Coral Comes High

Published in early 1946, George P. Hunt was a feature writer for Life Magazine before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. After the war's outbreak, he went into the Marines and got himself a commission. He had served with the 1st Marine Regiment (part of the illustrious 1st Marine Division) and went to the Pacific. He served on Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester and Peleliu. By the time he went to Peleliu, Hunt was by then a captain and was in charge of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. This classic book, a memoir of the first two days of Peleliu, where Hunt's K Company was charged with assaulting and holding "the point," a slight knob of land which by coincidence, overlooked the entire 1st Marine Regiment's landing beaches. The Point was heavily fortified, and K Company lost many men in taking this vital piece of terrain. Nonetheless, Hunt's Marines took it and held on through many desperate enemy attempts to retake it.