Edson's Raiders

By Col. Joseph H. Alexander,

Book cover of Edson's Raiders: The 1st Marine Raider Battalion in World War II

Book description

The men of 1st U.S. Marine Raider Battalion, known by the name of its legendary commander Merritt Edson, provided the vanguard of an experiment with special lightly armed commando units in the Pacific.

On August 7, 1942, together with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, they landed on Tulagi, British Solomon…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Edson's Raiders as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

When I was writing Gunner’s Glory and needed to know real details about Edson’s Raiders on Guadalcanal, an old Raider named Cpl. Ted Eleston told me to read this book. Mr. Alexander is a retired Marine Colonel, and his research in writing this book is fabulous. Old Ted wanted it made clear that for the record, our first so-called “Special Forces” were just a bunch of very hard men taken from the 5th Marine Regiment and named Raiders.

From Johnnie's list on war and the Marines.

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