| The Fleet At Flood Tide - America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945 (2016) |
| Front Cover | Book Details | ||||||||||||
|
|
| Description |
| Timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, here is an unprecedented account of the extraordinary World War II air, land, and sea campaign that brought the U.S. Navy to the apex of its strength and marked the rise of the United States as a global superpower. Drawing on new primary sources and personal accounts by Americans and Japanese alike, The Fleet at Flood Tide is a thrilling narrative of the climactic end stage of the Pacific War, focusing on the U.S. invasion of the Mariana Islands in June 1944 and the momentous events that it produced. With its thunderous assault into Japan's inner defensive perimeter, America crossed the threshold of total war. From the seaborne invasion of Saipan to the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, from the largest banzai attack of the war to the first mass suicides of Japanese civilians to the strategic bombing effort that culminated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Marianas became the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender--with consequences that forever changed modern war. These unprecedented operations saw the first large-scale use of Navy underwater demolition teams; a revolution in the fleet's ability to sustain cross-hemispheric expeditionary warfare; the struggle of American troops facing not only a suicidal enemy garrison, but desperate Japanese civilians; and the rise of the U.S. Navy as the greatest of grand fleets. From the Marianas, B-29 Superfortresses would finally unleash nuclear fire on an enemy resolved to fight to the end. Hornfischer casts this clash of nations and cultures with cinematic scope and penetrating insight. Focusing closely on people who rose to challenging events, he shows us Raymond Spruance, the brilliant, coolly calculating commander of the Fifth Fleet; Kelly Turner, whose amphibious forces delivered Marine General "Howlin' Mad" Smith's troops to the beaches of Saipan and Tinian; Draper Kauffman, founder of the Navy unit that predated today's SEALs; Paul Tibbets, the creator of history's first atomic striking force, who flew the Enola Gay to Hiroshima; and Japanese warriors and civilians who saw the specter of defeat as the ultimate test of the spirit. From the seas of the Central Pacific to the shores of Japan itself, The Fleet at Flood Tide is a stirring and deeply humane account of World War II's world-changing finale. |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes/Review |
| Books about combat exist on a spectrum of deeply personal narrative on one end and impersonal campaign histories on the other. I tend to prefer reading about the personal. Although Hornfischer's books are not personal narratives, they are generally limited in scope such that they can be effectively told at the personal level. That is, it may not be Fred telling us his own story, but Hornfischer using Fred's words and Bill's words and John's words to tell the story of a battle. This book, as the subtitle indicates, is on a grander scale. It implies, or it implied to me, that it would be telling multiple campaigns covering the last third of the war. A conclusion I drew from that implication was that this book would tell very few personal stories. As they say, "you can't tell a book by its cover." This is not the story of the entire last third of the war in the Pacific. The hint is in the Prologue, where we are introduced to Paul Tibbets. This book covers the campaign to conquer the Marianas islands: Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. Tinian, of course, served as the major base for B-29 operations against the Japanese mainland. And, specifically, where Tibbets was based for his "special" mission to Hiroshima. Hornfischer does a masterful job. The action is clearly laid out, illustrated by excellent maps, and comprised to a great degree of the stories of individuals. Along the way, we get the germ of the Navy Seals, the story of Paul Tibbets (who was much more than just the pilot of the Enola Gay), a great analysis of the expected difficulties in an invasion of the Japanese homeland, and a couple of dozen very vivid personal stories. Includes endnotes, excellent maps, photographs, and a copious bibliography. Highly recommended. |