This is

CBS I on the world. This is 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 and in the previous decade

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

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