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John 3rd, first of all the library is your friend. No cost to get a card, and why buy them, when you can read them for free. And if La Salle is like where i am in chicago, you'll have access to over 100+ plus librarys, they will ship the book to the one closest to you...  I recommend touched with fire, and fire in the sky byt eric bergerud - excellent well thought out books covering combat- land and air- in the south pacific in 42-43.  Recquired reading in the Ucommon Valor forum.  also i recommend the 3 books by Lundrstom.  Covering carrier combat in 41-43..  I agree with the other posters that Shattered Sword is excellent as well.  Also well thought you... Remember, library, free books...  I've gone through at least 20 so far this year.  In fact i have "the cactus air force", and "The first south pacific campaign" from mine here next to me..

John, I have War Plan Orange (the book, as well as the game!) and it is excellent. I made a post about it a long time ago and Joe Wilkerson made a very favorable comment on the book as well. 

Which "new" War Plan Orange book is there?
By the way, the new Big Gun Monitor book is not merely a reprint, but a much enlarged treatment (more text, more photos).

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: Tiornu

Which "new" War Plan Orange book is there?
By the way, the new Big Gun Monitor book is not merely a reprint, but a much enlarged treatment (more text, more photos).

Look who is back... [:)]


Leo "Apollo11"

I often lurk. Book discussions can lure me into the open.

The Bergerud books are good - I'm just reading Fire In The Sky and they maybe do lack a little bit of depth in some parts but they are extremely well written and readable - everybody's taste in reading is different but I like my books to flow not get bogged down and these do it for me

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Has anyone read the new War Plan Orange book?  I can afford to get both of the Bergerud books and think I can get one more...

ORIGINAL: Hornblower

...first of all the library is your friend. No cost to get a card, and why buy them, when you can read them for free.

I second that thought; in fact, some libraries will even order new books upon request, depending on town budget and other concerns.

First Team = First Cav? If so, I was posted on Fort Hood in the eary 90's and went to war w/these guys as part of their "round out" brigade; 1st Cav gave us more grief than the Iraqis.

PM me if you want to hear the rest.

Eric Bergerud's third book dealing with the South Pacific, "Oil on the Water" will be available soon enough as well.  He told me that there will be a delay due to the fact that he is teaching officers at the Navy's Postgraduate School in Monterey. I couldn't nail down a specific date, although according to Amazon and other sources (depending on which you look at) we are talking one to three years. [X(]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

...I was disappointed with Sunburst...

Me too. My copy became a donation to the local library - which already had already received several copies.

For building bases, save yourself some money and read online:
http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Buildin ... #contents2

One of the hardest subjects on which to find data are the rear-area bases that never experienced any combat. Especially the Army garrisioned places like Canton Island and Christmas Island (the one south of Hawaii). There is an excellent but long out of print book titled Bogged Down in Bora Bora by Ervan F. Kushner that gives a lot of data on that garrison.

what didn't you like about it?

I didn't like Sunburst because I didn't learn that much from it.  My problem was one of expectation.  Kaigun was a magnificent and breath-taking work while Sunburst seemd to be somewhat of a rehash from the earlier book.  Now the author admitted to that in the Forward but I was completely disappointed.
 
Writing this got me to thinking about how Shattered Sword achieved the same feeling and impression on me as Kaigun.  Does anyone know if the author of Shattered plans on doing any more books and applying his work on Japanese carrier aviation to any of the other CV battles?  Coral Sea might be great...

Well yes, Sunburst does build on what was already written in "Kaigun" but being devoted entirely to IJNAF vs. the Navy as a whole, he could elaborate in places + go into the development history of the org as a whole. I figured that would turn away some readers, esp given the actual "in the war" section is only in the last chapter. Still...I found the book a worthwhile companion to Kaigun.

I've enjoyed Silent Victory by Clay Blair. I got a great deal of info about the U.S. Sub campaign in the Pacific, plus it can be found at the library.

ORIGINAL: Tiornu

Which "new" War Plan Orange book is there?
By the way, the new Big Gun Monitor book is not merely a reprint, but a much enlarged treatment (more text, more photos).

Tiornu... I didn't catch the "new" part. I am assuming that he means Edward Miller's War Plan Orange, published by the Naval Institute Press published back in '91. If I'm wrong, my apologies...

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

what didn't you like about it?

I guess it's more that I did not find what I wanted. TOE, Order of Battle data, combat usage and results. It's been a while since I had that copy. I have limited shelf space and a constant need to buy new books, so competition for space (and therefore retention) is fierce.

How about:

William L. McGee, “Amphibious Operations in the South Pacific in World War II”, BMC Publications, Santa Barbara CA, 2002

Vol 1: “The Amphibians are Coming! Emergence of the Gator Navy and it’s Landing Craft.

Vol 2: “The Solomons Campaigns 1942-1943, From Guadalcanal to Bouganville”

Vol 3: “Pacific Express-America’s World War II Military Supply System”

Vol 2 covers the Southern, Central, and Northern Solomons Campaigns, (land, sea and air) base development, Seabees, Airsols, & other stuff.

I just bought the "Impact" 8 book pictorial series...used, $50.  Well worth it.  Good period articles on weapons, aircraft, bombing results, tactics, and German/Japanese industry as well.

I'm half-way through "Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945" by Christopher Bayly & Tim Harper, and I'm really enjoying it. I wouldn't really call it a military history, but it's a fascinating account of the fall of the British empire in SE Asia. I also have bought the follow-up book by the same authors, "Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia", which covers what happened after the end of WW2.

Both books are available online, the first is out in paperback now.

(Just a plug - my favorite book on the Pacific war is still "The Rising Sun" by John Toland.)

Halsey's Typhoon
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors
Pacific Alamo
Cactus Air Force
Blue Skies and Blood

are all fivery good reads....

John, if you can detour from non-fiction for a couple of days, try Alistair MacLean's HMS Ulysses, a spectacular work of historical-fiction about an early convoy to Murmansk.  It's been on my list of top ten books I've read since highschool and I've re-read it about eight times, including last week.