Following the battles on Guadalcanal, the tenor of World War 2 in the Pacific changed. The U.S. was no longer on the defensive, while the Japanese were forced to shift to a defensive posture. This sixth volume in the series covers the next two years which were spent in solving the problem posed by the Japanese "fortress" of Rabaul. Since this is a history of the U.S. Navy, it's not surprising that the author focuses on the naval engagements, but he does make the point - repeatedly! - that without the support of the Navy, there could have been no attacks in that area. He also makes the same point by stating - repeatedly! - that the Japanese had lost control of the waters and therefore could not support their own troops as well as they should have. Please be aware, that when he speaks of Naval engagements, he does count the Naval aviation assets as part of the Navy and does not credit the air forces by themselves. Of course, at that time, there was no U. S. Air Force so from that point of view, it makes some sense.
The biggest problem facing the U.S. Admirals was that Rabaul was developed intensely and had two or three years in which to fortify and prepare itself. Having four different airfields in it, as well as about one hundred thousand troops, it could dispatch hundreds of airplanes which would harass U.S. shipping and warships and bomb troops on land incessantly. Between Rabaul and Guadalcanal is the chain of the Bismarcks which forms the barrier that this volume is dedicated to describing - especially how the U.S. Navy, Marines, and Army managed to slowly claw their way around Rabaul and neutralize it.
If you've read Morison's other volumes, you know what to expect as far as his writing style, and since I commented on it extensively in my other reviews of his works, I will not repeat that here. His style has not changed and is still as pleasurable to read as always. The unique things about this volume that stood out to me were three:
1. While the overall U.S. strategy was to defeat Germany first, I did not realize that it translated into the allocation of resources to favor the European theater as much as Morison describes. Early in the volume he mentions that it was a great victory when the General Staff and the President agreed to increase the percentage or resources allocated to the Pacific theater from 15% to 30%. I am still amazed by that. Only 30% of the U.S.'s total resources were enough to stop the Japanese juggernaut in World War 2 and put the U.S. on the offensive. An offensive that crippled the Japanese islands by the time the war ended. Wow.
2. It is not clear whether Morison knew that the U.S. had deciphered the Japanese code system and was actively collecting, and using, information to plan its offensive actions. In this book, Morison occasionally mentions that a commander "guessed" that an attack was brewing, or that the Japanese would be sending planes or ships to particular spots. Of course, reading this now, it seems kind of obvious that these were not simply lucky "guesses"!
3. On the negative side, the long drawn-out series of battles described here were pretty much the same. The only difference being which island was being attacked - in other words, the names of the places changed, but the action did not. With over 440 pages of text, it is difficult to write in an engaging manner about the various invasions of islands that nobody today cares about. A shame since hundreds of Americans and thousands of Japanese perished on these islands.
This is clearly the weakest volume in the series, but given the desire for the series to be comprehensive, something like this was needed. The good news is that Morison's style is in full force and if you enjoy it, this book will be much less of a drudgery to read than it could otherwise have been.
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M. Mason
The only book that adequately covers this period of the naval war in the Pacific
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2015Verified Purchase
