Shooting the Pacific War: Marine Corps Combat Photography in WWII - Hardcover

Soule, Thayer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081312137X ISBN 13: 9780813121376

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, 1999

Synopsis

Thayer Soule couldn't believe his orders. As a junior officer with no military training or indoctrination and less than ten weeks of active duty behind him, he had been assigned to be photographic officer for the First Marine Division. The Corps had never had a photographic division before, much less a field photographic unit. But Soule accepted the challenge, created the unit from scratch, established policies for photography, and led his men into combat.

Soule and his unit produced films and photos of training, combat action pictures, and later, terrain studies and photographs for intelligence purposes. Though he had never heard of a photo-litho set, he was in charge of using it for map production, which would prove vital to the division. Shooting the Pacific War is based on Soule's detailed wartime journals. Soule was in the unique position to interact with men at all levels of the military, and he provides intriguing closeups of generals, admirals, sergeants, and privates -everyone he met and worked with along the way. Though he witnessed the horror of war firsthand, he also writes of the vitality and intense comradeship that he and his fellow Marines experienced.

Soule recounts the heat of battle as well as the intense training before and rebuilding after each campaign. He saw New Zealand in the desperate days of 1942. His division was rebuilt in Australia following Guadalcanal. After a stint back in Quantico training more combat photographers, he went to Guam and then to the crucible of Iwo Jima. At war's end he was serving as Photographic Officer, Fleet Marine Force Pacific, at Pearl Harbor.

About this title

Review:

Fortune favored Thayer Soule. He witnessed the slaughter at Iwo Jima and spent four months under fire on Guadalcanal, yet never received a scratch. When he joined the Marines in 1941, before he had even begun basic training, he was given command of an entirely new organization, the photographic office of the Marine Corps's First Division. Starting from nothing, with great ingenuity, he created a unit that made training films and photographed action against the enemy. He embraced new technology; when he discovered that the military's maps of the Solomon Islands dated from 1910 and were full of errors, he created new maps from aerial photographs. Though obviously very talented, he recounts his story in an unassuming way and with good humor. His unique position gave him extraordinary access to senior officers fascinated by new uses of the technology, access that he exploited to the full. His anecdotes of the men he met, from generals and admirals to sergeants and privates, show acute psychological insight. He tells of the terror of war and the bitter loss of close friends, but leavens his tale with the comradeship that seems to be the strongest memory of old soldiers. Shooting the Pacific War is a lively and unusual account of a gifted photographer's experiences in World War II. --John Stevenson

From the Publisher:

“A book all lovers of World War II history will enjoy.”—(Sun City, AZ) Independent

“Filled with good anecdotal material on the trials and tribulations of a small but very important segment of Marine combat operations.”—Leatherneck

“A fascinating account of Marine combat photography and its contribution to winning battles.”—Marine Corps Gazette

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 081312137X
• ISBN 13: 9780813121376
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272