Pacific War book list
This is a small grouping of books that I think are especially good on the Pacific War, with emphasis given to the earlier part of the conflict. I tried to include books I had read lately and ones that have no glaring errors. I don't claim this is particularly "well-balanced" (I think I was "short" on books involving the U.S. Army, but I tried to keep the list to a reasonable length. Most have been written in the last 20 years or so, although I included a few "classics" as well. I could easily double or triple the list, but, like I said, wanted to keep it to manageable limits.
1. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. By Gordon Prange. Probably the “yardstick†by which all books on Pearl Harbor are measured. Some of his sources have been questioned in recent years, but still, at nearly 900 pages, a classic
2. Day of Infamy by Walter Lord. Although this book has passed the half-century mark since it was published, still a classic. It was written in 1957, when most participants were still alive and in the prime of life. A “you are there†feel.
3. Resurrection: Salvaging the Battle Fleet at Pearl Harbor by Daniel Madsen. A very detailed look at the repairs and raising of the ships sunk and damaged at Pearl Harbor.
4. Descent into Darkness: Pearl Harbor, 1941. By Edward Raymer. Raymer was one of the salvage divers who worked at Pearl Harbor for the first year or so.
5. Bataan: Our Last Ditch by John Whitman. A complete telling of the military story of the defense of Bataan with some modern research. Quite a bit of “gun†details included.
6. Doomed at the Start: American Pursuit Pilots in the Philippines, 1941-42. By William Bartsch. Bartsch did a tremendous amount of research and talked with nearly every surviving fighter pilot. A companion book, December 8, 1941: MacArthur’s Pearl Harbor, covers the bombers in the Philippines, especially the events of Dec. 8, 1941.
7. Bataan: The March of Death. By Stanley Falk. There have been bales of books, mostly personal accounts, but for my money, still the most accurate, unbiased account, even though 50 years old.
7. The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway. By John Lundstrom. Lundstrom covers nearly every naval air engagement of the first six months of war in the Pacific, almost plane-by-plane.
8. The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign. By John Lundstrom. A sequel to the book above, covering naval air combat through the end of 1942.
9. The Battle of Midway by Craig Symonds. Written just recently, Symonds has uncovered numerous new facts about the battle.
10. Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully. A detailed story of the Japanese side of the battle – so many new discoveries that there is a special section on “mythsâ€.
11. Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle by Richard Frank. The subtitle sounds a little boastful, but the book really does cover on an almost day-by-day basis, the story of this battle on land, air and the sea.
12. Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James Hornfischer. Just out a year ago or so.
13. Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa, by Joseph Alexander. Tarawa was the Marines’ version of Omaha Beach (or vice-versa). Also recommended is Alexander’s Storm: Epic Amphibious Battles in the Central Pacific.
14. With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge. Considered one of the classic personal stories of the Pacific War. Sledge fought as a young Marine at Peleliu and Okinawa.
15. The Battle of Leyte Gulf: October 23-26 October, 1944. By Thomas Cutler. Written just a few years ago, this also reflects recent scholarship of history’s biggest sea battle.
16. The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action, by H.P. Willmott. This is not so much a “blow by blow†description, but the study of the leadership of the main figures.
17. The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, by James D. Hornfischer. Up to now, little specifically has been written about the Battle Off Samar, between a handful of U.S. escort carriers and destroyers and the Japanese main force in October, 1944. Excellent.
18. Battle of Surigao Strait by Anthony Tully. A new look at a part of the Leyte Gulf battle most often overlooked.
19. Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45, by Max Hastings. This is a “British look†at the Pacific War – some of it will make you angry and some will inform you.
20. Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, by Richard Frank. Frank covers pretty much the same territory as #19, but from an American perspective.
21. Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-47. By D.M. Giangreco. The author points out that the actual invasion would have been far bloodier than thought. An interesting section on specific units from Europe slated to be sent to the Pacific.
22. Refighting the Pacific War: An Alternative History of World War II. Ed. by Jim Bresnahan. A “roundtable†of Pacific War historians give their opinions on what would have happened had certain battles in the Pacific taken a different turn.
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Originally Posted by Ben Hartley
