Product Description On the island of Guadalcanal, a 2,000-yard-long ridge rose from the jungle canopy. Behind it lay the air base of Henderson Field. And if Henderson Field fell, it would mean the almost certain death or capture of all 12,500 Marines on the island . . .Positioned on the ridge were the hard-fighting men of Edson’s Raiders of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion. They were the United States Marine Corps’ best of the best, and they knew defeat and retreat were simply not options.For two hellish nights in September 1942, about 840 Marines-commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Merritt Austin “Red Mike” Edson-fought one of the most pivotal battles of World War II in the Pacific, clinging desperately to their position on what would soon be known as Bloody Ridge.Bloody Ridge and Beyond is the story of how these men showed courage and valor in the face of overwhelming numbers, as told by Marlin Groft, a man who was a member of this incredible fighting force.Includes photographs Review “Vivid and powerful.”-Adam Makos,New York Times bestselling author ofA Higher Call“A story of courage in the face of fear, intense fighting despite overwhelming odds, and brotherhood in the midst of horrific warfare.”-Marcus Brotherton, author ofVoices of the Pacific“Epic yet excruciatingly personal, riveting, and authentic in every detail.”-Steven Pressfield, bestselling author ofThe Profession About the Author Marlin F. Groft was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1939 to 1941, and then became a silk-screen printer in a textile factory. He joined the U.S. Marines after Pearl Harbor and, following boot camp, he volunteered for the 1st Marine Raider Battalion under Lt. Col. Merritt A. Edson, and served with that unit until its dissolution. Assigned to the 29th Marine Regiment of the newly formed 6th Marine Division, he served beyond the end of the war, seeing duty in China until the end of 1945. Groft and his wife, Vivian, live in a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, retirement community.Larry Alexander is the author of theNew York Times bestselling biography Biggest Brother: The Life of Major Dick Winters, the Man Who Led the Band of Brothers and the coauthor (with Adam Makos) ofA Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II, another New York Times bestseller. He is also the author ofShadows in the Jungle: The Alamo Scouts Behind Japanese Lines in World War II andIn the Footsteps of the Band of Brothers: A Return to Easy Company’s Battlefields with Sgt. Forrest Guth. Alexander has been a journalist and columnist for Lancaster newspapers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for nearly twenty years and has won numerous state-level awards for excellence in journalism. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. PREFACEQUANTICO, VIRGINIA AUGUST 6, 1989On the warm, sunny Sunday morning of August 6, 1989, I and a number of my colleagues of the 1st Raider Battalion, the famed Edson’s Raiders, stood on the grounds of the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, not to train for war as we had done forty-seven years prior, but to remember our departed brethren and our Raider legacy. We had returned to where it all began for the Raiders in order to dedicate a memorial as part of the Quantico National Cemetery.I am more than a little proud of the fact that the idea for the memorial had been first floated by me six years earlier during the funeral of Ben Howland, who had been something of a legend in the Raiders. A tenured professor of landscape architecture at the University of Virginia after the war, Ben had become both a teacher and mentor to my son Eric, who was studying at the university’s School of Architecture. At the reception following Ben’s death, several Raiders commented that Ben had not been buried at Arlington, but rather was interred at the Quantico cemetery, which, we noted, inco
