"Lightning warfare suggests initiative and spirit of the offensive; it carries with it the element of surprise, not so much in the happening as in the speed and force with which the attack is launched and delivered."
Click here to read about the nature of Total war. The attached 1942 article tells the remarkable story of Prime Minister John Curtin (1885 - 1945) and his amazing Australians - together they redefined themselves as a wool-producing agrarian nation and began producing the necessary tools of war. The Battle of Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942 – February 9, 1943) was the first major land offensive by Allied forces against the Japanese. When this article went to press, the American military presence on the island was exactly one month old; it was at this point that the Marines sought to outmaneuver the enemy by conducting an additional amphibious landing on the north side of the island where "They found that except for a few snipers, the Japanese had scampered to the hills." The U.S Marine Corps is not in the practice of sending their oldest members into harm's way - they aren't now, and they weren't in 1942. But when they imparted this information to Gunnery Sergeant Lou Diamond (1890 - 1951), he would have none of it - the mere idea that the world was to be at war, and he would be excluded: not going to happen:
"Lou roared his way through the battles of Guadalcanal and Tulagi and did much to back up the Marine Corp's contention that he is far and away the the most expert mortar sergeant in any branch of the service." The battle of Saipan spanned the period between June 15 through July 9, 1944. Here is an eyewitness account of the three week battle:
"Reveille for the Japanese garrison on Saipan sounded abruptly at five-forty that morning of D-Day minus one, with a salvo from the 14-inch rifles of one of our battleships. Other guns, big and small, joined the opening chorus and from than on we realized why we had stuffed the cotton in our ears. The bass drum jam session was to continue for hours."
Filed from General MacArthur's headquarters in Australia, here is Frank Hewlett's (1913 - 1983) eyewitness account of the defense of American positions in the Philippines (January 7 – April 9, 1942). | 
