Pacific Campaign Commander's Pathfinder

By Charles Wexler

Written Work

Library of Congress/Dewey Numbers
In the Library of Congress, World War II is listed in section D, numbers
731-838. In the Dewey Decimal System, World War II is listed in the 900 section, from 940.53-940.54

Experts, Admirals
1. Agawa, H. The Reluctant Admiral. New York: Kodansha International, 1979.
Agawa's work on Admiral Isokoro Yamamoto delvs deep into the psyche of the man who initiated the biggest attack
on US soil in the 20th Century. It shows how he handled himself in the months leading up to and after Pearl Harbor
and Midway, along with the controversy surrounding his assassination over Bougainville Island in April 1943 by American
P-38 Lightning twin-engine fighters.

2. Buell, Thomas. The Quiet Warrior. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1987.
Buell's masterpiece biography about Admiral Raymond Spruance sheds light onto the victor of Midway and the Philippine Sea. Much more reserved than his colleague and friend Bill Halsey, Spruance had been following in Halsey's footsteps until May 1942, when Spruance assumed command of Task Force 16 after Halsey contracted a severe skin rash. From there, Buell relates the tension between Spruance and TF 16 Chief of Staff Captain Browning throughout the Battle of Midway, and Spruance's rise to commander, 5th Fleet. Buell masterfully shows the problems faced when dealing with the fog of war, as Spruance had to deal with at Midway and the Philippine Sea, along with the problems of 20/20 hindsight when looking back at a battle.

3. Potter, E.B. Bull Halsey. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1985.
In sharp contrast to Buell, Potter examines the brash, fiery commander known to the press as Bull Halsey. An advocate of aircraft carriers, Bull kept his Task Force as a war footing when they sailed to resupply Wake Island in late November 1941, over a week before Pearl Harbor. Up to Midway, Halsey had been Commander, Task Force 16, comprising of two aircraft carriers and a screening force under Spruance. However, Halsey came down with a skin rash before Midway, and passed command onto Spruance. Two years later, in October 1944, Halsey had a chance to make up for his sickness when he commanded the 3rd Fleet at Leyte Gulf. However, due to unclear communications and a trap set by the Japanese, Halsey's aggressiveness was used against him and nearly resulted in the amphibious fleet in Leyte Gulf being destroyed by Admiral Kurita's Central Force.

Experts, Battles
1. Cutler, Thomas J. The Battle of Leyte Gulf. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1994.
Cutler's work on this battle focuses in on a couple of combatants in each of the four battles that comprise Leyte Gulf, putting the reader on the bridge as the Darter launches a sneak attack against Kurita's Center Force or as a destroyer makes smoke to conceal Taffy 3 from the charging Japanese battleships. However, he also does highlight the communications problem between 3rd and 7th Fleet, and the possible implications of Halsey's actions had Taffy 3 not been able to turn back Kurita.

2. Fuchida, Mitsuo and Masatake Okumiya. Midway. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1992. (Primary Source)
Mitsuo Fuchida, the commander of the air forces that attacked Pearl Harbor, shows this battle from the Japanese and his own perspective. From the intensive planning of operation MI to the agonizing decisions made on the Akagi on June 4, 1942, Fuchida's masterpiece lifts the fog of war from the Japanese side on Midway and clearly shows the benefit of Spruance's gamble to attack when he did.

3. Grove, Eric. Big Fleet Actions. London: Brockhampton Press, 1998.
Grove examines the largest fleet action in World War II, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, in this work encompassing three eras of fleet warfare. Grove takes a look at the battle from start to finish, and how Spruance was able to destroy the airplanes of the Japanese fleet, making the surviving Japanese carriers only useful as a decoy for the future.

4. Prange, Gordon W. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. US: Penguin Books, 1991.
Since the Japanese dropped the first bombs on Pearl Harbor, everyone wanted to know how could this have happened? In this work, Prange succesfully explains how the Japanese were able to set this attack up, how the attack went off, and the resulting actions taken. Prange's work is excellent, and provides a great detail onto the worst attck on American soil in the 20th century.