Midway: Dauntless Victory-Fresh Perspectives on America's Seminal Naval Victory of World War II
Peter C. Smith. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword Books, Ltd., 2007. 378 pp. Illus. Appens. Index. $60.
Reviewed by Chief Warrant Officer Ronald W. Russell, U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired)
Naval history students and scholars might rightly wonder why anyone at this late date would attempt yet another full-scale rendition of the Battle of Midway. Surely, it's a story that has been adequately told by now. But prolific British author Peter Smith's latest book not only retells the familiar story, it does so to a depth that is rarely, if ever, seen. He largely eschewed the battle's time-honored and well-worn references, instead undertaking original research into official archives in both the United States and Japan as well as extensive first-person interviews with Midway veterans in both countries. The result is an account of the battle that may somewhat resemble other volumes in style but definitely not in scope.
The book is literally crammed with detailed footnotes (indeed, some pages are little else) that immensely expand the narrative. The first appearance of virtually every notable Midway personality, even some of the minor players, is accompanied by a lengthy biographical footnote. Other notes and tables give an abundance of detail on the ships, aircraft, and squadrons engaged at Midway, including listings of every pilot and aircrew that launched from the atoll and from the American carriers on every combat sortie. Smith projects far beyond the battle with expansive segments concerning Midway's impact on numerous other nations, Allied and Axis, and how it was perceived by still others. Additionally, he has drawn on his 38 years as a military researcher and author to present perspectives that won't generally be found in other works on this topic, particularly the earlier ones.
Regrettably, Midway: Dauntless Victory has some fundamental flaws that prevent this otherwise remarkable book from being ranked among the best of class. Smith's "fresh perspectives" are just his personal opinions, and while they are exhaustively researched and should resonate well with almost anyone, an informed reader will find several passages that are quite vulnerable to debate, if not outright correction.
Examples include the author's views concerning the controversial flight of the USS Hornet (CV-8) air group, and how the battle might have evolved differently had Vice Admiral William Halsey been at the helm of Task Force 16 instead of the "black-shoe" Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance. Most troubling of all, though, are certain judgments Smith makes that smack of tabloid journalism rather than scholarly history.
His evaluation of Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's air search prior to the battle—"which, naturally, had seen nothing whatsoever"—is pointlessly arrogant. He alleges that "many respected critics and some veterans" have branded John Lundstrom's Black Shoe Carrier Admiral (Naval Institute Press, 2006), a detailed account of Fletcher during the 1942 carrier battles, as "highly biased and one-sided." But his only evidence of such criticism is a single quote from one veteran who wasn't at Midway. Smith selectively ignores the numerous favorable reviews Lundstrom's book has earned, and those "many respected critics" are apparently all anonymous.
Finally, Smith's book suffers from an inordinate number of simple typographical errors and structural gaffes. A few inconsequential mistakes of that kind can be excused in any work of similar magnitude, but the sheer number of them in this one turns what should be a minor imperfection into a much too noticeable defect. Embarrassing miscues like saying a ship made a 360-degree turn in order to reverse course, or footnote citations that take the reader to the wrong footnote should have been fixed in the editing process. (After publication, the author made it known that problems of that sort will be corrected in any subsequent reprint of the book.)
While such negatives do tarnish an otherwise impressive volume of wartime history, they are easily lost in its scope, which is richly detailed and mostly accurate. It should make a worthy addition to any naval history library providing the reader can look past the structural errors and some of the author's arguable assertions.
Mr. Russell, a retired operations manager and technical writer in the telecommunications industry, is the author of No Right to Win: A Continuing Dialogue with Veterans of the Battle of Midway (iUniverse, 2006). He is editor for the Battle of Midway Roundtable, an association of veterans, historians, and others having a strong interest in the battle.
The Way of the Ship: America's Maritime History Reenvisioned, 1600-2000
Alex Roland, W. Jeffrey Bolster, and Alexander Keyssar. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. 544 pp. Illus. Maps. Notes. Appens. Index. $35.
Reviewed by Larrie D. Ferreiro
Americans have been mariners of the rivers and littorals, not just of the open oceans, since long before they formed a nation. The Way of the Ship takes this broad view of American maritime history and waterborne commerce since its inception as a European colonial enterprise. As the authors deftly explain: "Americans began trading more with themselves than they did with the rest of the world. . . . The quintessential description of shipping is not Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast but Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi." This flies in the face of the generally acknowledged view of the nation as a traditionally seafaring power. As the authors carefully illustrate, the United States did not have a substantial ocean-going fleet until the end of World War I, and this essentially disappeared a decade after World War II.
