Customer Reviews

World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-Military Study

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World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-Military Study is a detailed survey of the Pacific islands which served as battlegrounds during the war. The author, Gordon L. Rottman, a retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant and Vietnam veteran, served with elite units, such as the Airborne, Rangers, and Special Forces. Rottman is also the author of more than two dozen other books, including most recently: U.S. Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle: Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War, 1939-1945 (Greenwood Press, 2001) and Korean War Order of Battle: United States, United Nations, and Communist Ground, Naval, and Air Forces, 1950-1953 (Praeger Press, 2002).

The 477 pages of the World War II Pacific Island Guide are divided into three parts. In Part I, "Geo-Military Aspects of the Pacific Theater", Rottman briefly discusses the Pacific Ocean, physical categories of islands, health hazards, island populations and political dynamics, distances and dimensions, times and dates, military organization, and military ranks. In Part II, he provides a chronology of World War II in the Pacific. In Part III, which occupies the vast majority of the book, Rottman discusses (in detail) the islands themselves and the battles fought on or near them. This last portion of the book is itself divided into six sections - Central and Southern Pacific U.S. Possessions, South Pacific Area, Southwest Pacific Area, Central Pacific Area, Western Pacific, and North Pacific Area.

I can think of absolutely nothing that has been omitted from the World War II Pacific Island Guide and the only criticism that I can make regarding this superb volume is its prohibitive cost. I certainly do not blame the author and I realize that this is a specialty book, but $104.95 is an utterly ridiculous price. Unfortunately, the price will probably prevent many people from purchasing this volume, which is regrettable, because I believe that it should be on the shelf of anyone seriously interested in the Pacific Theater during World War II. I highly recommend this book and I am convinced that it will be a generation or two (if ever) before it is supplanted.

This is a superb work of research and a must have for those interested in the WWII Pacific Campaign and military geography. This is indeed one of the best works of military geography that I have seen in many years. Rottman's book provides a detailed summary of each island in the pacific that was either fought over or used as a military base. Along with a geographical and historical background of the islands are summaries of the battles and/or operations that took place on each one. This book is a perfect compliment to Rottman's recent WWII USMC OB book.

As the previous reviewers have stated, this is a wide-ranging review of the geography of the Pacific Islands of importance during World War II. It is very impressive in its scope and level of detail. Sadly, it is flawed by being riddled with basic errors. A few examples: the book states that the battle of the Coral Sea occurred in March, 1942 (not a mere typo; the battle is placed _before_ the Doolittle Raid on a time line of the Pacific War). The book seems to randomly confuse east and west when stating directions: it states that Wake Island is _west_ of Tokyo and that Midway is _east northeast_ of Oahu, among many many examples of east and west being reversed. A final example: the text description and the map of Johnston Island disagree in scale by a large factor, so it is impossible to tell from the book what the dimensions of the island were at the time of the war. Finally, the book suffers by lacking reference notes for the facts stated in the text. It does include a "selected" bibliography, but without reference notes in the text, it is effectively impossible for the reader to trace the statements in the text back to their primary sources. I consider this a crippling shortcoming in what aspires to become a standard reference work.

I believe that this book has great potential as reference, and a later edition, thoroughly edited and revised, and with references included in the text, would be much closer to fulfilling that potential than the present version.