33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Brilliantly Researched And Written Tribute To Courage!, April 3, 2000
I recently returned from a two week tour of Civil War battlefields, emotionally drained by standing on (to me) the sacred ground where so many brave men perished. The History Channel featured Prof. Urwin, discussing the fall of Wake Island as part of a showing of the 1942 movie about Wake. It isn't often that I pay this kind of price for a book, but believe me, it was worth it! Impeccable research is combined with a profoundly effective writing style (A+ from this retired lawyer) to produce a moving and sympathetic tribute to the brave men who defended Wake. Although it is over 700 pages, it has been hard to put down because of the skill of its author. I envy his students if his classroom presentations are one-half as good as his writing. I have read several books on Wake, but this is far and away the best. I have read many, many works on military history, strategy and tactics (there are about 500 facing me as I write this), and "Facing Fearful Odds" is up there with the best of them. Don't let the price discourage you; it is well worth it. The thing I found most enjoyable is that the incredible wealth of detail never gets in the way of the narration.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Marine's Perspective, November 23, 1999
Although I am old enough to remember Wake Island, I never had access to the level of detail provided in this excellent account. By skillfull use of interviews, woven together from various perspectives, Urwin gives a superb and personal day-to-day tactical account of what it was like to those who were there; and then helps the reader keep perspective with what was happening in "The Big Picture" of politics and strategy. As a Marine in the Korean War, we studied many battles. None were as well covered as this book. The detail provided and the author's skill in organizing and writing it up into an easily readable account make it a historical book well worth reading for anyone who wants to know about World War II, and about the quality of people who served our Country at that time. His addition of information about the survivors' time in POW camps was exceptionally thought provoking.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thorough and well written, August 20, 2004
This review is from: Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island (Paperback)
The title, Facing Fearful Odds, is taken from Macaulay's "Horatius at the Bridge" (a poem I lovingly remember reading as a schoolboy), and it's evocative of the dramatic siege of Wake Island in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Gregory Urwin is a fine writer who vividly portrays the drama of a handful of Marines and civilian construction workers who repelled daily assaults by the Japanese navy and air force for 16 harrowing days before finally capitulating to overwhelming force. In stunning detail, the author depicts the frantic preparatory events leading up to the siege, the fierce resistance, and the bitter aftermath. It is sad that these heroic events are little known by today's generation.
What is compelling about Mr. Urwin's account of the Wake Island story is his depiction of ordinary men thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Although the Marines were volunteers, many of them joined the Corps to escape the Depression, and many of them never expected to find themselves in such a perilous position. Nonetheless, like Horatius at the Bridge, these men did more than their duty.
Facing Fearful Odds describes how the United States failed to marshal its considerable resources during the year and three months that Europe had been at war; we were dreadfully unprepared militarily, economically and psychologically for the sudden impact of the terrible defeats Japan dealt us. If we view the events of late 1941 in the context of the smug condescension most Americans felt toward Japan, and the fact that we woefully underestimated Japanese military prowess, we can begin to understand how shattering Pearl Harbor was. Americans were angry as hell and damned scared.
Then, a few gritty Marines and civilian construction workers - every one of them a regular "Joe Everyman" with whom any American could identify - held off the mighty Japanese navy and air force for more than two weeks and dealt them a stunning, crushing blow. That we ultimately lost Wake Island mattered little. That these brave men showed the world that Americans could - and would - fight back meant everything to the people at home and to those in the service. These few men lifted America from its fear and helped focus its anger in a powerful resolve to defeat the enemy.
The Marines of Wake Island were expendable, and they knew it. Mr. Urwin enables the reader to imagine why a man would willingly put himself in harm's way knowing - with near certainty - that he was unlikely to survive. One could argue that the man doesn't have a choice, but of course he has a choice - he can surrender. Urwin shows us that the willingness to fight and not surrender came from something more than patriotism. Though they fully expected to die, it was a matter of pride; though they believed no one would ever know it, they were determined to make the enemy pay dearly for American lives. They knew if they did that, someone else might live a little longer.
Facing Fearful Odds is about defiance in the face of certain death, of abject determination to make the enemy pay a terrible price for their arrogance. The men of Wake Island didn't save the world - that was for the men and women who came after them to do. But they saved America's face. Guam surrendered immediately. Wake Island did not.
Several weeks before the battle of the Alamo, Mexican troops marched into San Antonio demanding a siege cannon that the Texan rebels held. The Texans' reply was, "Come and take it." Implied were the words, "...if you can." Gregory Urwin gives the reader a rare opportunity to know how the men of Wake Island felt when they made the Japanese Navy "come and take it."
Sin of Omission
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