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Richard Wheeler is a Marine
Corps veteran of the Pacific campaign. As a Marine Corps Corporal, he “served in the rifle platoon
under the heroic leadership of Major John Keith Wells and was a member of the rifle company that raised both flags on the
summit of Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.” Richard “Dick” Wheeler is the author of A
Special Valor; The Bloody Battle for Suribachi: The Amazing Story of Iwo Jima that Inspired Flags of Our Fathers; Iwo; Witness
to Gettysburg; Gettysburg 1863: Campaign of Endless Echoes; Voices of the Civil War; and, Lee's Terrible Swift Sword:
From Antietam to Chancellorsville: an Eyewitness History A number of people have comment on The Bloody Battle for Suribachi: The Amazing Story
of Iwo Jima that Inspired Flags of Our Fathers: Robert Lorenz, Producer, Flags of our Fathers, said, “It
is perhaps the most descriptive and informative retelling of the flag-raising story that exists.” James
Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys, said, “The best book on the battle for Mount Suribachi.”
The New Orleans Times-Picayune remarked, “Grips the reader from the first paragraph…an outstanding piece of war
literature.” According to AudioFile, “Wheeler's
well-written account of his experiences of the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 describes his platoon's blood-soaked journey
from the landing beach to the summit of Mount Suribachi. There, they raised the first U.S. flag. The second raising has become
the famous icon of the Marine Corps. This grunt's point of view shows the horror of combat, all the while describing the
devotion this "band of brothers" had for each other. This production from the Naval Institute Press is yet another
example of their high production standards. The recording is flawless, with a very competent reading by Hitchcock. His baritone
voice goes well with the text and is never monotonous. He gives several of the men in the platoon distinct, credible accents,
which help make this recording worth the listener's investment.”
According to the book description
of A Special Valor, “If the U.S. Marines gave birth to a legend in the halls of Montezuma
in the nineteenth century, they added glorious luster to it with their heroism and victories against the Japanese in World
War II as this vivid, foxhole view of the Marines’ war clearly demonstrates. The author, a Marine veteran of the Pacific
campaign himself, draws extensively on frontline eyewitness accounts of Marines and combat journalists and backs up their
stories with official U.S. action reports and captured Japanese materials. First published in 1983, the book has earned praise
as a popular, one-volume history of all the battles fought by the Marine Corps in the Pacific campaign. Richard Wheeler describes in fascinating and exciting detail
the heroic defense of Wake Island against an overwhelming enemy assault force. He traces the long bloody battle for Guadalcanal
that brought the Marines their first victory and gave America and its allies control of the strategically important Solomon
Islands. He follows the painful, island-by-island counterattack toward the Japanese homeland when the Marines created new
legends at such places as Bougainville, Saipan, Tarawa, Guam, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Also included are the remarkable exploits
of the Marines holding off Japanese assault waves at Heartbreak Ridge and struggling up the slopes of Mount Suribachi to raise
the Stars and Stripes. Some sixty-five photographs enhance the text.”
Publisher’s Weekly said
of Witness to Gettysburg, “The three-day battle of Gettysburg, generally regarded as the turning
point of the Civil War, is described in these pages largely in the words of participants. The confrontation between General
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the Union army under General Meade took place in and around the town itself, and its
citizens were much involved (extraordinarily, the only civilian fatality was a woman hit by a stray bullet in her kitchen).
Wheeler has collected vivid accounts not only from veterans who wrote about it but from male and female townspeople (and outside
observers), and presents this with the narrative skill displayed in Sword Over Richmond. With a sure grasp of strategic nuances, he explains the overall campaign that began
in the broadest sense when Lee talked Confederate President Davis into authorizing a second invasion of the North. The climactic
battle itself is then described in a you-are-there way that renders this enormously complicated affair understandable to non-Civil
War buffs.”
The Library Journal said of Lee's
Terrible Swift Sword: From Antietam to Chancellorsville: an Eyewitness History, “This latest "eyewitness"
history follows the formula of Witness to Appomattox ( LJ 4/1/89), Sword Over Richmond ( LJ 4/1/86), and the author's
other previous Civil War books. Excerpts from participants' writings carry the story forward, while Wheeler provides connecting
narrative. This volume covers the Confederacy's high tide in the East, from the bloody draw at Sharpsburg through the
striking Southern victories at Fredricksburg, Second Manassas, and Chancellorsville. Unlike earlier books in the series, it
contains enough maps to render the strategic and tactical situations understandable, although the episodic structure inherent
in the organization sometimes obscures the big picture. Nonetheless, an exciting and well-told story with vivid characterizations--especially
of such key leaders as Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and George McClellan--that enliven the narrative.”
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