Since childhood, I have been fascinated by accounts of the Second World War, particularly the war in the Pacific Theater. Perhaps because I had an uncle and a step-father (Bronze Star awarded for bravery) who fought in that theater. I joined the U.S. Navy in 1958 and traveled in the USS Bennington, CVS 20, too many of the islands captured by the Japanese in blood-soaked battles–Pearl Harbor, Guam, Okinawa, Midway, and the Philippines. Further, I was stationed at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan for twenty months, which allowed me to look into World War II history from the other side.
I wrote...
Gunner Hobbs: WWII in the Pacific! Tulagi! Tarawa! Saipan!
A WWII novel about a young Gunner's Mate, Max Hobbs, serving on a troop transport in the Pacific Theater. Hobbs is a man with exceptional eyesight who earns a sniper designation in Gunner's Mate school. When he graduates, he is assigned to a troop carrier, an APA, in San Diego and eventually takes part in the Battle of Tulagi, the Battle of Tarawa, and the Battle of Saipan.
Normally, sailors don't fight on the ground with the Marines, but once his landing craft is shot out from under him on the reef at Tarawa, Gunner has no choice. From that point forward, Hobbs is in the midst of one of the great bloodlettings of the Pacific War.
I really enjoyed this book by Rich Rostron for several reasons: I am an enthusiastic reader of World War II historical fiction set in the Pacific Theater.
I loved the format of an old veteran telling his great-grandson the story of the battle. I also really liked the way the author wove the war story into the teenager’s (Kyle) need to learn how to deal with a bully at school.
WWII Naval Combat explodes from the pages of The Burning Sea of Iron Bottom Bay as a US Navy veteran shares his experiences with his great-grandson and the reader. Culminating in one of the most chaotic and destructive naval battles in history, this book tells the story of a Friday the 13th struggle, on a pitch-black night in the waters north of Guadalcanal, that tests the metal of man and machine.
The battle represents a desperate throw of the dice by Admiral Halsey that results in a confrontation where the US Navy is David to the Imperial Japanese Navy's Goliath.…
I have read several books about the special units of soldiers, Marines, and sailors in the Second World War, and this book is at the top of those accounts.
I particularly liked the way author Bruce E. Meyers, an experienced Marine officer, tells the story of the Recon Marines from their beginnings in World War II to today’s silent warriors. I had a hard time putting this book down.
An experienced reconnaissance Marine officer, Bruce Meyers paints a colorful and accurate picture of the special recon landings that preceded every major amphibious operation in the Pacific War. Credited with saving countless lives, these Marine scouts went in stealthily at night from submarines, PT boats, Catalinas, and high-speed transports. Swift, silent, and deadly, they landed on more than two hundred enemy beaches, from Tarawa to Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa to collect intelligence on potential landing sites. They measured water depths, charted coral heads, gathered soil samples, sought out enemy locations, and took photographs. In short, they obtained information vital…
I was and am fascinated by accounts of the Battle of Tarawa. As James Dwyer’s book relates, the battle was a brutal series of Navy and Marine mistakes by the attack leaders from day one.
I particularly like the way he uses the fictional voices of Marines and Japanese Rikosentia (basically Japanese Marines) to tell the story of the terrible battle with its ‘horrific’ casualty rates on both sides.
Before the historic battle for Iwo Jima was fought...there was Tarawa!!! Experience the incredible horrors and the distinguished heroism of the battle for Tarawa with a platoon of marines who must fight their way ashore and then battle the Japanese defenders in their hidden bunkers and foxholes! The hellacious fighting for this tiny island took place in November of 1943 and the legendary battle went on for three and a half days between the elite Japanese Rikosentai who refused to give up...and the marines of the Second Division...who refused to stop. When this bare-knuckled brawl was finally over, four Medals…
I really liked the unique way that author George Feifer approached this final land battle of World War II. I was very interested in how he began the book by using individual American and Japanese recruits as the focal point, even detailing the training they went through.
Not only has he written a complete story of the battle, but he also has included a detailed account of the sinking of the mighty Japanese battleship–Yamato. I doubt if there is a better account of the sinking of Japan’s last hope for a naval victory in print.
Plus, Feifer includes in his work the tragedy of the native non-combatant Okinawans–over one hundred thousand of them perished in the battle. The author gives a wide overview of the entire contest, which is the best I’ve seen.
More people perished during the battle of Okinawa than in the ensuing bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The Battle of Okinawa offers a stunning account of the last major campaign of World War II and the largest land-sea-air engagement in history. Superbly researched and extraordinarily detailed, this masterpiece of military history is told at the level of the participants themselves, soldiers and civilians alike. In examining the disastrous collision of three disparate cultures-American, Japanese, and Okinawan-this book provides an unforgettable picture of men at war and also the context for understanding one of the most ominous events of this…
I am very pleased with the way author Andrew Rawson begins this book by describing the commanding officers on both sides, and then the weapons the Marines and Japanese soldiers used in the battle. This makes the later descriptions of actual combat more realistic.
Another aspect of this book that I liked was Rawson’s account of the tactics planned and used on both sides. His accounts of individual Marines' exploits and decorations are excellent and detailed.
The author ends his book with a short synopsis of the Battle of Okinawa and the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. This is a book I will read again.
Operation Detachment, the US invasion of Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, was the first campaign on Japanese soil and resulted in some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific. If you truly want to understand what happened and why - read Battle Story. Detailed profiles explore the leaders, tactics and equipment of the US and Japanese armies. Nine specially commissioned maps track the progress of the battle and the shifting frontlines. Rare photographs place you in the centre of the unfolding action. Diary extracts and quotes give you a soldier's eye-view of the battle. Orders of Battle reveal the…
Benghazi: A New History is a look back at the enigmatic 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, its long-tail causes, and devastating (and largely unexamined) consequences for US domestic politics and foreign policy. It contains information not found elsewhere, and is backed up by 40 pages of citations and interviews with more than 250 key protagonists, experts, and witnesses.
So far, the book is the main -- and only -- antidote to a slew of early partisan “Benghazi” polemics, and the first to put the attack in its longer term historical, political, and social context. If you want to understand some of the events that have shaped present-day America, from political polarization and the election of Donald Trump, to January 6, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russian expansionism, and the current Israel-Hamas war, I argue, you need to understand some of the twists and turns of America's most infamous "non-scandal, scandal.”
I was in Benghazi well before, during, and after the attack as a US diplomat and co-director of a medical NGO. I have written three books, and have been a contributor to The NYT, Foreign Affairs, Forbes, Salon, The Financial Times, Newsweek, and others.
On September 11, 2012, Al Qaeda proxies attacked and set fire to the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, killing a US Ambassador and three other Americans. The attack launched one of the longest and most consequential 'scandals' in US history, only to disappear from public view once its political value was spent.
Written in a highly engaging narrative style by one of a few Western experts on Libya, and decidely non-partisan, Benghazi!: A New History is the first to provide the full context for an event that divided, incited, and baffled most of America for more than three years, while silently reshaping…
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