought so hard for the production of the Higgins boat, Roebling's "Alligator", the LVT and other amphibious craft. In this regard and in tactics, Smith was a foresighted genius. For better or worse, he also saw himself as a combat commander. Surrounded by controversy for most of his career, this book was written largely to justify his dismissal of Army Maj. Gen. Ralph Smith at Saipan. He tells us in the introduction that he does so relying "largely" on his memory. Perhaps that explains why many of his recollections are at odds with other written materials and testimony of the day. Smith is one of those men who became larger, much larger than life. The media of the day sided with H.M. Smith and the history of the event is largely taken from a magazine article written by Robert Sherrod and subsequent newspaper articles. Questions, nevertheless, persist as to his fitness to command. (See, "Howlin' Mad" vs The Army by Harry Gailey) This is unfortunate for, in his proper element, the man was, without doubt, deserving of the praise heaped upon him. His co-author should have told him that making "I" his favorite word would not serve him well.

Covers the development of the fledgling Fleet Marine Force, a new concept in Amphibious Warfare. Deals in some detail the extremely important aspect of how landing craft were devised for this mission. Anyone who knows anything about the pre war Marine Corps or Navy will find the men and ships of that time on parade in this book. "Howlin' Mad" didn't get his nickname as a mistake. The only question is was he more angry with the Japanese, or the brass of the Navy or the Army. Describes his long and usually unsuccessful fights with the Navy as to who would control the landing force. Readers must recall that WW II began with the Marine Corps headed by a Major General, and the Marines themselves considered as what Harry Truman later called them in 1950, "The Police Force of the Navy." It would be the Fleet Marine Force and its success, formed by the brains and experience of a handful of officers, and the blood of all hands when it came to that, that would break this mold. Forever? There isn't any such thing. Each new generation of Marines must refight the fight to retain the right to fight. Jimmy Forrestal, looking at the U. S. colors being raised over Iwo asked Holland Smith if he knew what that event signified. Forrestal then told him that it meant a Marine Corps for the next 500 years. Two years later we were fighting in the halls of Congress to continue our right to exist. And by 1950, there were only some 23,952 serving officers and men in the Fleet Marine Force. A year later there were over 30,000 Marines serving in the Korean War. So, you Modern Day Marine Warriors, this is your charge. It's your turn. You've got some pretty good shoulders to stand on, but the battle is yours.

A book our elected officials should read. It is full of our mistakes and triumphs. In a time when budget cuts and base closures are on daily new headlines. Perhaps our elected officials might learn a lesson from Howlin' Mad Smith, that a small, efficient, highly motivated fighting force can be an unstoppable force. The Marines took Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima because . . . they were Marines. Howlin' Mad Smith help shape them into a modern fighting force, and his autobiography tells all. Mistakes, triumphs, and lessons to be learn.