The Way of the Ship is one of the first books commissioned by the newly formed American Maritime History Project, a not-for-profit group based at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy whose stated goal is to inform public policy by highlighting the role of maritime industries in American commerce. This book is a comprehensive history of the business of shipping in the United States, weaving the main fabric of economics and policy with technical and labor threads. It ambitiously covers 400 years in just over 400 pages, logically organized into five historical periods, with 46 easy-to-digest chapters. Although the authors paint the history with broad, sweeping strokes, they write with verve and clarity and have a telling eye for detail. For example, Robert Fulton's business partner in his steamboat enterprise, Robert Livingston, was simultaneously negotiating for the Louisiana Purchase, which would open the Mississippi River to the enormous profits of steamboat traffic.
The steamboat opened up the inland waterways during the mid-1800s and created the canal boom that reoriented the economy from the South and West to the Northeast, with New York City the big winner as the new confluence of inland and ocean-going trade. Most of the international trade was carried in British bottoms, with the short-lived Collins Lines the only real American challenger.
Instead, the majority of traffic was domestic, including the fast clipper ships that connected the two coasts. But they had little real impact on international oceangoing commerce; in the authors' wonderful turn of a phrase, "American shipping in this era captured the imagination, but it did not capture the market." The Civil War naval strategy reflected this dual pattern, with a large brown-water Union Navy blockading the South, and a small blue-water Confederate Navy raiding commerce on the open ocean. After the war, American shipping and shipbuilding drew even farther inward, focusing on lake- and river-born traffic as it integrated with the expanding railroad industry.
The 20th century saw the rise of the megaship, beginning with the giant Great Lakes ore carriers and continuing through the supertankers and containerships. A confluence of ship technologies, shipbuilding methods, and labor reforms radically changed the nature of the shipping industry during the two World Wars, resulting in a glut of ships but a shortage of mariners. At the end of World War II, U.S.-flagged ships accounted for an all-time high of 62 percent of the world's oceangoing fleet, but with the radical shedding of excess capacity and the move to flags of convenience, by 1952 that percentage had halved, dropping to just over 2 percent as the century drew to a close. The giant ships that were born of American influence, ironically invisible to the American population, have become the most cost-effective means of sending goods around the globe, continuing to integrate and transform the world economy.
The Way of the Ship has its weaknesses, imposed by the stated focus on economics and policy. For example, the U.S. Navy does not make its appearance until halfway through the book, and in several places the authors oversimplify the Mahanian concept of the role of the Navy as a protector of commercial shipping. There are also minor gaffes, such as misidentifying the builder of the clipper Sea Witch as Donald McKay, when in fact it was John Willis Griffiths. But these sorts of errors are common to all first editions, which will undoubtedly be corrected in the future, for The Way of the Ship will no doubt see many further printings. It is already the must-have reference for fully understanding America's maritime heritage.
Dr. Ferreiro, a naval architect and historian who teaches systems engineering at the Defense Acquisition University, is the author of Ships and Science: The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007).
The Ghost Mountain Boys: Their Epic March and the Terrifying Battle for New Guinea-The Forgotten War of the South Pacific
James Campbell. New York: Crown, 2007. 400 pp. Illus. Notes. Bib. Index. $25.95.
Reviewed by Major Dewayne Creamer, U.S. Air Force
New Guinea, due north of Australia, is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. Rugged mountains, thick jungles, and tropical diseases keep the island's indigenous population and many animal and plant species unknown to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, New Guinea's most prominent historic period occurred when outsiders used it as a battleground during World War II. Until recently, this subject was like the island itself, relatively unexplored. James Campbell's The Ghost Mountain Boys is an account of the 32nd U.S Infantry Division's determination to overcome lack of training, perseverance against New Guinea's punishing environment, and heroic triumph over a formidable Japanese foe. The Ghost Mountain Boys joins the ranks of World War II neo-classics Band of Brothers and Flags of Our Fathers by ensuring that history will not forget those who suffered and sacrificed so much during the Papua campaign in New Guinea.
After discussing the strategic situation in the South-West Pacific Area following the American defeat in the Philippines, Campbell introduces his protagonists, a handful of National Guardsmen from Michigan and Wisconsin who comprised the bulk of the 32nd Division. The author narrates the events of the Papua campaign by following these men from their prewar lives through military call-up, training, the long voyage to Australia, and finally, through their harrowing time on the island. Campbell seamlessly moves back and forth between different story lines by skillfully weaving primary and secondary source material. Heartwarming letters and diary entries, both funny and forlorn, provide valuable insights into Soldiers' experiences.
