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CBS I 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, in the previous decade the Marines had made

amphibious operations their particular area of expertise. This derived in part

from the fact that in World War I the Marines had fought in France as if they were a regular Army division and they realized that in order to maintain their unique character and personality they need to develop a particular expertise and aware that Japan was a likely foe.

They developed throughout the 19, late 20s and the 30s, this expertise in amphibious operations.

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