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Summary
Summary
Through six books, W.E.B. Griffin's bestselling chronicle of theMarine Corps has proven itself to be one of the country's most enduring andpopular series. But in Behind The Lines, Griffin has given us hismost dramatic story yet. On the island of Mindanao, a man calling himself "General" Fertig hasset himself up as a guerrilla leader to harass the Japanese. Army recordsshow that the only officer named Fertig in the Philippines is a reservelieutenant colonel of the Corps of Engineers, reported MIA on Luzon, butstill, the reports filtering out are interesting, and it's Marine lieutenant KenMcCoy's mission to sneak behind the lines and find out if he's for real. Withhim is a motley group put together as a compromise between warring factionsof Douglas MacArthur and OSS chief Bill Donovan: veteran Marine gunnerysergeant Ernest Zimmermann; OSS captain R.B. Macklin, a bully who hasmanaged to fail ever upward; submariner Navy lieutenant Chambers D.Lewis; and Marine staff sergeant Stephen Koffler. Together, these men will steal into the heart of enemy territory andthere, amid firefights and jungle camps, encounter more than they hadbargained for. Before they're done, each will undergo a test of his ownpersonal mettle--with results that will surprise even the most hardened ofthem. As always, this new novel is filled with crackling realism and adventure,rich characters, real heroes, and that special flair for the military heart andmind that make Griffin's novels so loved. It is further proof, as Tom Clancysays, that "W.E.B. Griffin is a storyteller in the grand tradition."
Author Notes
W. E. B. Griffin is one of eight pseudonyms used by William E. Butterworth III, who was born in Newark, New Jersey on November 10, 1929. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private in 1946 and was assigned to the Army of Occupation in Germany. He left the service in 1947 but was recalled to active duty in 1951 because of the Korean War. After leaving the service for the second time, he remained in Korea as a combat correspondent. He was later appointed chief of the publications division of the Signal Aviation Test and Support Activity at the Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama. He received the Brigadier General Robert L. Dening Memorial Distinguished Service Award of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association in 1991 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award in 1999.
He wrote more than 200 books including the Brotherhood of War series, The Corps series, Badge of Honor series, Honor Bound series, Presidential Agent series, Men at War series, and A Clandestine Operations Novel series. Under his own name, he wrote 12 sequels in the 1970s to Richard Hooker's book M*A*S*H. His other pen names included Alex Baldwin, Webb Beech, and Walter E. Blake. He wrote over 20 books with his son William E. Butterworth IV. He received the Alabama Author's Award in 1982 from the Alabama Library Association. He died on February 12, 2019 at the age of 89.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Griffin's seventh novel in The Corps series (after Close Combat) continues the author's breezy look at the Marine Corps during WWII. Here, he uses guerrilla action behind the lines in the Philippines as foreground to tell the behind-the-lines tale of the power struggle among Marine General Fleming Pickering, General Douglas MacArthur and Bill Donovan of the fledgling OSS, all of whom are galvanized into action by a radio message from a self-proclaimed general named Wendell Fertig, who has established himself as a guerrilla leader against the Japanese. As far as the Marines are concerned, once the message is verified, a team of men with supplies will be sent in to evacuate any sick or wounded and evaluate Fertig as a potential leader. Complicating matters, however, are MacArthur's public declaration that guerrilla activity on the Philippines is impossible, and therefore nonexistent, and Bill Donovan's desire to get the operation under OSS control. Focusing on a variety of characters involved in the proposed mission, Griffin tells an absorbing story with his usual attention to dialogue rather than description, relying frequently on his favored device of moving the plot along through copies of memos, radio messages and telegrams. The boy's club aura of Griffin's primarily male world, where everythingeven deathseems clear, sunny, bright and uncomplicated, is in full force here; and that should please his fans just fine. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
In Griffin's latest, a bunch of mismatched World War II grunts search for a missing colonel who may be launching guerrilla raids on Japan. Sounds like a cross between The Guns of Navarone and Apocalypse Now. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.