The Corps Series by W. E. B Griffin
The Corps #2
Call to Arms
W. E. B Griffin
The attack on Pearl Harbor swept America into the raging heart of the war. The stormy South Pacific presented a daring new challenge, and the men of the Corps were ready to fight. An elite fraternity united by a glorious tradition of courage and honor, the Marine Raiders were bound to a triumphant destiny. Now, the bestselling author of the acclaimed 'Brotherhood of War' saga continues the epic story begun in Semper Fi. A story of lovers and fighters, leaders and heroes - the men of the United States Marine Corps.
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The Corps #3
Counterattack
W. E. B Griffin
No one captures the drama of war as brilliantly as bestselling author W.E.B. Griffin. The Corps is his multi-volume portrait of the Marine Corps, the brave men and women who fought, loved and died in the sweeping turmoil of WW II.COUNTERATTACK, the third book in the series, highlights America's first bold counterstrike against the Japanese: Guadalcanal. Bitterly resisted by Japanese troops, the U.S. Marines fought a close, bloody and gruelling battle to its successful conclusion."The Corps combines the best elements of military history and the war story -- the telling detail and political tangle of one mated to the energy and sweep of another." (Publishers Weekly)
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The Corps #4
Battleground
W. E. B Griffin
From Publishers WeeklyThis latest volume in the Corps series takes the U.S. Marines from Midway to Guadalcanal. Navy Cpt. Fleming Pickering travels to various headquarters, reporting events to the secretary of the Navy; recently promoted Cpt. Charley Galloway forms a new fighter squadron; Sgt. John Moore is a Japanese-language expert on a top-secret intelligence assignment. Griffin ( Counterattack ) employs a surprisingly effective alternative to military fiction's usual foxhole-and-cockpit perspective--he places the characters on the fringes rather than in the thick of the action, skirting familiar events and offering opportunities to explore the Pacific War's less familiar byways. As he creates a framework of coherent subplots and interesting personalities, he reveals WW II arcana, including the principles for establishing travel priorities and the status of enlisted Marine pilots. Sure to be welcomed by series fans, Battleground is also likely to inspire new readers to seek its predecessors. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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The Corps #5
Line of Fire
W. E. B Griffin
SUMMARY:
During World War II, a special rescue team assembles to save two Marines trapped on a small Coastwatcher island.
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The Corps #6
Close Combat
W. E. B Griffin
Millions of readers have been swept away by W. E. B. Griffin's novels of the Marine Corps, a series that has only grown stronger and more popular with each volume. And now Close Combat - Volume VI - brings the saga of The Corps during World War II into ever more dramatic arenas. As the Japanese forces close in for an all-out effort to recapture Guadalcanal from the American forces occupying the island, many fates converge and intertwine. First Lieutenant William Dunn, twenty-one years old but already one of only two pilots remaining from his fighter squadron's original sixteen, must learn what it is like to lead men - and to lose them....Hot-tempered Sergeant Thomas McCoy finds he has a hero's welcome waiting stateside - if he can avoid a court-martial first....On a bloody island, Major Jake Dillon discovers just how much combat is involved in a combat correspondent's life....First Lieutenant R. B. Macklin, a consummate bully, is put on a War Bond tour so he will not endanger his own men....General Fleming Pickering, on a ticklish diplomatic mission, attempts to balance the hot and mighty temperaments of Douglas MacArthur, OSS chief Bill Donovan and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox....Corporal Robert Easterbrock, still wet behind the ears, discovers that the price of success in wartime may be uncomfortably high.... From the Solomons to Australia to Washington, D.C., old faces and new - generals, captains, privates, wives and sweethearts - find themselves faced with the challenge of their lives. This is the story of the men of the Marine Corps, their loves and loyalties, of an elite fraternity united by courage and honor. Filled with crackling realism and adventure, rich characters, realheroes, and that special flair for the military heart and mind that make Griffin's novels so loved, Close Combat is a dramatic, captivating novel, further proof, in the words of Tom Clancy, that "W. E. B. Griffin is a storyteller in the grand tradition."
