U.S. Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle: Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War, 1939-1945

This book is everything the previous reviewers have said it is, a unique and indispensable resource on the World War II Marine Corps. It is not cheap, of course, but it saved me many hours of digging through archives, not to mention the time spent getting to them. The main chapters cover: 1. USMC organizational profile; 2. USMC shore establishment; 3. Fleet Marine Force (FMF); 4. Amphibious corps and forces -- Marine divisions, brigades, and tactical groups (including a summary of the history and actions of each); 5. FMF ground units (including a brief summary of the history and actions of each regiment and significant independent unit); 6. FMF ground unit operations (brief description of each major action, with order of battle on both sides and summary of results, including one or more maps for most); 7. USMC aviation profile; 8. USMC aviation units (to squadron and detachment level, with brief summary entry for each); 9. FMF aviation unit campaign participation. There are useful appendixes covering the characteristics and utilization of weapons, aircraft, and landing ships and craft, as well as: a recap of USMC casualties; unit citations and commendations (as well as a statistical summary of individual awards); succinct but useful summary information on the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, and Japanese forces; a listing of code names; and a comprehensive table of comparative rates and ranks. As noted by another reviewer, the tables of organization are not always so detailed or complete as might be wished. Those who have been directly involved in military operations, however, will know that such tables always represent objectives rather than reality and that the actual organization is constantly in flux -- particularly so in war. One can get a detailed look at unit personnel strength (in most cases) by consulting the muster rolls (available on microfilm), but it is not practical to try to include all this information in a book even of this size. With its oversized (7" × 10") page format and 600 text pages one would expect this book to pack a lot of information. The author manages to provide more even than might be expected by organizing the material well, which also makes it easy to find what you are looking for in this sea of data. Despite its "just the facts" orientation, readers will find many fascinating tid-bits. It is inevitable that in a book with this much information some bits will not be quite correct, but errors are few and inconsequential. Most people probably neither need nor can afford this book for themselves, and the publisher has wisely positioned it as a library title. If you have any need or desire to study the Pacific War in depth, however, you will definitely want to urge your library to acquire it. This book is naturally complemented by Rottman's _World War II Pacific Island Guide : A Geo-Military Study_ (ISBN 0313313954), which provides details of the places where the Marines fought. Will O'Neil

This book has excellent (repeat excellent) depth of information on the Marine Corps Order of Battle, as expected from the title. It also contains very interesting lineage and background data and a wealth of related information. I would rate it excellent in these regards. Anyone with an interest in these subjects should have a copy of this book in their library.I was a little disappointed to find the Tables of Organization (T/O) data somewhat less complete. There is considerable data buried in text and higher level summary data (such as number of men and major weapons at company level) in the tables, but unfortunately the book does not contain the detailed T/O of Marine units that I had hoped for. This is especially true for pre-war and early war organizations and for ancillary units (like Engineer and Pioneer units). The Bibliography does mention that Tables of Organization are retained by the Marine Corps Historical Center in original paper format and are not complete. This would make the accumulation of complete Tables of Organization a difficult task, but perhaps Mr. Rottman and/or Mr. Frank will be able to turn their considerable research abilities to detailed T/Os in a future work.All in all an excellent work and one that I recommend very highly!

This book is truly one the best books on the topic of military orders of battle. Not only does Rottman present the complete order of battle of the USMC in WWII, but he also discusses the changes in its TOE and the doctrine behind the organization. Not only does he present a detailed OB that covers all land and air units, he also presents a battle by battle OB as well. This book is a must have for serious fans of WWII history, the USMC, and Order of Battle afficianados. This book will be a resource to scholars for generations to come.