The Battle for Vella Lavella

The Battle for Vella Lavella PDF Author: Reg Newell
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786473274
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
During World War II, the Solomon Islands became the scene of a titanic struggle between Allied and Japanese forces. After their victory on Guadalcanal, Americans advanced into the New Georgia Group with horrendous casualties. Admiral Halsey then implemented an "island hopping" strategy, bypassing Japanese strongpoints. The first was an obscure island called "Vella Lavella." This book is the first detailed examination of the struggle for Vella Lavella, covering the ground, air and sea battles and the involvement of American and New Zealand soldiers, the coastwatchers, South Pacific Scouts and the Islanders.

The Battle for Vella Lavella

The Battle for Vella Lavella PDF Author: Reg Newell
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786473274
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
During World War II, the Solomon Islands became the scene of a titanic struggle between Allied and Japanese forces. After their victory on Guadalcanal, Americans advanced into the New Georgia Group with horrendous casualties. Admiral Halsey then implemented an "island hopping" strategy, bypassing Japanese strongpoints. The first was an obscure island called "Vella Lavella." This book is the first detailed examination of the struggle for Vella Lavella, covering the ground, air and sea battles and the involvement of American and New Zealand soldiers, the coastwatchers, South Pacific Scouts and the Islanders.

Operation Goodtime and the Battle of the Treasury Islands, 1943

Operation Goodtime and the Battle of the Treasury Islands, 1943 PDF Author: Reg Newell
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476600309
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
A force of New Zealanders and Americans invaded the Treasury Islands in the South Pacific on October 27, 1943, retaking them from their Japanese occupiers. Codenamed Operation Goodtime, the action marked the first time New Zealand forces took part in an opposed landing since Gallipoli in 1915. In an unusual allocation of troops in the American-dominated theater, New Zealand provided the fighting men and America the air, naval, and logistical support. Confronting extreme risks against a determined Japanese foe, the Allies nevertheless succeeded with relatively few casualties. Because of the need for operational security, Operation Goodtime received little publicity and has been relegated to a footnote in the history of the war in the Pacific. This is the first complete account of the Allied seizure of the Treasury Islands.

Learning War

Learning War PDF Author: Trent Hone
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1682472949
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Learning War examines the U.S. Navy’s doctrinal development from 1898–1945 and explains why the Navy in that era was so successful as an organization at fostering innovation. A revolutionary study of one of history’s greatest success stories, this book draws profoundly important conclusions that give new insight, not only into how the Navy succeeded in becoming the best naval force in the world, but also into how modern organizations can exploit today’s rapid technological and social changes in their pursuit of success. Trent Hone argues that the Navy created a sophisticated learning system in the early years of the twentieth century that led to repeated innovations in the development of surface warfare tactics and doctrine. The conditions that allowed these innovations to emerge are analyzed through a consideration of the Navy as a complex adaptive system. Learning War is the first major work to apply this complex learning approach to military history. This approach permits a richer understanding of the mechanisms that enable human organizations to evolve, innovate, and learn, and it offers new insights into the history of the United States Navy.

Sunk in Kula Gulf

Sunk in Kula Gulf PDF Author: John J. Domagalski
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 159797840X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
The early morning hours of July 6, 1943, found the USS "Helena" off the Solomon Islands in what would later be known as the Battle of Kula Gulf. But the ship s participation in the battle came to a swift end when three Japanese torpedoes suddenly struck. One hundred and sixty-eight sailors went down with the ship, many never surviving the initial torpedo hits. As the last of the "Helena" disappeared below the ocean s surface, the remaining crewmen s struggle for survival had only just begun."Sunk in Kula Gulf" tells the epic story of the "Helena" s survivors. Two destroyers plucked more than seven hundred from the sea in a night rescue operation as the battle continued to rage. A second group of eighty-eight sailors clustered into three lifeboats made it to a nearby island and was rescued the next day. A third group of survivors, spread over a wide area, was missed entirely. Clinging to life rafts or debris, the weary men were pushed away from the area of the sinking by a strong current. After enduring days at sea under the hot tropical sun, they finally found land. It was, however, the Japanese-held island of Vella Lavella and deep behind the front lines. The survivors organized and disappeared into the island s interior jungle. Living a meager existence, the group evaded the Japanese for eight days until the Marines and U.S. Navy evacuated the shipwrecked sailors in a daring rescue operation. Using a wide variety of sources, including previously unpublished firsthand accounts, John J. Domagalski brings to life this amazing, little-known story from World War II."

