Counter-attack /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

First there was the riveting epic Brotherhood of War, which took the nation by storm. Now, there is The Corps, and Book Three, Counterattack sweeps from the devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor to America's first bold counterstrike against the Japanese on the beaches of Guadalcanal. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

``Volume III of The Corps series covers the period from Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal in an unorthodox fashion,'' reported PW. ``Instead of offering the usual tales of Marine heroism and sacrifice, Griffin explores the difficult adjustment of enlisted men suddenly given officers' commissions; the raising of a Marine parachute battalion; the impact of total war on peacetime routines.'' (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Book Review

The author of the seven-volume Brotherhood of War series continues his The Corps saga--now starting in hard-cover--about the US Marines. In satisfying detail, the third installment takes the leathernecks from Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal. The generals here may be too consistently crusty but humane, and there may be more rapid conversions from enlisted soldiers to officers than veterans of WW II are likely to remember. But Griffin's great affection for the corps and his equally great mastery of Marine minutiae combine with much-better-than-average narrative skills to make this an especially good treatment of the early days of the war. Much ground is covered. Generally tying things together is Navy Captain Fleming Pickering, the owner of a steamship line who was a Marine Medal of Honor recipient in the First World War. Navy Secretary Frank Knox has drafted Picketing to be his eyes and ears in the South Pacific, corresponding with Knox in secret. Pickering's assignment takes him to the Philippines, where he attaches himself to Gen. MacArthur, whom he follows to Australia. There, he smooths things for a small special attack group composed of Marine marksmen and fliers whose special skills make them the right men to infiltrate Japanese-held islands. Good stuff. None of the Wouk windiness. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

W. E. B. Griffin is one of eight pseudonyms used by William E. Butterworth III, who was born in Newark, New Jersey on November 10, 1929. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private in 1946 and was assigned to the Army of Occupation in Germany. He left the service in 1947 but was recalled to active duty in 1951 because of the Korean War. After leaving the service for the second time, he remained in Korea as a combat correspondent. He was later appointed chief of the publications division of the Signal Aviation Test and Support Activity at the Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama. He received the Brigadier General Robert L. Dening Memorial Distinguished Service Award of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association in 1991 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award in 1999.

He wrote more than 200 books including the Brotherhood of War series, The Corps series, Badge of Honor series, Honor Bound series, Presidential Agent series, Men at War series, and A Clandestine Operations Novel series. Under his own name, he wrote 12 sequels in the 1970s to Richard Hooker's book M*A*S*H. His other pen names included Alex Baldwin, Webb Beech, and Walter E. Blake. He wrote over 20 books with his son William E. Butterworth IV. He received the Alabama Author's Award in 1982 from the Alabama Library Association. He died on February 12, 2019 at the age of 89.

(Bowker Author Biography)