Product Description

Taking us straight to the front lines, The March Up follows the famed 1st Marine Division on their decisive 1,184 kilometre trek to Baghdad, from first assault to the taking of the city. The 1st Marine Division, which had fought in Guadalcanal, Khe San, and Kuwait City, provided the critical force in Operation Iraqi Freedom. With unprecedented access to everyone from three-star generals to privates, authors West and Smith, men with 60 years of military and combat experience between them, trace the strategic war plans as they unfolded in battle, providing unflinching portrayals of what went well and what went poorly, and detailing power struggles and failures which have never before been reported. No other journalist had the mobility, battlefield knowledge or personal contacts as West of Smith. They were able to observe eighteen separate combat units in the division. What emerges is a dramatic, personal and human account of how the corporals fought and the generals plotted, revealing the men behind the guns and the brave and sometimes unorthodox actions that resulted in astonishing triumphs. Complete with a 16- page, four-colour photo insert and endpaper maps, The March Up is the behind-the-scenes story of how the men on the frontlines and the strategists in the backroom turned the march to Baghdad into a road to victory.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127046 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-30
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Synopsis
Taking us straight to the front lines, The March Up follows the famed 1st Marine Division on their decisive 1,184 kilometre trek to Baghdad, from first assault to the taking of the city. The 1st Marine Division, which had fought in Guadalcanal, Khe San, and Kuwait City, provided the critical force in Operation Iraqi Freedom. With unprecedented access to everyone from three-star generals to privates, authors West and Smith, men with 60 years of military and combat experience between them, trace the strategic war plans as they unfolded in battle, providing unflinching portrayals of what went well and what went poorly, and detailing power struggles and failures which have never before been reported. No other journalist had the mobility, battlefield knowledge or personal contacts as West or Smith. They were able to observe eighteen separate combat units in the division. What emerges is a dramatic, personal and human account of how the corporals fought and the generals plotted, revealing the men behind the guns and the brave and sometimes unorthodox actions that resulted in astonishing triumphs.

Complete with a 16- page, four-colour photo insert and endpaper maps, The March Up is the behind-the-scenes story of how the men on the frontlines and the strategists in the backroom turned the march to Baghdad into a road to victory.

About the Author
A highly decorated Marine, Major General Ray L. Smith, USMC (Ret.) has served in Vietnam, Grenada, and Beirut. He lives in North Carolina. He is a renowned expert in urban combat and infantry tactics. Bing West is the author of several books, including the Vietnam classic The Village and the best-selling novel The Pepperdogs. He served as a Marine in Vietnam and was Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan and dean of research at the Naval War College. He lives in Rhode Island.

Customer Reviews

Anabasis
This is a competent record, from the point of view of two ex-US Marines riding with the USMC units, of the advance on Baghdad. The viewpoint is that strange mixture of "on high" and "closeup". The two authors report their own adventures close up and those of the RCTs at a distance. This mixed view gives something close to the confusion that must have been felt by the soldiers. Although the conventional Iraqi forces are in big trouble the small bands of soldiers and Fedayeen are perfectly willing to close up with their AK47s and die bravely. Sometimes they can even injure ther foes.

Given what came afterwards this period was the "happy time" for US Forces, believing in their liberation and not suffering the feared WMD attacks. I thought the book caught the spirit of the time. Aware that the First Gulf War had overestimated Iraqi forces but always mindful of Mogadishu the American forces moved (as most armies do) in that confusion that a new war brings.

West and Smith are aware of civilian casualties and not afraid to upbraid trigger-happy troops, but the sheer confusion of a campaign which is almost an unbroken series of meeting engagements makes one amazed that there were not more.

The comparison with the army later led by Xenophon seems an unneccesary addition to what is a decent piece of reporting.

Awesome display of power
This book is one of the 'instant war' genre that springs up after any major conflict.

I think it benefits from immediacy and the US Marine experience of the joint authors, but - necessarily - it suffers from some of the confusion that post-battle reports suffer. (I finished it fairly clueless about what happened at Nasariyah - the 'big set-back.)

What came across strongly for me was just how powerful the US forces were. Yes there was a lot of talk about how things didn't go to plan, but in the book, the main enemy is time, not the Iraqis. They might fire an RPG and get someone, but they are going to die - minutes or moments later. To try and take the Marines on means getting killed. For some, that's an option, for most, it's not. They have the good sense to run away or surrender.

Once you fire that RPG, a computer within the tank is tracing the heat source and telling the gunners and machine gunners where you are, not to mention the radar-controlled counter-battery units or the superior night vision or the satellite tracking or the sublime ground-to-air comms.

Early in the book, the authors describe an Iraqi force pulling up in a civilian bus, deploying and fighting bravely. These are 'good soldiers' who stand up to the marines. They are killed to a man while the marines suffer no casualties. None.

My point is that if you are up against this sort of over-whelming military force and technology aren't you going to start trying something different? Like hitting soft targets through terrorism?

