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Author: James Patrick Sinnott Devereux
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Wake Island, Battle of, Wake Island, 1941
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
"This book is written by an American fighting man... It reveals no secrets as to what really went on “at the highest levels” — indeed, Colonel Devereux makes it entirely clear that he never had the faintest idea of what was happening at the highest levels. All he knew was that he was in command of the garrison on Wake Island when war broke out in the Pacific, and that he was to hold this island for as long as was humanly possible. He did so. His story of this memorable fight is enormously exciting and stimulating and important. In the first two weeks of American participation in the Second World War, many people were extremely uncertain of our ability to fight against the known and (up to then) all-conquering power of the Nazis and the surprising power suddenly revealed by the Japanese."--Page 4 of cover.
Author: James Patrick Sinnott Devereux
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Wake Island, Battle of, Wake Island, 1941
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
"This book is written by an American fighting man... It reveals no secrets as to what really went on “at the highest levels” — indeed, Colonel Devereux makes it entirely clear that he never had the faintest idea of what was happening at the highest levels. All he knew was that he was in command of the garrison on Wake Island when war broke out in the Pacific, and that he was to hold this island for as long as was humanly possible. He did so. His story of this memorable fight is enormously exciting and stimulating and important. In the first two weeks of American participation in the Second World War, many people were extremely uncertain of our ability to fight against the known and (up to then) all-conquering power of the Nazis and the surprising power suddenly revealed by the Japanese."--Page 4 of cover.
Author: Gregory Urwin
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612510043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514
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Book Description
Told here for the first time in vivid detail is the story of the defenders of Wake Island following their surrender to the Japanese on December 23, 1941. The highly regarded military historian Gregory Urwin spent decades researching what happened and now offers a revealing look at the U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers, and civilian volunteers in captivity. In addition to exhaustive archival research, he interviewed dozens of POWs and even some of their Japanese captors. He also had access to diaries secretly kept by the prisoners. This information has allowed Urwin to provide a nuanced look at the Japanese guards and how the Americans survived three-and-a-half years in captivity and emerged with a much lower death rate than most other Allies captured in the Pacific. In part, Urwin says, the answer lies in the Wake Islanders’ establishment of life-saving communities that kept their dignity intact. Their mutual-help networks encouraged those who faltered under the physical and psychological torture, including what is today called water boarding. The book notes that the Japanese camp official responsible for that war crime was sentenced to life imprisonment by an American military tribunal. Most spent the war at a camp just outside Shanghai, one of the few places where Japanese authorities permitted the Red Cross to aid prisoners of war. The author also calls attention to the generosity of civilians in Shanghai, including Swiss diplomats and the American and British residents of the fabled International Settlement, who provided food and clothing to the prisoners. In addition, some of the guards proved to be less vicious than those stationed at other POW camps and occasionally went out of their way to aid the men. As the first historical work to fully explore the captivity of Wake Island’s defenders, the book offers information not found in other World War II historie
Author: Bill Sloan
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553585673
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 562
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Book Description
A gripping narrative of unprecedented valor and personal courage, here is the story of the first American battle of World War II: the battle for Wake Island. Based on firsthand accounts from long-lost survivors who have emerged to tell about it, this stirring tale of the “Alamo of the Pacific” will reverberate for generations to come. On December 8, 1941, just five hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes attacked a remote U.S. outpost in the westernmost reaches of the Pacific. It was the beginning of an incredible sixteen-day fight for Wake Island, a tiny but strategically valuable dot in the ocean. Unprepared for the stunning assault, the small battalion was dangerously outnumbered and outgunned. But they compensated with a surplus of bravery and perseverance, waging an extraordinary battle against all odds. When it was over, a few hundred American Marines, sailors, and soldiers, along with a small army of heroic civilian laborers, had repulsed enemy forces several thousand strong––but it was still not enough. Among the Marines was twenty-year-old PFC Wiley Sloman. By Christmas Day, he lay semiconscious in the sand, struck by enemy fire. Another day would pass before he was found—stripped of his rifle and his uniform. Shocked to realize he hadn’t awakened to victory, Sloman wondered: Had he been given up for dead—and had the Marines simply given up? In this riveting account, veteran journalist Bill Sloan re-creates this history-making battle, the crushing surrender, and the stories of the uncommonly gutsy men who fought it. From the civilians who served as gunmen, medics, and even preachers, to the daily grind of life on an isolated island—literally at the ends of the earth—to the agony of POW camps, here we meet our heroes and confront the enemy face-to-face, bayonet to bayonet.
