| ||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Operation Pacific,
By
This review is from: Operation Pacific: The Royal Navy's War Against Japan, 1941-1945 (Hardcover)
Operation Pacific tells the story of the British Eastern, East Indies and Pacific Fleets during World War II, from the dark days of 1941 and 1942 to victory in 1945. The book begins by setting the stage in detail, Chapter 1 opening with a brief discussion of British interests in the Far East dating to 1579. From there, two-thirds of the book tells the story of British naval operations in the Indian Ocean, and the last third the story of the British Pacific Fleet and East Indies fleet, both created out of the Eastern Fleet in November 1944.
The detail in which the Royal Navy's World War II Indian Ocean activities are covered is one of the book's strengths. For those who have read only American accounts of the battles fought by the ABDA command, Gray's careful treatment of British and Dutch ship actions in the battles of Sunda Strait and the Java Sea wonderfully complements the record of American actions there. It is also interesting to read an account of what the Royal Navy was doing in the Indian Ocean in 1942, 1943, and early 1944, a topic more usually covered only in passing: after the ship losses of March and April 1942, the Royal Navy progressively withdrew from the area, first to the west coast of India and then the east coast of Africa. Most readers of World War II naval history will know that this movement is largely explained by the pressing problems the RN faced elsewhere, and it is here that Operation Pacific starts to aggravate. Gray is consistently less than charitable when discussing prewar British policy relevant to wartime challenges in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Theaters, the decisions of operational commanders, allocation of resources where the Pacific Theater was concerned (especially the whole issue of the fleet train), and the US-UK relationship from the tactical up to the strategic level. Two examples especially stand out: first, the treatment of the loss of Force Z (Prince of Wales and Repulse). For a book published in 1991, Gray seems especially critical of force commander Admiral Tom Phillips who, after all, paid for his real or perceived mistakes with his life. Second, Gray is overly critical of American strategy in the Pacific, displaying a British chauvinism that detracts from what is in the end a great story of determination, commitment, and cooperation between the U.S. and U.K. Operation Pacific documents the naval conflict in the Indian Ocean where few other books do. After five years of war in Europe, however, Britain's commitment to creating a Pacific Fleet to aid in the war against Japan deserves more positive recognition, and for this reason I would recommend both Task Force 57 by Peter C. Smith (1969), and The Forgotten Fleet by John Winton (1970) before Operation Pacific. Both of these other books focus more heavily on the operations of the British aircraft carrier task forces operating side-by-side with the U.S. Navy in the final days of the war. Ship and aircraft enthusiasts will especially appreciate The Forgotten Fleet, with its detailed lists of Task Force compositions, carrier airwing complements, and tables of sorties flown.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Should be Operation Indian Ocean,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Operation Pacific: The Royal Navy's War Against Japan, 1941-1945 (Hardcover)
Having read several books recently by the American admirals who fought the Japanese in WWII, I was curious if the British Navy was more involved than I knew. This book was the only one to come up in a search and I was excited to finally learn what the Royal Navy's role in the Pacific was. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed to read the author whining about how no one knew what a great job they did and then he spent over 200 of the 250 pages detailing the Royal Navy's exploits in the Indian Ocean and East Indies. The last time I checked that's not in the Pacific. It seems that with rare exceptions once the Japanese captured Hong Kong and Singapore in early 1942 the RN didn't get back into the Pacific until January 1945. So I wasn't mistaken in their limited role. It was interesting to read about their participation in the Okinawa campaign and sorties against the Japanese Islands as I hadn't known that. The Royal Australian and New Zealand Navies have a proud and more well known history of fighting in the Pacific - it was their backyard afterall. Gray seemed to equate the RAN and RNZN with being British. I don't think they would agree with that! It seemed rather hypocritical I thought to complain that the RN got a raw deal in history's recollection but then say that he won't be talking much about the RAN or RNZN exploits even tho he considers them British for his purposes.
It was nice to actually see some maps (albeit very general) in a book like this, although with all the detailed information provided it would have been nice to be able to "follow along" with some detailed maps.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
