Customer Reviews

Ghost Fleet of the Truk Lagoon: An Account of "Operation Hailstone", February, 1944

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Stewart brings his first hand knowledge to show the what and why of the Japaneese build-up and demise at Truk (now called Chuuk) Lagoon. Prior to going there to dive, I ordered the book and read it cover to cover. While there are more detailed guides to the specific wrecks, none currrently available gives the detail to the background which Steward does. It was small enough to fit in my luggage so I had it with me to refer to during my trip. After the trip, while compiling the memories and photos into my web page, Stewart's book was a valuable reference.

For those who don't know, the US bombed, torpedoed, shot and sank about 60 Japaneese ships and hundreds of airplanes in Truk Lagoon during a 48 hour period in February, 1944. "Operation Hailstone" so devistated the supply and repair base that it was totally removed from strategic use by the Japaneese. There was no need for the US to invade. The supplies were cut off and the US forces advanced north and westward toward Guam, Saipan and Japan.

Usually historical and technical tomes are difficult to read. Stewart has walked a fine line, being easy and fun to read, while covering concepts like how to feed 50,000 Japaneese and 15,000 Chuukeese on an island group which only fed 15,000 in 1920! Not being one to leave a story, Stewart detals (in words and photos) the results of war-crimes trials against many Japaneese officers.

Interesting items include the photo and map of Eten Island (turned into a 3,283 foot long stationary "aircraft carrier" by forced labor), attack photos, damage assesment photos, copies of orders (including a photo of the August 15, 1945 cease-fire order.

I have just read Ghost Fleet of the Truk Lagoon, Japanese Mandated Islands, An Account of Operation Hailstone - one of the great aerial battles of WWII.

I found this book fascinating and full of charts, photographs and drawings of this battle. I knew Bill Stewart when we were both working in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, but I left the islands before he wrote this book.

This account was of particular interest to me for I headed up the Fisheries Programs for the Trust Territory (Palau, Yap, Saipan, Truk, Ponape, Kusaie and the Marshall Islands were included) and in the course of my work, I did a lot of diving and was probably the very first to dive on the ?Ghost Fleet of the Truk Lagoon?.

I spent a number of years, off and on, diving on these wrecks, but I was never able to get the information and background on this battle as Bill Stewart has done. He has included photographs taken during the attack and he has also prepared charts of the lagoon and all of Truk. His drawings or sketches of the ships in their sunken position are also accurate and his charts on the Japanese installations on Moen and Dublon are excellent. He has even included photographs of many of the ships before they were sunk and I found these of particular interest.

Other matters Bill covered in detail that I have found nowhere else include a chapter on the internment and torture and execution Americans on Dublon including some of crewmembers from the American submarine Sculpin. He also details how the Americans were transported to Japan to work in labor camps.

Another chapter I found of interest details the starvation problems facing the Japanese and Trukese after the attack was over and Truk was bypassed. The surrender of Truk is also covered as are many other subjects of historical interest I have never encountered elsewhere.

Anyone that has an interest in the Pacific war will certainly find this book of immense interest. Those that are interested in diving will find it even more fascinating and for those that are planning to go to Truk or have gone to Truk, this book is an absolute necessity.

Peter T. Wilson

This work needs a complete reorganisation. Written as though the author was drifting into and out of consciousness, I eventually reached the conclusion that, whilst the information is all there, the final product is so disjointed it makes reading the work - and thereby understanding the relevant events, most difficult.

If the reader is looking for a readable account of Operation Hailstone (at least this author "did" correctly call it Hailstone and not "Hailstorm" as some writers would have us believe the US attack on Truk was called) this is not the book for you. If, however, the reader is more interested in research and "detail," then there is much information in this rather poorly produced work which I have not seen included elsewhere and the book is worth purchasing for that alone.

The photographs are of equally poor quality with only two being of much interest.

NM

The publishers aver that Operation Hailstone, the American assault on the Japanese fleet base at Truk, has received less attention in histories than other Pacific war battles of similar significance. That's correct.

Unfortunately, William Stewart's attempt to bring Truk (nowadays Chuuk) equal billing does less than no good. The book is confused, inaccurate, gullible, rambling.

The only good thing about "Ghost Fleet of the Truk Lagoon" is that Stewart did know the place. He was an economic adviser to the Micronesian governments for a time in the 1970s and `80s. There is a little, though not much, about the locals, who are usually ignored.

The reason that the gung-ho military histories ignore Hailstone is that the Combined Fleet had abandoned Truk beforehand. The carrier attacks of February 1944 were against nearly undefended merchantmen. Not much drama for the blood-and-guts crowd.

The serious military histories generally treat the event sketchily, and for a similar reason. Hailstone was a milestone in the island-hopping campaign, but the actual material damage done to the Japanese was small: About three dozen merchantmen were sunk and a handful of warships, none more important than a light cruiser.

Stewart makes the good point that Truk was not a "bastion." The Japanese did not build it up as a fleet base. For that matter, even Pearl Harbor was sadly inadequate as a fleet base.

It is worth recalling that, in the early 1940s, the Pacific Ocean was a backwater. The only modern naval bases were at Singapore, in Japan and on the west coast of the United States.

As for being a military history, Stewart doesn't even bother to construct an order of battle for the US Navy's assault, much less to detail the actions.

After Truk was bypassed and left to "wither on the vine," the Japanese starved. So, necessarily, did the Trukese and some Nauruans and other indigenous laborers who were there. Stewart tells a little about this, and these bits are the most informative parts of this thin book.

Although the Japanese (probably) turned to cannibalism, it is a mark of their bizarre (to American ways of thinking) planning that up to the end, they were hoarding 30 days supply of food for a "final battle."

The chapter on war crimes has some interest. Even in defeat, the Japanese managed to threaten everyone on the island to keep quiet about their atrocities. It worked for a while.

This, too, seems odd, but consider the situation of the Trukese, cut off from the world at the best of times. The Japanese had appeared out of nowhere, the Americans likewise. How could they know whether the world would turn upside down again?

A skeptical American officer, considering that since there had been atrocities elsewhere in Micronesia there probably had been also on Truk, pressed in and broke through, thanks to a brave Trukese.

The atrocities bore the stamp familiar to students of the Pacific war: using live men for bayonet drill and pointless medical "experiments" like conducting an autopsy on a live person.

A must read for anyone travelling to Truk or just interested in what has heppened there, Great pictures and battle details

Author William Stewart mentions that the 'Ghost Fleet...' was a labor of love, taking 14 years to write, I'm glad he was finally able to finish it because he really brought to life the US air attacks on the island during WWII. Although one review commented negatively of a stream of conscious style of writing, I think it fits and indeed his final chapter in the end where this style is at its most, is the books most powerful moments. Perhaps there is too much reliance on teletype reports in a couple of the chapters, still this does not distract from a great read.

Received the book very quickly and am looking forward to the information it will provide for an upcoming dive trip to Truk Lagoon. Thanks.