Pacific Crucible: War In The Pacific 1941 - 1943"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. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative. This dramatic narrative, relying predominantly on eyewitness accounts and primary sources, is laced with riveting details of heroism and sacrifice on the stricken ships and planes of both navies. At the war's outset, Japan's pilots and planes enjoyed a clear-cut superiority to their American counterparts, but there was a price to be paid. Japanese pilots endured a lengthy and grueling training in which they were disciplined with baseball bats, often suffering broken bones; and the production line of the Zero-- Japan's superbly maneuverable fighter plane--ended not at a highway or railhead but at a rice paddy, through which the planes were then hauled on ox carts. Combat losses, of either pilots or planes, could not be replaced in time to match the fully mobilized American war machine. Pacific Crucible also spotlights recent scholarship that revises our understanding of the conflict, including the Japanese decision to provoke a war that few in their highest circles thought they could win. Those doubters included the flamboyantly brilliant Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto, architect of the raid on Pearl and the Midway offensive."--Publisher's website. |
Contents
List of Maps | xi |
The Pacific 1942 2 | 2 |
Chapter One 7 | 7 |
Mahans WorstCase Scenario 11 | 11 |
Chapter Two | 34 |
December 10 1941 | 56 |
Chapter Three | 63 |
Principal Ports and Naval Bases of Japan | 121 |
Chapter Eight | 269 |
April 18 1942 | 297 |
Chapter Nine | 302 |
Japanese Plan to Take Port Moresby | 321 |
Chapter Ten | 323 |
May 14 1942 | 331 |
May 78 1942 | 357 |
Chapter Eleven | 373 |
Chapter Four | 124 |
December 11 1941 | 144 |
Chapter Five | 161 |
U S Australian Lifeline 1942 | 183 |
Chapter Six | 199 |
February 1 1942 | 218 |
Chapter Seven | 233 |
JanuaryFebruary 1942 | 253 |
Chapter Twelve | 403 |
Advance on Midway and Aleutians May 24 | 407 |
Track Charts June 4 1942 | 451 |
Epilogue | 471 |
acknowledgments | 493 |
543 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Admiral air attack air group aircrews airfield airplanes Allied altitude American carriers antiaircraft army aviators battle Battle of Midway battleships bombers bombs British Captain chief Churchill CINCPAC civilian Coral Sea crew cruisers damage December destroyers dive dive-bombers east enemy engines Enterprise F4F Wildcats feet fighters fire Fletcher flew flight deck Ford Island fuel guns Halsey hangar deck heavy Hirohito Hornet Ibid invasion island Japa Japan Japanese carriers Japanese fleet Japanese navy Kido Butai King land later launch Layton Lexington Marshall Midway miles military Moresby morning Nagumo’s naval navy’s night Nimitz Oahu officers operations ordered Pacific Pearl Harbor pilots port Port Moresby president radio raid recalled Rochefort Roosevelt sailors SBDs ship’s ships Shoho Shokaku smoke Spruance squadron staff strike submarine target task force Task Force 16 tion Tokyo torpedo planes troops turned U.S. Navy Ugaki United Wake Washington Wildcats wrote Yamamoto Yorktown Zeros