WPO book from Naval Institute Press

[bradfordkay]

Has anyone else found Edward S Miller's "War Plan Orange" from the Naval Institute Press? It's a study of the development of the strategy for a Pacific Ocean war from the Spanish American War through WW2.

I'm about a third of the way through it and am finding it fascinating, though dry...

[dwwindsor]

Did you have any problems finding a copy? What sources did he use?

[jwilkerson]

Primary sources are documents from the multitudinous "war planning" committees and departments that existing in the 40+ years covered by the document. Mostly plans and memos. Secondary sources include bios of the major players involved in planning.

Focus is definitely on the US side, thesis is that planning slooowly evolved from a non-workable "Thrusters" approach, which called for a rapid offensive to "save" the PI garrison, into a more methodical "Cautionary" approach which recognized that the offensive would take years to play out, primarily due to logistical considerations. Miller also compares the actual war to the pre-war planning and concludes that events followed the final versions of the plan pretty well.

This is currently the book on US planning to fight in the Pacific prior to WWII.


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For a glimpse at the Japanese side, see Evans and Peattie's Kaigun.

[engineer]

Ditto JW's comments.  One of the interesting bits that Miller gets into is even considering class rank at Annapolis versus the quality of the planning that the various staff officers did during their tours of duty. 

I got my copy 20 years ago direct from USNI when I was a member.  It's in print at Amazon and CAIMAN_COM has a new copy that undercuts Amazon by a few bucks.  I've bought from CAIMAN_COM before and they did a good job.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1591145007/ref=sr_1_olp_1/002-9831532-6313647?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179161234&sr=8-1

[Desertmole]

I got about a third of the way through but died of thirst.  Very dry.  On the other hand Kaigun by Peattie is an excellent read on Japanese naval strategy and much better written.  It is also available from US Naval Institute.  Another book by Peattie is Sunburst, which is a book on the development of the Japanese naval air service from the beginning to 1941. 

[waynec]

another fun read is 1931 THE GREAT PACIFIC WAR by hector c. bywater. it's a hypothetical written in 1925. think i found mine on amazon.

[bradfordkay]

Wayne, I think that there were references to that novel in WPO. Either that, or I read said references somewhere else very recently. Thanks for posting the title information, I'll check for it as well.

[waynec]

am currently reading FROM MAHAN TO PEARL HARBOR by Sadao Asada. starts after ww1 with the washing naval treaties. a bit dry unless you are interested in the era but it does show how the japanese navy took mahan to the extremes and thus expalins some of the many stupid decisions made by the japanese from 1931 to 1945.

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: waynec

am currently reading FROM MAHAN TO PEARL HARBOR by Sadao Asada. starts after ww1 with the washing naval treaties. a bit dry unless you are interested in the era but it does show how the japanese navy took mahan to the extremes and thus expalins some of the many stupid decisions made by the japanese from 1931 to 1945.

This one has been on my "gotta get it" list for some time ... so it doesn't cover the background around the first treaty (1921-22) ??? Also it just covers the "stupid" decisions !? Wow! Pretty darn selective of it, eh!! [:D]