Reviews for Island infernos : the US Army's Pacific War odyssey, 1944
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize winner McManus (history, Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology) continues his history of the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theater during the Second World War, which he began in 2019 with Fire and Fortitude. In this evenly written and insightful work, McManus details how the U.S. Army matured into a professional force capable of sophisticated tactical and logistical maneuvers, able to drive Japanese forces over thousands of miles back toward Japanese home islands. Chronological chapters cover early successful operations at Kwajalein and the Admiralty Islands, through to the bloody and costly fights in the Marshall Islands, Leyte Gulf, and elsewhere. The horrific treatment of Japan's American prisoners and the rearguard guerilla warfare of American units in Burma are treated as well. Importantly, McManus gives much-needed attention to the experiences of Black soldiers and the logistics of keeping the mammoth war machine supplied. Command decisions and vivid descriptions of frontline combat are expertly interwoven to paint a fuller and more complex picture; maps throughout the book give spatial context to various U.S. Army campaigns. VERDICT Readers interested in military history and the Pacific theater will enjoy McManus's second contribution in this military history trilogy.—Chad E. Statler, Westlake Porter P.L., Westlake, OH
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History, McManus's Fire and Fortitude chronicled the U.S. Army's sacrifices in the Pacific War over the two years from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the capture of Makin Island. Here he continues the story with the army proceeding to Saipan, Guam, and Okinawa, then finally regaining control of the Philippines in one of the war's costliest battles.
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
The second of the author’s three-volume chronicle of the war against Japan is well worth the wait. McManus reminds readers that the Marines got the glory, but the vastly larger Army did most of the fighting and demonstrated no less heroism. In fact, he writes, “the Army in the Pacific had matured into a professionally led citizen soldier force of singular potency, flexibility, and complexity.” As in Fire and Fortitude (2019) and his other books, McManus delivers a lucid account of the political background, strategy, and leading figures who conducted operations. Journalists and civilian scholars cannot resist fawning over flamboyant generals, but McManus maintains his focus on their actual accomplishments. This means that his opinion of Douglas MacArthur hasn’t improved from his earlier volume; in these pages, he remains a mean-spirited egotist with modest talents. Meanwhile, Marine Gen. Holland “Howlin-Mad” Smith conducted combined operations despite an intense hatred of the Army, a situation that severely hampered the tactical effectiveness. It’s no secret that Army-Navy relations were so dysfunctional that America fought Japan on two separate fronts. Under MacArthur, the Army campaigned in the southwest Pacific, while the Navy, led by Adm. Charles Nimitz, largely patrolled the central Pacific. No one considered this efficient, but the U.S., with its vast resources, could afford it. McManus’ expertise shines brightest in his gripping descriptions of the tactics, technology, personalities, and gruesome fighting in a score of island campaigns. There is no shortage of eye-opening personal stories, and the author includes generous material from letters and diaries—although readers may prefer to skim some anecdotes due to the horrendous sameness of the innumerable, bloody small-unit encounters. Keeping matters up to date, McManus emphasizes the racism that permeated the U.S. military but also governed soldiers’ attitudes toward the enemy. There is plenty to deplore, but Japanese soldiers’ seemingly suicidal fanaticism and their nation’s cruelty toward Allied POWs did not encourage tolerance. Outstanding military history. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Historian McManus follows Fortitude and Fire with an outstanding second volume in his planned trilogy on the Pacific theater of WWII. Covering the period from the invasion of the Marshall Islands in January 1944 to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s premature declaration of victory at the Battle of Leyte in December 1944, McManus’s extensive cast of characters includes commanders, officers, enlisted men, and captured soldiers toiling in Japan’s horrendous POW camps. He delves into each island invasion in scrupulous detail, documenting, for instance, how the Army Air Force bombed Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands for seven weeks to prepare for the amphibious assault, which nevertheless devolved into an “incremental slugfest” as outnumbered Japanese soldiers fought ferociously from pillboxes, entrenchments, and the ruins of bombed-out buildings. McManus sheds light on famous battles (Bougainville, Corregidor) as well as lesser-known affairs (Sanananda, Attu), and incisively profiles U.S. military commanders including MacArthur, a brilliant strategist and courageous leader who was also “a man of astonishing pomposity, megalomania and egocentrism.” Distinguished by informative deep dives into logistical and strategic issues and McManus’s storytelling prowess, this is an excellent study of how the U.S. turned the tide of the war in the Pacific. Agent: Michael Congdon, Don Congdon Assoc. (Nov.)
