Pacific war book

[tecumseh]

Many years ago I got good advice from this forum on books, so...

I’m looking for a book/books on the pacific war, and I was hoping someone could recommend one for me.

I’d like it to be in the same style as Erickson’s Road to Stalingrad and Road to Berlin – strategic and operational level, sensible writing without hyperbole, lots on the Japanese side of things.

OR operational/tactical stuff in the style of Glantz - detailed, factual, dispassionate.

Clinical strategy grog stuff rather than gung-ho popular history that “recreates” the events.

Any suggestions?

[Runyan99]

Eagle against the Sun

[orwell]

While not specifically what you might be looking for, you may want to consider "And I was there" by Edwin Layton who served during the war. It gives a really nice look into the bureaucracy of the military and the setting up of military intelligence, and until the battle turned, shortly after midway, extensive views into the operations and what could have went wrong and what went right. After that it still gives fairly good details I thought on the battles and how they were carried out, though I can't say they are as indepth as perhap what you're looking for.

For me where the war seems nearly as distant as the Roman empire, it brings a really human view into the whole operation that I could connect with rarely found in other books I've read. However I would not say it's clinically grog stuff, just written by a guy who served in it about the intelligence angle of the war. If nothing else, a new copy is a mere $16 bucks and I'm sure you could find a used on something like abe for as much as you'd pay in shipping, if not less.

[Michael Emrys]

If you can find a copy of Morison's History of US Naval Operations in World War II, that would put you well on the road you want to go down. It covers ops outside the Pacific too, so you might want to skip those volumes for now. You can probably find a copy through your local library if all else fails, but by all means avoid the single volume condensation as it is relatively worthless.

There still isn't a whole lot available on the war from the Japanese side in English, although some things are starting to turn up that cover specific actions.

Michael

[Sgt Joch]

If you can find a copy of Morison's History of US Naval Operations in World War II, that would put you well on the road you want to go down. It covers ops outside the Pacific too, so you might want to skip those volumes for now. You can probably find a copy through your local library if all else fails, but by all means avoid the single volume condensation as it is relatively worthless.

There still isn't a whole lot available on the war from the Japanese side in English, although some things are starting to turn up that cover specific actions.

Michael

I have the full 15 volume set and it is very good since the U.S navy was involved in almost all operations of the pacific war. It also covers in detail all aspects of every amphibious landing done by the U.S navy. Of course, the focus is on the naval war, land operations and the british side are skimmed over.

Its big advantage is the immediacy since Morison and his team actually covered the war while it was going on and had access to most of the participants. For example, on august 8-9, 1942, the U.S. navy suffered a major defeat in the battle of Savo Island just off Guadalcanal, when they were ambushed by a IJN task force. Within weeks, Morison's team were interviewing survivors on the Allied side for their version of the events and after the war he travelled to Tokyo to interview the japanese admiral Mikawa for his recollections.

Another very good book about the naval war in the pacific is Clay Blair's Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan which covers in great detail U.S. submarine operations in the Pacific.

[tecumseh]

Thank you, a great start.

[JonS]

I'm not a great fan of Max Hastings, but his recent book on the Pacific War might suit your request for a useful single volume strategic overview?

[Michael Emrys]

I'm not a great fan of Max Hastings, but his recent book on the Pacific War might suit your request for a useful single volume strategic overview?

I haven't read it yet, but I've heard bad things about it. So far, the running consensus is that Robert Frank's Downfall is much better. I have read that book and found it hard to beat. And although nothing is forever in the field of history, I am doubtful that Hastings has managed to pull it off.

Michael

[JonS]

I haven't read it yet, but I've heard bad things about it. So far, the running consensus is that Robert Frank's Downfall is much better. I have read that book and found it hard to beat. And although nothing is forever in the field of history, I am doubtful that Hastings has managed to pull it off.

Oh, ok. I wasn't really planning to read it myself anyway, but Hastings' books are at the least usually an easy read. What was the old standard work ... "Touched with (by?) Fire"? Any thoughts on that one?

[DBaron]

Oh, ok. I wasn't really planning to read it myself anyway, but Hastings' books are at the least usually an easy read. What was the old standard work ... "Touched with (by?) Fire"? Any thoughts on that one?

Are you referring to "Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific " by Eric Bergerud?

[JonS]

Probably.

[space filler]

[REVS]

Just finished Hastings' book and it's everything that Tecumseh doesn't want, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hastings is more a journalist than an historian, but I think a very good journo. So you get the benefits of some great research into what all levels and types of people went through: civilians, infantrymen, flyers, staff officers, POWs, etc. And he has added a heap of research about the Japanese side, both civilian and military.

It's a bit light on if you're looking for an operational book, but I wasn't in the market for an operational book. I wanted exactly the kind of overview that Hastings gives.

Hastings obsessively derides Macarthur, so all Macarthur fans would pan the book completely. Hastings also bashes the daylights out of everything Australian, up to a point, and so lots of Aussies don't like his book. The Japanese are still in denial, so they won't like it. And Hastings is an incorrigible conservative so all of those on the left won't like it, either. And it's not so much a military history as a story of the war as it affected everyone caught up in it. So the Grogs won't like it, either.

Fortunately I am only one of the above (ie, Aussie) and I liked it, as a well-researched, well-told, well-written read.

[Michael Emrys]

BTW, I read Hastings' book on the end of the war in Europe and didn't like it either. Seemed to me that it had a lot of important errors, but it's been a few years and I don't recall specifics.

Michael

[Redwolf]

"Fortnight of Infamy - the collapse of allied airpower west of pearl harbor" is a great read, too. First two weeks of the pacific war.

[Blackhorse]

Although this book doesn't fit the mold of the books for which you request recommendations, no reading lists on the war in the Pacific should be complete without including EB Sledge's With the Old Breed

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Breed-At-Peleliu-Okinawa/dp/0891419195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243076610&sr=8-1

[ebitt]

Eagle Against the Sun is good, but you need to back it up with an atlas as it has no maps. I use the West Point Atlas For the Second World War Asia and the Pacific. Both books are usually pretty inexpensive in used book stores.

[Sixxkiller]

Sgt Joch's recommendation (History of US Naval Operations in World War II) is a great one. I only got to read 13 or 14 volumes of the 15 in the Pepperdine library and I couldnt wait for the library to open each day so i could read some more of it. I didnt have the wife who was a student check them out cause I would be too tempted to "lose" it.

S.E. Morrison was also the official Naval Historian and not a bad writer. Great OOB's and he even covers the smaller battles. I really liked the Liberation of the Philippines.

[tecumseh]

Eagle against the Sun

I grabbed this today ... and then realised I'd actually grabbed the wrong book. I got Eagle and the Rising Sun by Alan Schom instead. Not a good start

Also got Guadalcanal by Richard B. Frank.

[Michael Emrys]

Sgt Joch's recommendation (History of US Naval Operations in World War II) is a great one.

You're welcome.

Michael

[Michael Emrys]

Also got Guadalcanal by Richard B. Frank.

That's pretty good. Another book that I would recommend is The First Team by John B. Lundstrom. It's not a general history of the Pacific war, but it is so near the ideal of how a campaign should be written up that it should be on the reading list of anyone seriously interested that period. He also wrote one on the air battles around Guadalcanal that is if anything even better.

Michael