Customer Reviews

General Kenney reports: A personal history of the Pacific War (USAF warrior studies)

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General Kenney Reports is a good book about WWII's Southwest Pacific theator. The United States Air Force Academy still uses this book in the study of modern air warfare.

If you want some interesting history about World War II, read General Kenney Reports and discover a interesting chapter of the war and the heroes who fought in it!

This book is one of the finest first-person records available of the air war in the Pacific Theatre, written by the man who made it happen. An extraordinary accounting in frank, candid language, rich with anecdotal history on legends such as top aces Dick Bong and Tommy McGuire.

This book is one of the finest first-person records available of the air war in the Pacific Theatre, written by the man who made it happen. An extraordinary accounting in frank, candid language, rich with anecdotal history on legends such as top aces Dick Bong and Tommy McGuire.

I consider my self an amateur aviation historian of sorts. I can remember sitting on weekends in the 1960's with my late father who was in the USAF and watching the Air Force Story, a 16mm film history of the Air Force. There must have been 15-20 reels of 16mm film that we checked out of the library while stationed on Okinawa.

As well versed as I was in the aviation history of WWII, it was heavily slanted to the European Theater of Operations as are most historical films about the war, or baised in favor of the more glamourous carrier operations of the Central Pacific Theater. It took Kenney's book which by the way, can be downloaded for free in PDF form from a USAF website here: [...]

His memoir not only shows an inside look into MacArthur's headquarters, but also the monumental undertaking that Kenney and the men of the 5th Air Force accomplished from 1942 to 1945.

Not only did they have to fight a war like the 8th Air Force did in Europe, they had to build and relocate new facilities along the length of New Guinea while doing so. The logistic and engineering hurdles they overcame were mind boggling.

Out of curiosity and to put things into perspective, I searched and found many of the aerodrome facilities that they constructed on Google Earth. Today only a few runways of these massive bomber and fighter landing strip complexes are still in use, but the size and extent of them are still clearly evident on the aerial photos of the jungles in which they were built even 65 years later.

One has to realize that men build these facilities under arduous conditions, used them for a few weeks or months only to move on to do the same thing in a different location.

The men of the 5th didn't get the glamourous coverage that the fliers of the 8th did in Britain, and there were no cozy pubs or weekends off in London. What they did was truly amazing and more tragic it is all but forgotten.

Kenney's book while self serving at times, and what self written memoir isn't? I found it a worthwhile education and a very entertaining read. I especially liked the episode where he had to call in a rambuncous pilot for looping the Golden Gate bridge in a fighter. I knew who it was from having read the pilots own biography. Kenney could have broken the young pilot, but instead saw in him the stuff needed to win wars. So he sent Lt. Richard Bong on his was with a verbal reprimand. Bond went on to become our highest scoring ace of the Pacific.

Kenney waves his own flag at times but rightfully so, he was an innovator at a time when we needed them. He along with Curtis Lemay in Europe designed new tactics and designed or adopteded new weapons to better fight the enemy and to save their men's lives. Kenney did nothing if not cut through red tape and remove impediments to the creativity of others under his command.

Kenney went on to command Strategic Air Command and was replaced by Curtis Lemay.

The book is well worth reading especially if you can get it for free as I did.

This is an excellent blow by blow history of the 5th Air Force and the behind the scenes action that took place in the South Pacific during WWII. It told the story of the poor living conditions and lack of equipment suffered by the 5th Air Force and how they persevered in spite of those conditions. I compared this to my fathers Log Book from the 43rd Bombardment Group and it was right on. This book helped me relive the missions my father flew. I highly recommened this.