The Battles of Savo Island, 9 August 1942 and the Eastern Solomons, 23-25 August 1942

The Battles of Savo Island, 9 August 1942 and the Eastern Solomons, 23-25 August 1942 PDF Author: Winston B. Lewis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description


Japanese Destroyer Captain

Japanese Destroyer Captain PDF Author: Tameichi Hara
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 9781591143840
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This highly regarded war memoir was a best seller in both Japan and the United States during the 1960s and has long been treasured by historians for its insights into the Japanese side of the surface war in the Pacific. The author was a survivor of more than one hundred sorties against the Allies and was known throughout Japan as the "Unsinkable Captain." A hero to his countrymen, Capt. Hara exemplified the best in Japanese surface commanders: highly skilled (he wrote the manual on torpedo warfare), hard driving, and aggressive. Moreover, he maintained a code of honor worthy of his samurai grandfather, and, as readers of this book have come to appreciate, he was as free with praise for American courage and resourcefulness as he was critical of himself and his senior commanders.

Hirohito's War

Hirohito's War PDF Author: Francis Pike
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350021229
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1209

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Book Description
Named one of Foreign Affairs' Best Books of 2016 In his magisterial 1,208 page narrative of the Pacific War, Francis Pike's Hirohito's War offers an original interpretation, balancing the existing Western-centric view with attention to the Japanese perspective on the conflict. As well as giving a 'blow-by-blow' account of campaigns and battles, Francis Pike offers many challenges to the standard interpretations with regards to the causes of the war; Emperor Hirohito's war guilt; the inevitability of US Victory; the abilities of General MacArthur and Admiral Yamamoto; the role of China, Great Britain and Australia; military and naval technology; and the need for the fire-bombing of Japan and the eventual use of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hirohito's War is accompanied by additional online resources, including more details on logistics, economics, POWs, submarines and kamikaze, as well as a 1930-1945 timeline and over 200 maps.

The Battle of Tassafaronga

The Battle of Tassafaronga PDF Author: Estate of R S Crenshaw
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612515517
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
The Battle of Tassafaronga, November 30, 1942, was the fifth and last major night surface action fought off Savo Island during World War II’s Guadalcanal campaign. It ended a string of Japanese victories, but it was also a horrible embarrassment to the U.S. Navy, which had three heavy cruisers damaged and one sunk to enemy torpedoes. After the battle, American commanders erroneously reported that multiple enemy ships had been sunk or seriously damaged, leading Admiral Nimitz to focus on training as the missing ingredient. Not until more than half a century later did Captain Russell S. Crenshaw, Jr., the destroyer Maury’s gunnery officer during the battle, discover that the outcome hinged instead on critical shortcomings that had been built into the U.S. Navy before the war—defective torpedoes, poor intelligence, blinding gunfire, over-confidence, and a tendency to equate volume of fire with effectiveness of fire—factors that turned the battle into “a crucible in which the very nature of the U.S. Navy and its weapons was tested [and] a miniature of what might have been, under other circumstances, a truly devastating defeat.”

Operation Squarepeg

Operation Squarepeg PDF Author: Reg Newell
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476628327
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
In late January 1944 a force of New Zealand soldiers and Allied specialists undertook a daring behind the lines reconnaissance of the Japanese-held Green Islands of Papua New Guinea. The New Zealand Army's largest amphibious operation of World War II followed two weeks later. The Japanese contested the invasion with air power and inflicted heavy damage on the American cruiser USS St. Louis. After landing, the New Zealanders pushed inland and encountered fanatical Japanese defenders entrenched in thick jungle. Allied engineers--including the famed Seabees--then built airfields, roads and shipping facilities. The seizure of the Green Islands completed the encirclement of the main Japanese base in the South Pacific at Rabaul. A memorable but overlooked action of the Pacific War, "Operation Squarepeg" involved a diverse force of Allied sailors, soldiers and airmen that included Charles Lindbergh and future U.S. president Richard Nixon.

The Battles of Cape Esperance, 11 October 1942 and Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942

The Battles of Cape Esperance, 11 October 1942 and Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942 PDF Author: Henry V. Poor
Publisher: Naval Historical Center
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description