Pacific Theatre Reading List

Back in late March 2020 New Zealand went into it’s initial (ultimately 5-week) lockdown to stop the spread of the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of that lockdown I took the opportunity to try and catch up on some reading on the pacific theatre (as I have accumulated a reasonable collection of books and had read only a few) – this is the reading list I put together for April 2020…

KAIGUN and ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR are highly recommended if you want to understand the IJN’s flawed strategical thinking and obsession with ‘big guns’. The latter follows on nicely from the former and busts the myths and post war distortions around Pearl Harbour and shows how incredibly lucky the Japanese were and how they were (in all likelihood) bordering on tactical incompetence. Puts to rest the fake third wave myths and claims like attacking the fuel tank farms would have ‘significantly’ hampered the USN long-term post Pearl Harbour, that midget submarines most certainly DID NOT enter Pearl Harbour and torpedo anything, etc, etc…

SHIP OF GHOSTS is a fantastic history of the USS Houston, and her initial battle against the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies under ABDACOM (at The Battle of the Java Sea) and later her break out attempt along side the light cruiser HMAS Perth and destroyer HNLMS Evertsen, and her final battle in accompaniment with Perth at Bantam Bay, near the north-west tip of Java, against a Japanese invasion force of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla and the 7th Cruiser Division. The Houston went down sailing in circles with all remaining guns firing surrounded by masses of Japanese ships (the Houston & Perth sank 5 ships in total between them and damaged several others). The latter part of the book then follows the fate of the survivors, their privations under Japanese internment, involvement in the Burma railroad (a fate even worse than the Thailand Railroad immortalised in Bridge over the River Kwai), and ultimately salvation for those who survived in 1945.

NEPTUNE’S INFERNO is another excellent James Hornfischer work covering the naval aspects of the Guadalcanal Campaign – there is an excellent summation of the book at GoodReads. Needless to say I consider this an essential bit of reading for Guadalcanal (as this campaign is my favourite, if that is the right work, part of the WW2 Pacific & Far East history to read up on). THE BATTLE OF TASSAFARONGA is a classic history of one of the key battles of Guadalcanal – and always makes you wonder what might have been (especially the U.S. Navy’s blatant bias and unwillingness at the time to admit to Japanese superiority in torpedo design, night fighting skills, etc). Following on from this (and by the same author) SOUTH PACIFIC DESTROYER describes destroyer action first hand in the Solomon Islands & Guadalcanal campaign. JAPANESE DESTROYER CAPTAIN is a great view from the ‘other side’ covering and “the author, Captain Tameichi Hara, was a survivor of more than one hundred sorties against the Allies” including action at Pearl Harbour, Guadalcanal, Midway and ultimately the sinking of the Yamamoto. A world war 2 classic originally published in 1961.

My next selection of books is from the Philippines Campaign and Leyte Gulf, although during the COVID lockdown in April 2020 I did not get around to reading these three so have not completed them as yet: THE BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF is “the last great naval battle of World War II“, and “also is remembered as the biggest naval battle ever fought anywhere, and this book has been called the best account of it ever written“. BATTLE OF SURIGAO STRAIT is considered to provide “a radical reassessment of this important World War II naval battle” which saw the last battleship versus battleship action ever, and LAST STAND OF THE TIN CAN SAILORS is the third James Hornfischer classic in my collection: “on the horizon loomed the mightiest ships of the Japanese navy, a massive fleet… All that stood between it and Douglas MacArthur’s vulnerable invasion force were the [destroyer escort USS Samuel B.] Roberts and the other small ships of a tiny American flotilla poised to charge into history.” Covering the most amazing naval victory of the war, achieved with bluff and bluster and the subsequent Japanese loss of nerve when on the verge of inflicting what might have been a huge defeat for the U.S. forces of General MacArthur and Admiral Halsey at the Battle of Samar.

Two last books I’d like to make mention of, and not in the above reading list, but in my collection awaiting reading in the near future are from the campaigns in Papua and New Guinea: THE GHOST MOUNTAIN BOYS covers the Buna Trail campaign and the American 32nd Infantry Division who suffered 10,000 casualties. On a similar vein from the other side is THE PATH OF INFINITE SORROW which “(for the first time ever), the full Japanese story of Kokoda is told, a poignant tale of comradeship and heartrending suffering …from a range of first hand sources—interviews with survivors, diaries that soldiers left behind, memoirs written after the war, and what’s survived of the records of the Japanese military.” A good companion to the well documented Australian accounts of harsh life and battles along the Kokoda Track.

See also my recent D-DAY NEW GUINEA post for another good book on the Papua & New Guinea campaign(s), another campaign that especially interests me but that I have not read extensively on. Finally for the battle of Midway see my USS Hornet: Mutiny & Mayhem at Midway for book recommendations and an excellent video on the truth about USS Hornet’s air group at Midway.

Hopefully this post will provide some pacific & far east campaign reading inspiration for anyone who has not come across one or more of the above titles as yet – none of these has disappointed, and the few that are yet unread all have very highly rated reviews.