Customer Reviews

D-Day in the Pacific - By: David Roy, 20 Feb 2006
One aspect of World War II that hasn't received a lot of press lately (if at all) is the campaign to re-take the Marianas island group by US Marinesin June-August, 1944. It was a bit overshadowed by a rather large invasion taking placein Europe (France, I think), butin its own way, this series of island invasions broke open the Pacific war as much as the Normandy invasions did the European. Victor Brooks writes about this campaignin Hell is Upon Us: D-Dayin the Pacific, & does a very good job with it too. Judging from other books on his resume, Brooks has a wide range of interests, with books on Normandy as well as many books on the U.S. Civil War. This is the first on the Pacific however. Only a few writing idiosyncrasies bring down what is, for the most part, a wonderful book.

Brooks begins with how the plan was developed & agreed upon, as well as the various other plans that were taken into account until the Marianas plan was finally confirmed. He details all of thisin the first few chapters, giving an overview of the planning as well as the forces available to both sides. He doesn't neglect the Japanese side, giving the reader much valuable information about the planning & thought processes behind the Japanese defense, how they were willing to give up certain islands with only token resistance yet there were others that were vital to Japanese interests. Brooks devotes a chapter to the prelude to the Marianas campaign: the re-taking of the Aleutian islands off the coast of Alaska & the Marshall islands as well. These are important because, left on their own, they would present a dagger poisedin the side of any thrust through the Central Pacific. Thankfully, Brooks doesn't gloss over these campaigns, but he also doesn't dwell on them too much.

The meat of the book is the invasions of three islands: Saipan, Tinian, & Guam. Brooks gives us an in-depth study of these attacks, with how the Japanese were arrayed, how the Marines would land & where, & the vicious fighting between the two adversaries as they struggled for over cliffs & into caves, as well as some street fightingin the few cities that were on these islands. The American commanders always kept the carnage of Tarawain the backs of their minds, & were definitely influenced by it. Brooks' prose is clear & relatively simple, making this an ideal book for those with an interestin military history without necessarily having the background. It's definitely not dry. Each chapter that begins one of the invasions has a fairly detailed map of the islandin question, so anybody who wishes to can track the progress of the assaults as Brooks describes them. I'm glad that, unlike some history books, the maps are not all stuck at the beginning (or end) of the book. This format makes it a lot easier to follow.

The prose, while being quite easy to read, failsin some places. Brooks repeats quite a few details unnecessarily, especially when he just gave such details a few pages ago. He mentions twice how Admiral Nagumo wasin charge of the carrier assault force on Pearl Harbor & how he was the darling of Japan, but then fell from grace after the battle of Midway. He constantly compares the relationship between King & Admiral Nimitz to the relationship between Grant & Sherman & that between Lee & Jacksonin the Civil War. In fact, he often references the Civil Warin ways that I don't understand the purpose. He says that one man was born a few years after the Civil War ended rather than just giving the date by itself. These little annoyances pop up all over the book & started to get on my nerves, a problem when I'm enjoying the information that Brooks is presenting. The editing is also shoddy, with words misspelledin a lot of places (the battle of Antietam being spelled "Antirtim" at one point).

As I said, this is Brooks' first book on the Pacific War, & thus I found interesting his surprise at the numerous Banzai charges that the Japanese used, as statedin the Afterward. While the Japanese troops were going to be overwhelmed because they could not be reinforced, they could still exact a heavy toll on the Americans. However, inevitably on the first night of each invasion, Japanese commanders would send their troops on suicidal rushes of the American lines, with the intent of throwing them into the sea. Thus, huge numbers of defenders would be dead on the first night with relatively few casualties caused to the Americans. I was familiar with all of this, but it took reading about themin quick succession as I didin Hell is Upon Us to really drive home the fact that this happened so often. It may have been the "honourable" thing to do as far as they were concerned, but militarily it was a disaster.

Hell is Upon Us is definitely worth a read for anybody with an interestin the Pacific campaign. It even gives a good overview of what is commonly known as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot," the last big carrier-vs-carrier battle that effectively wiped out the Japanese naval air fleet. The book is well-researched (though there are few notes) & Brooks makes the whole thing interesting. Just ignore some of the weird writing & find yourself becoming better informed.

David Roy