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New Guinea and the Marianas, March 1944-August 1944
History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume 8
by Morison, Samuel Eliot
This installment of the author’s insider history of the U.S. Navy covers five of the most eventful months of the Pacific war, from March through July 1944. Filled with spectacular rescues of downed airmen, bold beach landings, and brilliant though risky strategic gambles, this volume carries Morison's coverage of the war in the Pacific through the Allies' securing of Dutch New Guinea and the Marianas. The three assaults that comprised Operation "Forager"--in which the author participated--add up to one of the most important amphibious operations in history: protracted, bitterly contested and requiring great flexibility as well as fortitude. The development of powerful new weapons and sophisticated new tactics, together with the greatly extended distance of active operations from continental bases, rendered naval operations more vast and more complicated than ever before in history. After nearly two years of bitter and almost continuous fighting, the Allies broke through the Bismarcks Barrier, conquered key Japanese positions in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, and cleared the way for an advance along the New Guinea-Mindanao axis. General MacArthur is intent on his one road to Tokyo, but Combined Chiefs of Staff decide to send Admiral Nimitz and the Pacific Fleet on a second, northern route, parallel to MacArthur's. The author, an American history professor, follows MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Forces in a series of bold leaps to Holandiak, Wakde, Biak, and the Vogelkop, also covering Pacific Fleet operations from the end of the Marshall Islands campaign to the recovery of Guam.
Paperback, 488 pages, Illustrated with rare images, notes, tables, index
USD 23.95 / CAD 29.95