The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division

by Francis J. "Bing" West Jr., Bing West, Ray Smith

Book Overview

With unprecedented access and previously unreported detail, here is a first hand account of the 22-day march to Baghdad that takes you behind the scenes and to the front line... No one reporting on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 055380376X
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.1" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

The Marines go to Baghdad

We in Australia don't hear very much about the US Marines in action in Iraq or Afghanistan. But this book (and Bing West's other book No True Glory) changes all of that. We are taken onto the front line and given a first hand account of the action. A fast-moving, authoritative and sometimes humorous story.

Good read about the Marines march to Baghdad

The is was a very good and informative book about the 1st Marine Division during the Iraq War. The authors, Bing West and Major General Ray L. Smith, traveled with the division during their campaign that began at the Kuwaiti border and ended with them in the heart of Baghdad itself. The book starts out with the battle to take the Az Zubayr pumping station (dubbed the "Crown Jewel") near the Kuwait border to prevent a repeat of what Saddam did in Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War. After that it details the advance of the three RCTs and the critical battles they faced at places like An Nasiriyah. Finally, after crossing the Tigris and linking up just North of Al Kut, RCTs 1,5, and 7 struck towards Baghdad. And as you all know Baghdad fell on April 9th with Saddam's statue being torn down and the rest is history. Now for the criticisms of the book. While this was very informative and had some good details of the action, there were parts of the book that were quite boring. I think this comes from the fact that the authors include themselves too much in the book and mostly only detail the fighting they actually saw. But overall it was worth the read and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to know more about the Iraq War.

straightforward but a bit boring

Good writing but a bit stale...reads too much like a travelogue bu it's accurate. should have spent more time with 1st recon battalion as it's cut out of the book. Good, first-person reporting but wish they had excised themselves.

Truly Accurate

I just started reading this book and I can tell you that so far I am very impressed. Reading this book is like looking through the eyes of the Marines and Sailors of the 1st MARDIV. I know because I was in RCT 1 as a corpsman with E Co 2/23. I will never forget the experiences that we had during the war and this book helps the folks back home understand what we saw and felt during our journey north ("The way home is through Baghdad"!). General Smith and Mr. West have written a detailed and accurate account of my generation's contribution to history. Semper Fi,Doc Duke

Singing the Praises of Marines

Dittos to the above reviewers. As a former Marine I find it hard to be truly objective about this book. The overwhelming impression about "The March Up" is honesty. The Marines, after reading this concise and crisp piece of work, come across as a stellar fighting force of the highest caliber. Isn't that what they've always been known for?Regardless of how you feel about the invasion of Iraq you can't help but admire the professionalism, dedication and sense of duty shared by the young men at the tip of the American war machine. West and Smith, without glorifying anything or overdoing the Gung Ho banter, provide a precise Abrams tank's optical gunsight on one of America's elite fighting forces and, despite some errors and initial setbacks, the Marines come out smelling like roses. What other branch of service would allow two "lowly" grunt rifle squads to seize one of the war's most important objectives, the oil processing facility known as "the Crown Jewel?"In action after action the Leathernecks come across almost as chained dobermans, straining for their chance to get into the thick of it. The riflemen are disappointed numerous times when their chance to take out an enemy position is missed, when it's over before they get their licks in. They curse the tankers who "get all the shots" at long range. They're eager to close with the enemy and destroy him. That's what they're there for and I'm darn glad we have them. No other authors/journalists could have gotten as much access with the Marines as Smith and West did. Only former Marines can understand and, consequently, garner respect from the young hard chargers currently in the thick of it. I doubt if a retired Army general would have gotten as much respect or sense of camaraderie from the 3rd I.D. over on the left. The authors saw everything with experienced eyes and it shows in their reporting. If you want to know what really happened during those three weeks this is the book to read.For one, I was interested to see some myths dispelled, especially the account of Iraqis surrendering en masse only to pull out weapons at the last second. I also enjoyed learning about what our modern weapons can do. You gotta love those optics and computers. From honing in on lone infantrymen with tanks' automatic weapons to calculating the azimuth of incoming artillery rounds, it doesn't behoove any foe to take our fighting force lightly. Nobody can touch us...in open combat. Consequently, we're now faced with cowardly guerilla tactics. They know they'd be obliterated with any other method.There's an underlying feeling of Marine superiority (justifiably so, I think), especially when compared to our Army brothers-in-arms. One gets the feeling from the book that if it had been up to the Marines we'd have been in Baghdad in a week. Granted, there'd be some major mopping up to do but our casualties might have been even lighter in the end. I get the sneaking suspicion that if all of Iraq were occupied by these discipli