Raymond A. Spruance
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Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith, KCB (April 20, 1882 – January 12, 1967) was a general in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He is sometimes called the "father" of modern U.S. amphibious warfare .
- Ralph Smith: A Gentle Man and A Gentleman
- Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith
- First Conflict on Makin
- The Benning Method vs Marine Aggressiveness
- Ralph Smith Relieved of Duty
- A Board Examines Ralph Smith’s Relief
- Conclusions of The Board
- Repairing The Rift Between The Services
- William Randolph Hearst Brings Public Attention to The Feud
- The Feud Within The Press
At the center of the dispute was Ralph Smith, who led the 27th Infantry, a New York National Guard outfit, with many of its men drawn from the state’s farming and mountain country along with others from New York City’s tough neighborhoods. Ironically, Ralph Smith was not a New Yorker. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1893, and attended Colorado S...
Ralph Smith’s chief antagonist was a ferocious Alabaman, born in 1882. Holland McTyeire “Howlin’ Mad” Smith was the son of a prominent Alabama politician. While attending the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, a military school in Auburn, Holland Smith read about Napoleon and decided to become a career officer. He graduated from the Alabama Polytechnic...
Holland Smith headed the invasion of Tarawa in the Gilberts and its nearby islands of Makin and Abemama in November 1943, and under his command was Ralph Smith’s 27th Infantry Division. The two Smiths first clashed during the assault on Makin. On November 20, the 27th Division’s 165th Infantry Regiment, under Colonel Gardiner Conroy, assaulted Maki...
On March 15, 1944, Holland Smith became the Marine Corps’s second three-star general with command of the V Amphibious Corps. With great reluctance, he accepted the 27th Infantry into his command for the invasion of Saipan. When the 27th Infantry came ashore on Saipan, the actual landing was close to farce. The GIs landed by night, their landing cra...
On June 24, after consulting with his superiors, Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner and Vice Admiral Raymond Spruance, Holland Smith relieved Ralph Smith, sending a captain from the Adjutant General’s Corps with the official order, typed up on V Amphibious Corps stationery, and the additional proviso that Ralph Smith and a single aide must leave Sa...
Holland Smith was right about the oncoming storm. When Ralph Smith arrived in Hawaii, he reported to Lt. Gen. Robert C. Richardson, the senior Army commander in the Pacific, and Richardson was outraged. He told Ralph Smith to take as much time as necessary to prepare a report on everything that had happened on Saipan. On July 11, Ralph Smith produc...
The Buckner Board reviewed the increasingly ugly mess, and arrived at four conclusions: (1) Holland Smith had full authority to relieve Ralph Smith. (2) The orders effecting the change of command were properly issued. (3) Holland Smith “was not fully informed regarding conditions in the zone of the 27th Infantry Division” when he asked for Ralph Sm...
The Buckner Board findings went next to Washington for review by Marshall and his Assistant Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Thomas T. Handy. They believed that while Holland Smith had some cause to complain about the 27th Division’s lack of aggressiveness, “Holland Smith’s fitness for this command is open to question” because of his deep-seated prejudice...
Unfortunately, now the controversy moved into the public arena. The Saipan battle was huge news in the United States, particularly the ghastly Japanese mass suicides on Marpi Point, which had been well-documented by film, photograph, and reporter accounts. The American public was shocked by how the island’s Japanese civilians chose suicide over sur...
The Navy had its partisans in the press war, however. Most notable of these was Charles Henry Luce, the publisher of Time and Lifemagazines. Luce’s admiration dated back to his youth as the child of American missionaries in China at the beginning of the 20th century. There, the Navy and Marines had burnished their reputation by protecting American ...
Mar 27, 2023 · Alabama native Holland McTyeire Smith (1882-1967) was a U.S. Marine Corps officer whose career spanned more than four decades and who served in two world wars. Smith was a controversial commander who often clashed with his U.S. Navy and U.S. Army counterparts.
Dec 20, 2022 · During the fighting on Saipan, Marine Lt. Gen. Holland Smith relieved Army Maj. Gen. Ralph Smith of command of the 27th Infantry Division over poor combat performance. The Marine general felt that the 27th’s lack of progress had caused unnecessary casualties to the Marine Corps.
In the summer of 1944, the 5th Amphibious Corps under Marine Lt. Gen. Holland M. “Howlin Mad” Smith set its sights on the Japanese-held island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands, one of the “Islands of Mystery,” as its next objective.
Jul 7, 2014 · The commander of the ground forces at Saipan was Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, dubbed “Howling Mad” for his volcanic temper. A week into the battle, Smith relieved the 27th’s commander, Maj. Gen. Ralph Smith (no relation), after the division lagged behind the Marine units operating on its flanks.
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A smiling Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, commanding the Fleet Marine Force Pacific (right), awaits his turn at the binoculars. Smith countered forcefully, “If we go ashore at Tinian Town, we’ll have another Tarawa. Sure as hell! The Japs will murder us.”
