Devil Dogs

Devil Dogs follows King Company, Third Battalion, 5th Marines, from the American landing on Guadalcanal in August 1942 to the end of the Battle of Okinawa in June 1945. The company belonged to the 1st Marine Division and fought through the jungle of New Britain, the coral defences of Peleliu and the heavily fortified terrain of Okinawa.

Using memoirs, letters and other first-hand records produced by an unusually articulate group of Marines, David builds a collective biography of men learning to fight across repeated campaigns. Tactical experience, leadership, illness, fear and loss are set within the wider American offensive across the Pacific. The result is both a unit history and an account of how sustained combat transformed a company recruited from across the United States.