Forty-Eight Hours

CORAL COMES HIGH (147 pp.) —George P. Hunt—Harper ($2).

"Death was as common as head colds." These words of Marine Captain Hunt, who now writes for FORTUNE, are the essence of his brief, sharp account of the storming of the Pacific island of Peleliu by the U.S. 1st Marine Division. Captain Hunt and his company of 235 men were landed on Peleliu one dawn; forty-eight hours later, only 78 of them were alive. Most of an entire platoon of his, racing to the assault, had suddenly felt the ground collapse under them, and had found themselves wallowing at the bottom of...