Word: howlin
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...betrayals, An Army in Exile. U.S. big brass, hounded by publishers and eager ghostwriters, combed memories, diaries and official records to get their stories on the record. Hard-boiled Major General Claire Chennault had a field day with U.S. blundering in China in Way of a Fighter, and General "Howlin' Mad" Smith lashed out at high-level boners in his story of what happened to his marines in the Pacific. General "Hap" Arnold's yarn-spinning Global Mission was twice too long but important for any student of the war in the air. Blunt, down-to-earth...
Things Were Tough. As Smith's article hit the newsstands last week, the Army leaped to the defense. Things had been much tougher for the 27th than Howlin' Mad had had any idea of, the Army insisted. In the center, it had been up against the main enemy defenses. It was late jumping off only because the Marine division it was relieving had lost about 500 yards during the night, which the 27th had to regain. Finally, the Army pointed out that an all-Army board of inquiry had declared Smith's relief "not justified...
...Whitewash, pure and simple," snorted Howlin' Mad. "The so-called board . . . had no more judicial standing than an Army kangaroo court. This board had no access to Saipan records of the Navy and Marine Corps, and sought none...
...Lack of Spirit." To prove its point, the Army unlocked long-secret files. But some of the Army's own testimony went far to corroborate Howlin' Mad. After relieving Smith, General Jarman reported simply: "The problem . . . was to get the 27th to advance." In an official memo on the conduct of the 27th, Jarman explained: "I have noted ... a lack of offensive spirit ... A battalion will run into one machine gun and be held up for several hours." Other Army officers reported "fainthearted" attacks, noted "a lack of spirit in moving forward...
There seemed little doubt that the 27th had suffered from lack of battle training and sloppy leadership, that it was equipped neither by discipline nor inclination for the Marines' hell-for-leather tactics. But Howlin' Mad's running battle with the Army served little present purpose. The whole story of the Army on Saipan seemed destined to take its place with such other military causes célèbres as the conduct of the Dardanelles campaign in World War I and the reason Longstreet was late in attacking Little Round...