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"A Magnificent Fight": The Battle for Wake Island

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On the opening day of the Pacific War, Wake was bombed and strafed by island-based planes of the Japanese navy. When the raiders left, seven Grumman F4F Wildcats were wrecked on the ground.

With five remaining fighters, U.S. Marine Corps pilots defended the atoll for two desperate weeks. They shot down two Mitsubishi G3M land-based bombers, two Nakajima B5N carrier bombers, and a Kawanishi flying boat--and sank a destroyer with a device intended for water-filled practice bombs. They cannibalized wrecked Wildcats and refilled oxygen bottles from tanks belonging to the welders who had been building the island defenses. And when their last Wildcat was shot down, they took up rifles and fought as infantrymen.

The defense of Wake is an old story, but Cressman uses Japanese accounts to freshen and inform the telling. He can get carried away with nomenclature--writing "a shotai of three kansen" when "a flight of three Zeros" would be easier and no less accurate--but in battle after battle he identifies the pilots in opposing aircraft, and confirms or denies 54-year-old victory claims. He makes good use of Japanese photos, too, including the B5N that darkens the sky on the dust jacket.

A relief force was dispatched from Hawaii, built around the carrier Saratoga with two fighter squadrons, including 14 Brewster F2A Buffaloes that were to land on Wake and replace the lost Wildcats. Their ETA was Christmas Eve. The Japanese got there first, and the Americans turned away without launching a plane or firing a shot. As so often in that winter of 1941-42, the United States was a day late and a carrier short.

This book does a great job of providing the history and pre-1941 history of Wake Island. Focusing on the previous decade as well as the Navy and Marine Corp build-up in 1940-1941. Good insight into the Military politics involved in the Pacific during this time. Balanced view from the Japanese perspective with first hand accounts used were appropriate.

The actual battle sometimes becomes mired in use of real names (lists of involved personnel), and is sometimes hard to follow in a geographic sense. However, if you are familiar with, or have access to detailed maps of Wake during the invasion, this book walks you through almost every step.

Overall a good documentation of this little piece of the Pacific.

From the point of view of a small time history buff, This book was hard for me to put down. It gives a play by play of the battle and events surounding it from both sides. I was able to picture the scenes and events that took place. The photographs scattered throughout the book lets one put a face to a name, or see what buildings and equipment looked like. I plan on reading other books from this author.

In "A Magnificent Fight," Robert Cressman has honored many a Wake Island defender whose names have been otherwise lost to history.
"A Magnificent Fight" is one of those few Wake Island books that the author has devoted much of the writing to what fictional writers would call "character development."
This book is a slow starter and I would not recommend it to casual readers of history as much of it reads like an encyclopedia. Scholastically, this book covers all the main points of the engagements at Wake and reflects a tight compression of data. I particularly appreciate Mr. Cressman's devotion to naming as many individual combatants, Japanese and American alike.
I found particular difficulty with Cressman's writing style, "A Magnificent Fight" seemed to lack the flow or syntax that Wake Island stories generally possess. This may not be a problem for some readers, but its just one of those quirks that I noticed right off.
I did appreciate the fact that while many scholars will devote numerous chapters to the POW experience, "A Magnificent Fight" does not. The bulk of the context is dedicated to the events leading up to and through the battle for Wake Island.
While Cressman's analysis fairly evaluates the Navy's tactical decisions that would forsake the garrison, he is critical of the U.S. Navy commanders of the two submarines assigned to patrol the seas around Wake, whom Cressman supposes may have given the garrison the tactical advantage it certainly needed.
Cressman has further contributed to evening the playing field between the slighted garrison commander CDR W. S. Cunningham and the well publicized hero and Marine Artillery commander MAJ James Devereux.
The book concludes with a keenly fair analysis of the so called "Cunningham-Devereux Controversy" and a critical review of the wartime motion picture "Wake Island." Additional valuable appendix entries also close the book.