Richard Fairchild Newcomb (June 6, 1913 – December 3, 2004) was a wartime naval

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and received a

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

. He was a news editor of the

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and the author of a number of books on the battles in the Pacific during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, including ''Abandon Ship!'', ''Savo'', in particular ''Iwo Jima'', an account of the

Battle of Iwo Jima The was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. The American invasion, desi ...

. Newcomb was from

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. He graduated from the School of Journalism,

Rutgers College Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

in 1932. His two books ''Abandon Ship!'' (1958) and ''Iwo Jima'' (1965) were bestsellers. ''Abandon Ship!'' is the first book written on the sinking of USS Indianapolis, while ''Iwo Jima'' is an oral history of the veterans involved in the assault on Iwo Jima. He retired to

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in 1984, and died on December 3, 2004.

Works

*Newcomb, Richard F. ''Abandon ship!''. Holt, NY 1958, republished by HarperCollins Publishers, 2000. *Newcomb, Richard F. ''The

battle of Savo Island The Battle of Savo Island, also known as the First Battle of Savo Island and in Japanese sources as the , and colloquially among Allied Guadalcanal veterans as the Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks, was a Naval warfare, naval battle during the So ...

'' 1st Owl books ed. New York : H. Holt, 2002. *Newcomb, Richard F. ''Iwo Jima'', foreword by Harry Schmidt. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965. Republished 2002 *Newcomb, Richard F. ''A pictorial history of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

'' maps by Rafael Palacios. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1987. *Newcomb, Richard F. ''Savo: the incredible naval debacle off Guadalcanal.'' st ed.New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961. *Newcomb, Richard F. ''U.S. destroyers of the world wars.'' Paducah, Ky. : Turner Pub. Co., 1994.

References

1913 births 2004 deaths American military writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American male journalists American male non-fiction writers American war correspondents of World War II {{US-journalist-1910s-stub