I have read any number of histories of the Second World War and of the war in the Pacific. One of the reasons I keep plowing over this same field is that new information keeps coming to light, new interpretations are put to well established facts. Some of this new or re-interpretation twists my skivvies into a knot, but, as I’ve mentioned before, readers of history should keep their noses open to detect the smell of a writer’s pants burning, or not.
I just completed “The Fleet at Flood Tide, America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945,” by Hornfischer. I appreciated the author’s preface as much as I did the text. He gives a nice treatment, I thought, to moral questions warriors face. He offered no judgement, and thank you, no sops to the purveyors of political correctness, but just laid out the questions. In the text, he describes how various individuals in positions of authority dealt with those moral questions.
Furthermore, it gives a great treatment of amphibious ops.
Darned good book.
I just completed “The Fleet at Flood Tide, America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945,” by Hornfischer. I appreciated the author’s preface as much as I did the text. He gives a nice treatment, I thought, to moral questions warriors face. He offered no judgement, and thank you, no sops to the purveyors of political correctness, but just laid out the questions. In the text, he describes how various individuals in positions of authority dealt with those moral questions.
Furthermore, it gives a great treatment of amphibious ops.
Darned good book.