Combat Tips; For Fifth Army Infantry Replacements

Italy: United States Fifth Army, 1945. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Wraps. Format is approximately 4.75 inches by 6.5 inches. 56 pages and 8 pages for Notes. Cover illustration plate signed by Mauldin. Other iIllustrations are initialed B.M. and have been drawn by Bill Mauldin (The illustration facing page 18 does have a clear identification of Bill Maudlin as the artist. JUST TO BE CLEAR, THERE ARE NO ORIGINAL SIGNATURES BY BILL MAULDIN in this extremely rare WWII/Maudlin item. Last page of notes have some ink comments and the bottom half of the page is torn off. William Henry "Bill" Mauldin (October 29, 1921 – January 22, 2003) was an American editorial cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, as represented by the archetypal characters Willie and Joe, two weary and bedraggled infantry troopers who stoically endure the difficulties and dangers of duty in the field. His cartoons were popular with soldiers throughout Europe, and with civilians in the United States as well. Mauldin's cartoon work continued when he landed with the 45th division in the invasion of Sicily and later in the Italian campaign. Rare. This title is not listed in the bibliography of Mauldin's works available on Wikipedia. The United States Fifth Army was one of the principal formations of the U.S. Army in the Mediterranean during World War II, and was the first American field army ever to be activated outside of the United States. It was officially activated on 5 January 1943 and was given the responsibility for planning the American part of the invasion of mainland Italy, but was instead assigned the role of training combat troops destined for Sicily. The United States Fifth Army was initially commanded by Lieutenant General Mark Wayne Clark, who would lead the Fifth Army for nearly two years, and was to experience some of the toughest fighting of World War II, where it was engaged on the Italian Front, which was, in many ways, often more reminiscent of the trench warfare of the Western Front in World War I. The Fifth Army suffered 109,642 casualties in 602 days of combat, of which 19,475 were killed in action. Condition: Fair.

Keywords: Military Training, Bill Mauldin, Illustrated Works, Wartime Cartoons, Fifth Army, Infantry Training, Weapons Training, Combat Operations, Booby Traps

[Book #76727]

Price: $1,000.00