Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, United States
Auburn University where Holland Smith received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1901.
Gallery of Holland Smith
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, United States
The University of Alabama where Holland Smith received a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1903.
Gallery of Holland Smith
686 Cushing Road, Newport, Rhode Island 02841-1207, United States
The Naval War College where Holland Smith studied.
Career
Gallery of Holland Smith
1939
General Holland M. Smith signs his promotion papers while Major General Thomas Holcomb, Marine Corps Commandant assists.
Gallery of Holland Smith
1944
Holland Smith
Gallery of Holland Smith
1945
Iwo Jima, Japan
Lieutenant General Holland Smith congratulating Major General Graves B. Erskine, Iwo Jima, Japan in March 1945.
Gallery of Holland Smith
1945
United States
General Holland M. Smith in his office on April 30, 1945.
Gallery of Holland Smith
1963
United States
General Holland M. Smith with Admiral Robert L. Dennison, Admiral William H. Standley, Admiral Richard H. Jackson, and Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz at luncheon.
Gallery of Holland Smith
Holland Smith with Admiral Chester Nimitz
Gallery of Holland Smith
General Holland M. Smith with Colonel Wallace Eareckson
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Navy Distinguished Service Medal
The Navy Distinguished Service Medal that Holland Smith was awarded.
Purple Heart Medal
The Purple Heart Medal that Holland Smith was awarded.
Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal
The Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal that Holland Smith was awarded.
Dominican Campaign Medal
The Dominican Campaign Medal that Holland Smith was awarded.
World War I Victory Medal
The World War I Victory Medal that Holland Smith was awarded.
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
The Order of the Bath that Holland Smith was awarded.
American Defense Service Medal
The American Defense Service Medal that Holland Smith was awarded.
Army of Occupation of Germany Medal
The Army of Occupation of Germany Medal that Holland Smith was awarded.
General Holland M. Smith with Admiral Robert L. Dennison, Admiral William H. Standley, Admiral Richard H. Jackson, and Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz at luncheon.
(The aim of this book is twofold: first, that due credit b...)
The aim of this book is twofold: first, that due credit be given to a gallant body of men, the United States Marine Corps, who in their path across the Pacific were faithful to their traditions and to their country. Second, to point out the errors that were committed in World War II in such a manner that they will not be repeated in World War III.
Holland McTyeire Smith was an American general in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, who personally led many of the Pacific invasions. He also was an acknowledged American expert on amphibious operations.
Background
Holland Smith was born on April 20, 1882, in Hatchechubbee, Alabama, United States. He was the son of John Wesley Smith, Jr. and Cornelia Caroline McTyeire. He was descended on his father's side from Patrick Henry, and both of his grandfathers were Confederate Army veterans.
Education
Holland Smith attended public schools in Alabama for ten years. In 1898, he entered Alabama Polytechnic Institute (later Auburn University). During his three years there, he did well in history and especially liked to read about military leaders of the past, and was a sprinter on the track team. He graduated in 1901 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Upon graduation, Smith was offered an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, but he declined this offer. He entered the University of Alabama in 1901 and graduated in 1903 with a Bachelor of Laws degree.
Following study at a private school in Washington for officer candidates, Smith took and passed the marine officer examinations. Commissioned a second lieutenant in February 1905, he spent the next year at the School of Application at the marine barracks in Annapolis. Besides, Smith attended the Naval War College in Newport.
Later in his life, Smith received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Auburn University.
Holland Smith joined his father's law firm in 1903, and they practiced as Smith and Smith for several years. However, soon he found out that he disliked the profession and decided to pursue a career in the military. A Spanish-American War veteran introduced Smith to Secretary of the Navy William H. Moody, with a view to his entering the Marine Corps. In April 1906, Smith was assigned to the first of several posts in the Philippines. For a time, he was engaged in emplacing long-range guns at Subic Bay to defend against Japanese attack. Smith contracted malaria in the Philippines and returned to the United States in 1908.
After brief deployments in Nicaragua and Panama, Smith returned to the Philippines and then served as the commander of the Marines stationed on the USS Galveston. In 1916 Smith, along with a detachment of the Marines, was sent to the Dominican Republic during the United States occupation of that island nation. After the order was restored, Smith was appointed the Military Commander of Puerto Plata in the Philippines. He went to France as a captain in June 1917, was the first marine officer to complete the Army General Staff College at Langres, and was named adjutant of the newly formed Marine Brigade, part of the army's Second Division. In June 1918, Smith became an assistant operations officer with I Corps, First Army, in the Aisne-Marne Sector. Promoted to major, he served with the occupation army in Koblenz, Germany, until March 1919. Also, Smith was commander of the Officers' School for Service Afloat in Norfolk, Virginia.
From 1921 to 1923, Smith served on the staff of the chief of naval operations. He was the only marine officer on the Joint Army-Navy Planning Committee, which formulated long-term war plans. He also completed assignments as post quartermaster at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, as battle force marine officer at Long Beach, California, and as chief of staff for the Marine Corps Department of the Pacific. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1931 and to colonel in 1934. By 1937, Smith was assistant to the Marine Corps commandant and director of operations and training. In August 1939, he was promoted to brigadier general. In the spring of 1940, Smith was named commander of the First Marine Brigade, Fleet Marine Force. He immediately took his new command to Culebra Island, east of Puerto Rico, for training.
In 1941, Smith was given command of the First Marine Division. He conducted landing exercises on the New River in North Carolina in August 1941, and in October of that year, he received his second star. Smith became increasingly concerned with the planning of landing operations. Late in 1941, Smith was named commander of I Corps, consisting of his division and an army unit, at the instance of Admiral Ernest J. King. Transferred to the command of the joint Army-Marine V Amphibious Corps, Smith was next placed in command of all Marine Corps forces in the Central Pacific in June 1943. He spent much of that fall supervising naval gunfire support on Kahoolawe Island, southeast of Pearl Harbor. Smith's forces successfully invaded Makin and Tarawa in November 1943. In August 1944, Smith was made commander of the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, and in early 1945, he led successful operations at Tinian and Iwo Jima.
In July 1945, Smith was named commanding general of the Marine Training and Replacement Command in San Diego, and he remained there until relieved on May 15, 1946. On August 7, 1946, newly promoted to full general, he retired. He settled in La Jolla, California, and later wrote an autobiography called Coral and Brass. Holland Smith died on January 12, 1967, in San Diego.
(The aim of this book is twofold: first, that due credit b...)
1949
Views
Quotations:
"We're not accustomed to occupying defensive positions. It's destructive to morale."
"Throw a hand grenade into a German pillbox and they come out with hands reaching for the sky and shouting "Kamerad!" Throw a hand grenade into a Japanese pillbox and they throw it right back at you."
Personality
Those who knew Holland Smith said that he was impatient to get into the fighting but continued to improve his amphibious warfare methods.
Connections
Holland Smith married Ada Wilkinson in Phoenixville, on April 12, 1909. The marriage produced a son.
Howlin Mad vs. The Army: Conflict in Command: Saipan 1944
Recounts the events leading up to Marine General Holland M. Smith relieving his subordinate officer, Army General Ralph Smith, of his command at Saipan, and argues that the action was unjustified.