This is

CBS I on the world. This is CBS Eye on the World.

Here's John Bachelor.

Craig Simon's new book is Nimitz at War, command leadership from Pearl Harbor to

Tokyo Bay. He is a Meredith professor of history from the US Naval Academy and we're

speaking of Chester Nimitz at war in the Pacific. It is now

the point where the Central Pacific campaign starting in the Gilbert Islands, driving towards the Japanese islands,

is underway with the landing at Tarawa, a small island, a series of atolls.

And this is where the Marines have to practice their amphibious landing that will get better

and stronger throughout the war.

In fact, amphibious landings in general are now being invented by the Marines and the

army. And they require specialized ships that don't exist at this point. You all think

of the landing craft from D-Day, the drop of the front and the men piling out.

Well, that didn't exist as they land at Tarawa.

This is November of 1943.

The professor's book concentrates on relationships, however. So we begin with Chester Nimitz's relationship

with the U.S. Marine Corps. He worked very well through Halsey with Vandergrift at Guadalcanal, but now we introduce a man named Holland

Smith.

What is that relationship, professor?

Thank you.

Well, Holland Smith was the man who was in charge of Marine Corps training and in the previous decade

the Marines had made amphibious operations their particular area of expertise.

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