I didn't feel the book was that well-written - too much jargon and not enough 'character development'. It isn't a novel, but you have to know who these guys are to care. The best book on what it means to be a US Marine - I think - remains the superb 'Flags of Our Fathers.'

I would recommend this to people who want to understand how the US military machine functions.

A modern classic
West and Smith have delivered perhaps the definitive embedded report account of Gulf War II. Like Mark Bowden's seminal "Black Hawk Down," "The March Up" will go down as a classic account of modern warfare.

Unlike other "embed" reporters, West and Smith are not journalists but retired U.S. Marine officers with service in Vietnam. West served in the Defense Department under the Ford and Reagan Administrations. West is highly decorated retired general and commanded Marine forces in Grenada in 1983. West and Smith were able to attach themselves to a Marine public affairs effort with the 1st Marine Division--a unit both men were veterans of. West does the writing in this book, relating the experiences that both he and Smith witnessed.

Because of their semi-official brief and Marine service, West and Smith were able to move amongst many units in the division--unlike other embeds who stayed with one or two battalions the entire war. West and Smith thus smoothly experience the war from the level of the Private First Class to the two-star general running the division. Unlike some of the embeds, West and Smith sometimes were actually in the midst of real combat on the front lines, and were themselves under fire on several occasions.

As the cliche goes, there are no ex-Marines, and it's clear early in the account that West and Smith a vested stake with the Marines not like that of ordinary journalists. West's son was serving with the 1st Force Recon Company and Smith acts at times like the general he was. Marines ask both men for their insights and even when not solicited, the Marine commanders often listen to both men.

The 1st Marine Division, comprised of three regimental combat teams (RCTs), jumped off from Kuwait in late March 2003 and ended up carrying out the longest land advance in Marine Corps history for over 200 years. Iraqi Freedom was an unusual war for the Marine Corps in that much of the advance was done by vehicles, with infantrymen only disgorging to take or clear a particular complex of buildings or confront Fedayeen or Iraqi Army forces that try to attack their progress along the roads and trackways. Because of the political imperative for speed, the Marines had little choice but drive in such exposed columns but overwhelming firepower--both air and land--and near incompetent and suicide resistance by the Iraqis meant the Marines could operate in this manner.

Acquiring a captured yellow Nissan Pathfinder, West and Smith follow along with the massed Marine columns of Abrams tanks, amphibious tractors (Amtracs), and Humvee vehicles. With excellent rapport amongst the division's officers, West and Smith are usually able to find out where the most interesting action is and get there to be on scene either during or just after.

Still, the campaign was not bloodless for the Marines and West relates the deaths of Marines he witnessed or was later told about. Sometimes, these deaths hit home as Marines that he knew previously are killed. Though the number of 1st Marine Division dead was comparatively small, West's account reminds us all that war is not a painless endeavor and even one death can have a cascading effect on many others.

The book shifts focus smoothly and seemlessly. One moment West writes about a Marine fire team given the task of seizing an important oil pumping station before Iraqi forces can create an economic disaster. Later, the book focuses on the ridiculous Western media defeatism that followed setbacks in Nasiriyah (when Jessica Lynch's convoy was ambushed) and Najaf by making the excellent point that the Marines needed no pause, and unlike their Army brethren, were used to operating with bare-bone logistics. West even weaves in the history of the Marine Corps' doctrine from Vietnam to the present. But never is any discussion so lengthy that the reader feels bogged down. "The March Up" should keep the interest of both casual readers and hardened military historians.

Though the authors obviously support the war, they do not shy away from criticism of certain aspects of the campaign. Sometimes they even make plain their criticism to other Marines they are journeying with. West does not likes the policy of shooting at civilian vehicles that do not respect Marine challenges—but he admits that he didn’t have a better policy for preventing suicide bombers. In one controversial part of the book, West writes of his complete disgust when a foreign officer (the country is not mentioned) on exchange to the Marine Corps opens fire with a LAV-25's 25mm cannon, cutting down two Iraqis who did not seem to be combatants.

The book successfully gives an insight into the personalities of the Marines at all levels. West writes of Marine generals and colonels who constantly keep themselves engrossed in all details of the campaign. Then there are the infantrymen who constantly feel chagrined that the Marine Abrams tanks are "getting all the kills" of Iraqis who challenge the vehicle columns. This pent up desire to slay the enemy finally releases itself in an awesome display of infantry movement and firepower at Baghdad University. New York Times and Guardian readers will surely be horrified at the Marines’ attitudes but the account rings true. Professional American Marines, while not warmongers, feel like athletes who train constantly but never get into the big game. For many of the Marine infantry, the march to Baghdad was their big game and they wanted to get into it to prove what they could do.

As time goes on, later embedded reporter accounts will benefit from the passage of time and the declassification of records. But it's hard to see anyone surpassing this book. For anyone wanting to gain an insight into modern warfare and into one of the world's most elite fighting forces, buy this book immediately and select the quickest shipping option possible. This book is absolutely mandatory reading.