SLA Marshall

SLA Marshall

Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall (born July 18, 1900 in Catskill , New York , † December 17, 1977 in El Paso ), also SLAM , was an American officer, war correspondent and military historian .

Life

Marschall began his military career as an ordinary soldier in World War I in the 90th Infantry Division of the United States Army . In April 1919 he was already an officer. After the war he worked as a journalist. During the Second World War he became an official war correspondent and army historian. At the end of 1950 he was called back to active service by the reserve. He worked as an analyst for the Eighth Army for three months during the Korean War and then returned to the reserves. Following his retirement from the Army Reserve in 1960, with the rank of Brigadier General, Marschall continued his work as an unofficial adviser to the Army. As a private citizen, he went to Vietnam towards the end of 1966. On an Army-sponsored official-purpose tour, he briefed field commanders on his interviewing techniques to improve data collection for both the line of command and future official history of the Vietnam War.

Act

He witnessed four wars in which the United States participated: World War I, World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War . Marshall was involved to some extent in all of these conflicts. He wrote detailed publications on tactical combat. He also wrote thirty books and published numerous articles and papers. Marshall's works are largely based on interviews with units shortly after they were deployed. In doing so, he had the events that had recently been experienced sketched out in chronological order. During his work in World War II, he focused on the 101st Airborne Division and interviewed countless paratroopers and soldiers on both sides about their experiences during the fighting in Normandy , the Netherlands , the Ardennes and Germany .

reception

Marshall was involved in the computer game Brothers in Arms - Earned in Blood . There he can be seen an American soldier telling him "his story".

Fonts (selection)

• Blitzkrieg: Its history, strategy, economics and the challenge to America. Morrow Books, New York 1940.
• Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command. The Infantry Journal, Washington / New York 1947
  • German translation: Soldiers in Fire: Thoughts on Combat Management in the Next War. Huber, Frauenfeld 1966.
• The River and the Gauntlet: Defeat of the Eighth Army by the Chinese Communist Forces, November, 1950, in the Battle of the Chongchon River, Korea. Morrow Books, New York 1951.
  • German translation: The attack on the Chongchon: Individual fates in the defeat of an army. Huber, Frauenfeld 1955.
• Night Drop: The American Airborne Invasion of Normandy. Little, Brown & Co., Boston 1962.
  • German translation: Operation at night: Landing and fighting of two airborne divisions. Normandy 1944. Huber, Frauenfeld 1964.
• The Vietnam Primer: Lessons learned. A critique of US army tactics and command practices in the small combat unit digested from historical research of main fighting operations from May 1966 to February 1967 . Lancer Militaria, Sims (Ark.) 1967 (with David H. Hackworth).