Author: Leilani A. Magnino
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781555716264
Category : Carpenters
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Author: Gregory J. W. Urwin
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803295629
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 784
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Book Description
Facing Fearful Odds is based on interviews and correspondence gathered from more than seventy of Wake's American defenders and on research in archival and printed sources. The book covers the planning and political struggles that began Wake Island's transformation into a naval air station and submarine base, the U.S. Navy's eleventh-hour efforts to garrison and fortify Wake, and the various air, sea, and land attacks that resulted in the atoll's capture by the Imperial Japanese Navy. This study attempts to correct the myths that shroud what happened on the atoll. - from preface.
Author: John F. Kinney
Publisher: Potomac Books
ISBN: 9781574882049
Category : Fighter pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
"Within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese struck the small U.S. garrison on Wake Island. As his squadron's engineering office, Marine pilot John F. Kinney oversaw the repair of damaged planes when he himself was not in the air fighting off the Japanese assault. After the Americans held out for an incredible two weeks, Kinney was captured by the Japanese but eventually escaped in China. Wake Island Pilot is the memoir of a remarkable hero of one of World War II's epic struggles."--Page [4] cover.
Author: Bonita Gilbert
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612001416
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
The story of the Americans who came under attack five hours after Pearl Harbor was hit: “Intriguing, informative, gripping, and at times very moving” (Naval Historical Foundation). This intimately researched work tells the story of the thousand-plus Depression-era civilian contractors who came to Wake Island, a remote Pacific atoll, in 1941 to build an air station for the US Navy—charting the contractors’ hard-won progress as they scramble to build the naval base, as well as runways for US Army Air Corps B-17 Flying Fortresses, while war clouds gather over the Pacific. Five hours after their attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese struck Wake Island, which was now isolated from assistance. The undermanned Marine Corps garrison, augmented by civilian-contractor volunteers, fought back against repeated enemy attacks, at one point thwarting a massive landing assault. The atoll was under siege for two weeks as its defenders continued to hope for the US Navy to come to their rescue. Finally succumbing to an overwhelming amphibious attack, the surviving Americans, military and civilian, were taken prisoner. While most were shipped off to Japanese POW camps for slave labor, a number of the civilians were retained as workers on occupied Wake. Later in the war, the last ninety-eight Americans were brutally massacred by their captors. The civilian contractors who had risked distance and danger for well-paying jobs ended up paying a steep price: their freedom and, for many, their lives. Written by the daughter and granddaughter of civilians who served on Wake Island, Building for War sheds new light on why the United States was taken by surprise in December 1941, and shines a spotlight on the little-known, virtually forgotten story of a group of civilian workers and their families whose lives were forever changed by the events on this tiny atoll.
Author: Ralph F. Wetterhahn
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 147666997X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
During the first 10 months of the war in the Pacific, Japan achieved air supremacy with its carrier and land-based forces. But after major setbacks at Midway and Guadalcanal, the empire's expansion stalled, in part due to flaws in aircraft design, strategy and command. This book offers a fresh analysis of the air war in the Pacific during the early phases of World War II. Details are included from two expeditions conducted by the author that reveal the location of an American pilot missing in the Philippines since 1942 and clear up a controversial account involving famed Japanese ace Saburo Sakai and U.S. Navy pilot James "Pug" Southerland.
Author: William L. Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
For the first time ever, Bill Taylor shares his story of escape as a prisoner of war during World War II. This biography details Taylor’s astonishing experiences as a prisoner of war, an escapee, a wanderer through a strange land, and his eventual meeting with the famous Communist leader, Mao Zedong. This fascinating and engaging story shares the life of a war hero who was the only World War II prisoner of war to successfully escape, inspiring readers by revealing the personal strength and courageous adventures of a lone survivor.
Author: Stanley Coleman Jersey
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603444556
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 538
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Book Description
Presents battlefield accounts and first-person narratives from over 200 Allied and Japanese veterans of the battle on Guadalcanal Island between August 1942 and February 1943.
