Marshall, Samuel Lyman Atwood

Marshall, Samuel Lyman Atwood (S. L. A. Marshall), 1900–1977, American author and military analyst, b. Catskill, N.Y. Having served in World War I, he embarked upon a career in journalism, working as an editorial writer and military critic for the Detroit News. In World War II he was chief combat historian in the Central Pacific (1943) and chief historian for the European Theater of Operations (1945) and during the Korean War was an infantry operations analyst for the U.S. army, with the rank of brigadier general. Marshall developed several systems to analyze infantry performance in battle. His conclusions about the performance of riflemen in combat have been discredited; this has cast a shadow on the validity of his work in general. Among his many works are Blitzkrieg (1940); Armies on Wheels (1941); Men against Fire (1947); The River and the Gauntlet (1953); Pork Chop Hill (1956); Sinai Victory (1958); Night Drop (1962); and Crimsoned Prairie (1972).