I’m looking for some recommendations of a few books on the Pacific Theater of World War II. I know a bit about the big stuff but I am looking more for books about the early Pacific, esp before Midway, and in the other hotspots like China. In other words covering topics beyond Pearl Harbor-Coral Sea-Midway-Island Hopping-Hiroshima.
Same goes for the North African theater, I have Rick Atkinson’s An Army At Dawn but that thing is huge and I have yet to tackle it.
For dissidents who want to see the traditional narrative of WWII given the Hiroshima treatment the number one book would be Day of Deceit by Robert Stinnett: although a small number of older books, such as Percy Greaves’ Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy, made well the case for FDR’s provocation of the Japanese, foreknowledge of their attack (by having broken their diplomatic code), and use of the attack as a pretext to enter the war, Stinnett was the first to get access to the archival documents, via FOIA requests, proving it beyond a doubt. Another good title is Back Door to War by Charles Tansill (that one any search will show you how to download for free). Bottom line: FDR wanted to enter the war like hell and tried first provoking the Germans numerous times but they wouldn’t take the bait, so he tried the Japanese and finally succeeded.
Good titles all. It is imperative that revisionist history (especially regarding WW2) be read in order to put all of the mainstream court historian/military groupie pulp into perspective.
The flag-waving pud-whackers that revel in reading the feel-good crap find it impossible to acknowledge that their Jew.S.A. political and military idols committed more war crimes than the ‘enemies’ they pointed their fat little fingers at.
Murkans are finding out now just what the ‘greatest generation’ really left them!
Downloaded the first two, they sound excellent!
Shattered Sword
Helmet for my Pillow
With the Old Breed
If you want to explore how the US took the war to Japan after Pearl Harbor, check out books on the submarine war in the Pacific. The US submarine force, despite faulty torpedoes, inflicted major losses and damage to the Japanese merchant fleet and the Imperial Navy.
Multiple Medal of Honor winners in the Pacific sub service during WW2.
They never really got their due because the US didn’t want to publicly own up to its unrestricted submarine warfare and the consequences thereof. But it was brutally effective.
I was reading something the other day about Japanese sailors that ended up in the water after their ships sank before strafed by machine guns. We weren’t quite as noble as we like to think.
Neptune’ s Inferno – Hornfischer
Strong Men Armed – Leckie
As for North Africa, I have always wanted to acquire a hardback copy of Moorehead’s “The Desert War”, but the prices for this (hardback) are somewhat prohibitive these days, though the kindle looks reasonably priced.
Thanks for all you do.
“With the Old Breed”
Seeing multiple recommendations for that, also was part of the inspiration for HBOs The Pacific which I was watching earlier today
U S Air Force Pilot and historian Walter Boyne has written numerous books. Two good ones that look at the Air War and Naval campaigns are:
“A Clash of Wings” and “A Clash of Titans”
Tower of Skulls, Volume I : July 1937-May 1942, by Richard B Frank.
Richard Frank is one of the foremost historians of WWII in the Pacific. Among his works is his landmark ‘Guadalcanal’, which to this day is considered to be the definitive account of that epic campaign.
Unlike most WWII historians, Frank correctly considers the war to have begun in 1937 when the Japanese invaded China, causing millions of deaths some four and a half years before most Americans even knew there was a war in the Asia Pacific theatre.
And unlike most historians, Frank himself is a combat veteran, having been commander of a rifle company in the 101st Airborne in the Vietnam war.
https://www.ptdeutermann.com/books.php
Fiction … however, very readable and historically detailed.
I read quite about about it, but all the stuff I ever read about it was many years ago so I realize now that it was all approved propaganda-drivel, hence I can’t make any recommendations.
Don’t feel bad, I consumed all the W.E.B. Griffin books as a younger, dumber, voracious reader.
Now I do stuff outside as much as possible. Thinking that maybe drying out as much Amanita mushroom (fly agaric, Super Mario “poisonous, hallucinogenic and edible) so I can kill all the flies after sanitation systems fail.
I’ve had a deep interest in WWII since I was a kid, and have a few bookshelves full. Here’s a list that you might find helpful;
The United States Navy in World War II by S.E. Smith
The United States Marine Corps in World War II Volumes 1-3 by S.E. Smith
Aces Against Japan Volumes 1&2 by Eric Hammel
Aces Against Germany Volumes 1&2 by Eric Hammell
The G.I.’s War by Edwin P. Hoyt
Strong Men Armed by Robert Leckie
Shots Fired in Anger by John B. George
These are some of my favorites, though it’s mostly focused toward the Pacific.
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.
Deals with the exploits of Taffy 3 in the battle off Samar.
Fantastic read about the courage of sailors facing certain death in a Navy before trannies and ships running into each other. Courage that brought a Japanese Captain to salute them.
In addition to Xzebec’s recommendation of the truly excellent ‘Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors’, James Hornfischer (sadly now deceased) also wrote a superb book entitled ‘Neptune’s Inferno’. This book details the SEVEN major naval battles that took place in the waters around Guadalcanal between the US Navy and the IJN in the latter months of 1942.
Most people think of Guadalcanal as a Marine Corps endeavor, which of course it was. But for every US Marine who died on Guadalcanal, THREE US Navy sailors also died in those waters. Hornfischer’s narrative of these battles is so well done, it reads like a gripping action novel that makes it almost impossible to put it down once you start reading it.
if i may suggest you contact:
https://hmstypicallydefiant.blogspot.com/
virtualmirage.org
oldnfo.com
i am new here, but this article/comments alone, show me you are now a daily read!
JDLC
also, others i have found useful, in case some do not know of them:
archive.org
the gutenberg project
librivox ( i use their app)
G-d’s best!
Not *exactly* what you asked for, but it addresses the same need for information on the Pacific War: There’s a channel on Youtube called the “Unauthorized History of the Pacific War Podcast” in which the hosts (historian Seth Paridon and retired US Navy CAPT (and former SSN skipper) Bill Toti) have a free-ranging discussion of the various battles, starting at the beginning of the war. They drop a new video every Tuesday morning, and I think at the moment they’re into 1943 (post-Coral Sea / Midway / Guadalcanal / Tarawa). At this point in the war, the new Essex-class fleet carriers are starting to be deployed, with the F6F Hellcats and TBF Avengers taking the field in place of the earlier F4F Wildcats and TBD Devastators, and the Navy/Marines/Army have learned some of the hard lessons of amphibious warfare.
They frequently have guests (historians or retired naval officers) to provide additional perspective, and if I remember correctly one of their guests was the author of Shattered Sword.
They devoted an entire episode to the US Navy’s execrable torpedo performance, caused by design flaws that came about due to the equally execrable US Navy weapons acquisition bureaucracy at the time. Another entire episode (out of time sequence) covered the *deep* background into why the use of the atomic bombs was the best of a lot of lousy options. Yet another episode was all about *how* the US fleet subs operated, basically “Submarining 101”.
I’ve found their podcast to be enlightening.
See @UnauthorizedHistoryPacificWar
I would highly recommend all of Ian Toll’s books, he is a naval historian of the highest order. Six Frigates is an awesome story about the birth of the U.S. Navy. His Pacific War Trilogy, is a detailed chronological study of the Pacific Campaign starting with the first book, Pacific Crucible. I am currently on the second book, The Conquering Tide. I see that Hornfischer has already been mentioned and in addition to The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Neptune’s Inferno I would recommend his latest, The Fleet at Flood Tide which chronicles the last two years of the war, namely the fight for Tinian, Guam and Saipan, Iwo Jima and then Okinawa.