Posted inReview

Battle Films: Gung Ho! Battle Cry of the Marine Raiders

by Mark Grimsley

The Story of Carlson’s Makin Island Raiders, Gung Ho! tells the story of a raid on Japanese-held Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands chain on August 17-18, 1942, by two companies of Marines from the 2nd Raider Battalion, an outfit nicknamed “Carlson’s Raiders” after its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson. Two submarines ferried the Raiders to Makin on a hit-and-run operation meant to destroy installations, seize prisoners for interrogation, and divert attention from recent Marine landings on Guadalcanal. The Raiders rowed ashore in rubber boats, killed most of the garrison in fierce fighting, then withdrew to the two waiting subs.

Posted inReview

Book Review: Fighting the Shadow War-A Divided America in a World at War

by Daniel B. Moskowitz

It is likely that anyone reading this account of the maneuvering to get the United States into—or keep the United States out of—World War II knows the outcome. However, 1941 author Marc Wortman still makes his story a genuine page-turner. America’s declarations of war against Japan, Germany, and Italy may have been a geopolitical inevitability, but in Wortman’s hands the push and pull of the forces leading to that momentous point hum with the pulsating energy of a cliffhanger.

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Daily Quiz for April 14, 2016

by HistoryNet Staff

Considered the greatest child star of all-time, as an adult, Shirley Temple Black served as U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and what was then Czechoslovakia and was asked by this president to oversee the arrangements for his inauguration and inaugural ball.