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The book by Ian Toll is one good book on the naval action in 1941-42. I picked it up at the library. I'll have to take out the second book. It goes over the Coral Sea and Midway battles very well. Plus, easy to read and some decent maps. Check it out.

I have read that before..it is good

This one and "the conquering tide" will be under my Christmas tree! [:)]

Good kursk, I hope you like them.

Book 3. July 21, 2020

ORIGINAL: stretch

Book 3. July 21, 2020

Great find -

I have been looking for authoritative updates on the 3rd book.

There was (a few months ago) very little about progress other than delayed till 2020 and Toll's own website was silent on the subject.

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The books are very good in my opinion.

Ian's premise for writing them is very thoughtful.

A sweeping look at the war on a whole as opposed to the specialization of Midway, Guadalcanal, etc etc. He provides a lot of references to the more detailed studies and above all a lot of context about the sort of inevitability of certain decisions.

I like them somewhat more than Anthony Brevors' - his contemporary.

Spoilers below

I especially loved (2nd book as I recall) the passage outlining the production of Japanese Planes - hauled by Oxen - then Horses - for delivery - and how feed shortage was crimping supply. As I recall the quote is something along the lines of "..compare this situation to the production of Gruman" and suddenly the context is vividly clear.

I had read many books but never stumbled across this reference (and some others like it) very intriguing.

not wholly germane to this forum, but his book Six Frigates was a great read as well

+1 for Toll

In Pacific Crucible he goes very deeply into the personalities, details are fascinating. Yamamoto, Nimitz, Hirohito etc.
Sets the table really well.

Toll is a great writer. I have the three mentioned books (including "Six Frigates"). I look forward to the next one.

The Mitsubishi production system was amazing in that it's amazing they managed to produce what they did.

Cheers,
CB

Six Frigates is a very useful book for anyone interested in how the USN started it's days against the the Barbary pirates and the the RN in the war of 1812. Very interesting in that the six frigates were really not sister ships.