It was not planned, but by happenstance the two new G.I. Series books are being published at the time of related news stories. The two new books are both by Christopher Anderson, senior editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, and a regular contributor to the Series. They are: The Marines in World War II (G.I. Series volume 21) and Screaming Eagles (G.I. Series volume 22) The Marines in World War II is timely because in November the US Marine Corps starts it bicentennial celebrations. The Marines were particularly distinguished in action and on campaign in World War II, earning a superb reputation for daring amphibious assaults, and at Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa the USMC took tremendous punishment but ultimately triumphed. A total of six divisions of Marines fought in World War II, sustaining 87,000 casualties, and this book throws light on their role in the Pacific and in other key theatres of the war. The photographs presented in this book show the Marines as they actually appeared in World War II – uniform and equipment evolved and varied according to conditions – and form a unique resource. Also continuing to be available in the G.I. Series, and timely to display and review the link with the bicentenary of the USMC, is Charles Cureton's The US Marine Corps (G.I. Series volume 9). The other new contribution to the Series is Screaming Eagles: The 101st Airborne Division from D-Day to Desert Storm, and is timely because Steven Spielberg is currently filming a 10-part drama series for the American cable television channel HBO, based on Stephen Ambrose's bestselling non-fiction book. Starting in 1942, Band of Brothers follows the soldiers of Easy Company from the 101st Airborne Division, from their training, parachuting into France just before D-Day itself, and follows their fighting across Europe and daring capture of Hitler's fortified mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden. The Steven Spielberg series is an enormous undertaking with a budget of $100 million, a nine month filming schedule, and a cast of thousands. Most of the filming takes place at the old Hatfield aerodrome, which is just ten miles from the Greenhill offices. Hatfield aerodrome provides a space of over one thousand acres, and has had its geography rearranged to create rivers, dykes (for the scenes in Holland), and even forests, in addition to villages in Belgium and France. It was the same airfield that was used for the filming of Saving Private Ryan. Apart from this enormous space in close proximity to London, and with all the services that a film-maker needs available locally, Steven Spielbergs' colleague in making the film, Tom Hanks (who appears of course in Saving Private Ryan), commented in a recent newspaper story that although he and Steven Spielberg considered making the film elsewhere, in Ireland or even North America, 'England has the materiel. You can't find Sherman tanks in the USA. The American military brought this stuff over in the Forties and didn't bother taking it back. So you have the vehicles, and that's no small thing. You have great craft services here. We've re-created Holland, Georgia, the Ardennes forest in Hatfield. And compared with the US or Canada, it's convenient: everyone lives within half an hour's drive.' Christopher Anderson's Screaming Eagles is a brilliant pictorial history of the 101st (the emphasis for the G.I. Series of course being on pictorial, rather than text as Stephen Ambrose's book) and of its men, uniforms and equipment. With more than 100 rare and unusual photographs, accompanied by incisive captions by an expert on American military history, this valuable study is a fitting testament to the exceptional deeds of the 101st. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 102 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com