Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.31 (674 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0393068137 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 640 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-12-31 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
. He lives in San Francisco and New York. Ian W. Toll is the author of Pacific Crucible and Six Frigates, winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award and the William E. Colby Award
From Defeat to Victory in Six Months -- The U.S. Navy's Indispensable Contribution to the Outcome of World War II Having thoroughly enjoyed Ian Toll's history of the founding of the U.S. Navy in Six Frigates, I was looking forward to his history of its glory days in the Pacific during WWII. I was not disappointed. Pacific Crucible is a fine account of the crucial six months between Pearl Harbor and Midway.The events and much of the material Toll uses to describe them will be familiar to students of the period. What makes Toll's book such a pleasurable read is the quality of his narrative style and his superb judgment in deciding which items to include and how to arrange them. His perceptive prologue and his portraits of. "The "Pacific Crucible" -Engrossing" according to James Michael Brown. Ian W Toll has done it again. It has been years since I read his first book, "Six Frigates" so when I saw that he was releasing another book on naval history, I was more than excited.The "Pacific Crucible" starts out with a brilliant account of the Mahan tactics,which helps establish his point of how a sailor from the 1850's would be more accustomed to the life aboard a ship in the 1600's than in the 1900's. This is continued by the detailed descriptions of the political situations that developed the conflict on both fronts. The, Toll delves into a graphic and violent account of the day that has lived in inf. "Terrific Read!" according to Gary J. Cowen. This book is one terrific read. As someone who has a deep interest in WW2 history, I try to read as many books on the subject as I can. The book is filled with new information and detail I was unaware of. For example, the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor is very well done. Descriptions of sailors and marines covered with fuel oil that was almost impossible to remove even with gasoline baths, the fear of the civilian population just after the attack, the difficulty of seaplanes to take off in water fouled with fuel oil(one of the pilots was a future CNO)and graphic descriptions of the injuries and burn
The planning, the strategy, the sacrifices and heroicson both sidesilluminating the greatest naval war in history. On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Relying predominantly on eyewitness accounts and primary sources, Pacific Crucible also spotlights recent scholarship that has revised our understanding of the conflict, including the Japanese decision to provoke a war that few in the country's highest circles thought they could win. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. 24 pages of black-and-white illustrations and 12 maps. Ian W. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative. Toll's dramatic narrative encompasses both the high command and the "sailor's-eye" view from the lower deck. The result is a page-turning
“An entertaining, impressively researched chronicle of the tense period between the bombing of Pearl Harbor and American victory at the battle of Midway.” (Kirkus)“The research is thorough, the writing clear, and the narrative flow exemplaryit is difficult to think of a recent book on this subject that is of such consistently outstanding value.” (Booklist)“Well documentedalbeit from previously published materialsand well written. Experienced World War II history buffs may bypass if they feel no need to read another retelling of this phase of the Pacific War, but