Naval History Homepage and Site Search. World War 1 - Contemporary Accounts. Part 1 of 2. McClellan, Major, U. Marines, Officer in Charge Historical Division, A Modern Introduction. Up-to-date, well-researched naval histories have an important part to play in understanding past events, but I would like to suggest they are equalled by contemporary accounts written not long after the stories they describe, and often by those who took part.
It is short, well-organised and clearly written, and a pleasure to read. It sets a standard that many "management summaries", which in fact it is, rarely attain. Books such as these are invariably out-of-print and often forgotten. It has long been my hope to see some of them re-introduced to modern readers, and so I am very grateful to the Internet Archive for making this text available, without any copyright restrictions, on the Internet.
Gordon Smith, Naval-History. Chronology based on Major McLellan's publication. Contemporary Accounts. Part 1. In general. Statutory and actual strength of the Marine Corps on various dates. Recruiting - Applicants, rejection, enlistments - Enlistments by States. Geographical location and disposition of Marines during the war.
How officers were obtained and trained. Training of enlisted men in the United States and Europe. Operations in general. Aisne-Marne Offensive Soissons. Part 2. With the Navy on board the battleships and cruisers. The activities of the Fifth Brigade. Statistics concerning casualties. Rifle practice - Rifle and pistol competitions participated in by Marines during the war. Aviation statistics. Marine Corps Reserve. The Paymaster's Department.
The Quartermaster's Department. Chapter I. When a state of war was declared to exist on April 6, , the United States Marine Corps was composed of commissioned officers, 49 warrant officers, and 13, enlisted men on active duty, a total of 13, and, while the corps was expanded to an actual strength, including reserves, of 75, officers and enlisted men, its high standard was never lowered. When these figures are compared with the approximate strength of 3, at the end of the Civil War, and of 4, at the end of the Spanish War, the growth of the Marine Corps is illustrated.