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The Corps #7
Behind the Lines
W. E. B Griffin
From Publishers WeeklyGriffin's seventh novel in The Corps series (after Close Combat) continues the author's breezy look at the Marine Corps during WWII. Here, he uses guerrilla action behind the lines in the Philippines as foreground to tell the behind-the-lines tale of the power struggle among Marine General Fleming Pickering, General Douglas MacArthur and Bill Donovan of the fledgling OSS, all of whom are galvanized into action by a radio message from a self-proclaimed general named Wendell Fertig, who has established himself as a guerrilla leader against the Japanese. As far as the Marines are concerned, once the message is verified, a team of men with supplies will be sent in to evacuate any sick or wounded and evaluate Fertig as a potential leader. Complicating matters, however, are MacArthur's public declaration that guerrilla activity on the Philippines is impossible, and therefore nonexistent, and Bill Donovan's desire to get the operation under OSS control. Focusing on a variety of characters involved in the proposed mission, Griffin tells an absorbing story with his usual attention to dialogue rather than description, relying frequently on his favored device of moving the plot along through copies of memos, radio messages and telegrams. The boy's club aura of Griffin's primarily male world, where everything?even death?seems clear, sunny, bright and uncomplicated, is in full force here; and that should please his fans just fine.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalIn Griffin's latest, a bunch of mismatched World War II grunts search for a missing colonel who may be launching guerrilla raids on Japan. Sounds like a cross between The Guns of Navarone and Apocalypse Now.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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The Corps #8
In Danger's Path
W. E. B Griffin
From Publishers WeeklyThe gung-ho Marines familiar to readers of Griffin's seven Corps novels (Behind the Lines, etc.) return for an eighth adventure?and not their best. Young Marine officers and enlisted men with high morale and low morals such as Ed Banning, Ken McCoy and Ernie Zimmerman are perfect for a secret (but remarkably improbable) OSS operation behind enemy lines in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in 1943. Their mission: to establish a clandestine weather station and rescue a wayward group of Americans who fled China after the Japanese invasion in 1941 and have been lost in Mongolia for nearly two years. While the plot teases with a promise of suspense in an exotic and forbidding locale, the reality is that not a shot is fired, not a cliffhanger is encountered and three-fourths of the narrative is set safely back in the States, where the characters spend most of their time drinking, womanizing, disobeying orders and wringing their hands over how they can rejoin the war. Under the leadership of fatherly Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, a kind of Marine den daddy, they do return, although the result is anticlimactic. Numerous side plots provide color and historical perspective, but overwrought dialogue, flat narrative and soap-operatic storytelling leave this lengthy tale without snap. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalGriffin continues his best-selling series on the Marine Corps with a new work featuring the improbably named Fleming Pickering. Pickering, who is in charge of the OSS's Pacific operations during World War II, gets some interesting assignments in the Gobi Desert.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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The Corps #9
Under Fire
W. E. B Griffin
Amazon.com ReviewHaving wrapped up World War II with 1999's In Danger's Path, bestselling military author W.E.B. Griffin now deploys his Marines in Korea with Under Fire, the ninth volume in his Corps series. Back are familiar characters from Griffin's previous Corps books--daredevil pilot Pick Pickering, his Scotch-sipping father, Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, Capt. Ken "Killer" McCoy, and Master Gunner Ernie Zimmerman--with historical figures including President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur making appearances as well. It's now 1950, and with Communist forces making their presence felt below the 38th Parallel, Griffin's plot centers on Gen. Pickering, now high up in the newly created CIA, and Ken McCoy as they work behind MacArthur's back to covertly pave the way for an invasion of North Korea. Readers who crave nonstop battle action and excitement may find it hard to stick with Under Fire, as Griffin takes the time to detail the background leading up to one of America's least-remembered modern wars. Griffin writes for the true armed forces aficionado, filling his prose with realistic descriptions of procedure, gear, and materials, an alphabet's worth of acronyms, and an ex- soldier's ear for military dialogue. Look for more sharp, authentic writing in this series' next installment. --Benjamin ReeseFrom Publishers WeeklyAfter eight books in the popular WWII Corps series, Griffin's latest kicks off on the Korean peninsula, where forces from the Communist North have just stormed over the 38th Parallel. Within a few weeks, the old team is back together, most under the steady command of Brig. Gen. Fleming Pickering, whom President Truman recalls from the helm of Trans Global Airways to assume the CIA's top Asian post. As the U.S. Army flounders to contain the North, Pickering struggles to restore Washington's faith in Comdr. Douglas MacArthur and his daring proposal to invade at Inchon. Meanwhile, as Capt. Ken McCoy and Master Gunner Ernie Zimmerman skulk behind enemy lines, seizing a crucial island in preparation for the invasion, a new calamity breaks out: Pickering's son, daredevil pilot Malcolm ("Pick"), gets shot down over a North Korean rice paddy. This new entry in the series moves more slowly than previous ones, as Griffin who served in the army in Korea sets up the historical elements of the conflict and positions all his characters. But once he gets going, he writes with even assurance and a keen eye for military camaraderie and nuance, offering galvanizing drama and a respectful yet irreverent treatment of military procedure and attitudes, not to mention plenty of Scotch. As the book ends with U.S. forces digging in for battle and Pick still missing the dean of the American war adventure has left himself room for plenty of action ahead. National television and ad campaign. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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The Corps #10
Retreat, Hell! tc-10
W. E. B Griffin
It is the fall of 1950. The Marines have made a pivotal breakthrough at Inchon, but a roller coaster awaits them. While Douglas MacArthur chomps at the bit, intent on surging across the 38th parallel, Brigadier General Fleming Pickering works desperately to mediate the escalating battle between MacArthur and President Harry Truman. And somewhere out there, his own daredevil pilot son, Pick, is lost behind enemy lines--and may be lost forever.
From Publishers Weekly Megaseller Griffin (Honor Bound; Brotherhood of War; Men at War) musters another solid entry in his series chronicling the history of the U.S. Marines, now engaged in the Korean War. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, nicknamed El Supremo by his subordinates, is taken by surprise when the North Korean Army surges south across the 38th parallel. After early losses, he rallies his troops and stems the tide, but not for long. Intertwining stories of literally an army of characters reveal how MacArthur and his sycophantic staff overlook the entire Red Chinese Army, which is massed behind the Yalu River and about to enter the war. Brig. Gen. Fleming Pickering attempts to mediate the ongoing battles between feisty, give-'em-hell Harry Truman and the haughty MacArthur, while worrying about his pilot son, Malcolm "Pick" Pickering, who has been shot down behind enemy lines. The introduction of the Sikorsky H-19A helicopter into the war by Maj. Kenneth "Killer" McCoy and sidekick Master Gunner Ernie Zimmerman details the invention of tactics that will become commonplace in Vietnam. Readers looking for guts and glory military action will be disappointed, as barely a shot is fired in anger, but fans of Griffin's work understand that the pleasures are in the construction of a complex, big-picture history of war down to its smallest details: "There were two men in the rear seat, both of them wearing fur-collared zippered leather jackets officially known as Jacket, Flyers, Intermediate Type G-1." Veterans of the series will enjoy finding old comrades caught up in fresh adventures, while new-guy readers can easily enter here and pick up the ongoing story.
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