Most of the "Ghost Mountain Boys" joined the National Guard during the Great Depression for a paycheck or simply because they enjoyed socializing on drill weekends. Originally slated to deploy to Europe, the 32nd Division ended up in New Guinea without being combat ready, much less having any training, equipment, or medicine for operations in a tropical environment. Nonetheless, the Red Arrow Division (as the 32nd was known) was the first U.S. Army division to enter combat against the Japanese.
Shortly after arriving on New Guinea, the division marched 130 arduous miles over the Owen Stanley Range to the island's north coast. Soldiers struggled to maintain footing on treacherous trails. Drastic climate changes, from the oppressive heat and humidity of the jungle to bone-chilling temperatures on cloud-shrouded mountains, sapped more of the men's strength. Malaria and dysentery further decimated the ranks.
The sick, malnourished, and inexperienced Soldiers who staggered off the trail barely had time to catch their breath before being sent into battle against entrenched, veteran Japanese troops. But the 32nd proved to be a more than capable combat unit. After months of savage fighting, the Red Arrow finally controlled the island.
Although it reads like a novel, The Ghost Mountain Boys is a thoroughly researched non-fiction book. The author pored over archives and records, learned about malaria, obtained diaries and letters, crisscrossed the Midwest interviewing veterans and surviving family members, and literally traveled halfway around the world to write this book. The author's personal experience on the Owen Stanley Range trail in 2006 provided an uncommon perspective in understanding veteran accounts and describing trail conditions to the reader.
Campbell translated documents and diaries to accurately convey the experiences of the Japanese soldiers. As echoed in other scholarly works on the imperial Japanese military, his book provides evidence of a brilliant tactical fighting force that was doomed by an ambiguous national strategy, severe logistical shortcomings, and a crippling interservice rivalry. Although many American Soldiers initially thought of their counterparts as superhuman, diary entries and eyewitness accounts of shocking breakdowns in discipline exposed Japanese soldiers who were malnourished, disease-ridden, and acutely aware that their cause was lost.
It is doubtful that the battle for New Guinea will ever be remembered on par with famous Pacific campaigns. Fortunately, The Ghost Mountain Boys prevents the division's important victory from being forgotten in the desolate wilderness of New Guinea. Readers will find that James Campbell's attempt to honor the Ghost Mountain Boys is more intimate, more poignant, and perhaps more appropriate, than a mere granite monument.
Major Creamer is a former assistant professor of history at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Chronometer Jack: The Autobiography of the Shipmaster John Miller of Edinburgh (1802-1883)
Edited by Robin Craig, Ann Nix, and Michael Nix. Dunbeath: Scotland: Whittles Publishing, 2008. 192 pp. Illus. Appen. Bib. Index. $50.
Reviewed by Harold N. Boyer
This interesting book provides a view of British merchant seafaring during the course of the 19th century through a narrative of the life of a mariner. Captain John Miller's story begins with his life at sea as a midshipman with the East India Company and continues to his ownership of a fleet and his settlement in Tasmania.
The text was transcribed and edited from a battered, leather-bound notebook obtained from a second-hand bookseller. The author's objective was "merely to write down some of the leading facts and occurrences of fifty years of my life, exactly as they came to my memory without the aid of a single note or book of any kind, making a few remarks occasionally, on such subjects as required them."
Captain Miller was born on 11 September 1802 in Edinburgh, Scotland. After a sound secondary education he was appointed midshipman on the East India Company ship Lord Castlereagh in 1819, the first of three company ships on which he would serve. During the cruise on the Lord Castlereagh he visited Macao and on the return voyage to England made a stop at St. Helena during Napoleon's captivity. Appointed midshipman on the Marquis Camden in 1820, Miller obtained his sobriquet "Chronometer Jack" from her officers because he continually helped the captain "work a time" with the chronometer. By 1826 Miller was appointed third officer on the East Indiaman Asia bound for Madras and Calcutta. His subsequent career included duty as a shipmaster and coast guard officer.
Perhaps most interesting are Miller's observations on the human aspects of his profession. His descriptions of the officers and men he served with throughout his long career are detailed and, at times, humorous. He had a keen eye for detail and the book is full of descriptions of ports and historic occurrences. He ended his career under compulsory retirement with a penurious pension from the government that he had served for his entire adult life. Captain Miller died in his home in England on 2 February 1883.
Readers will find this book a fascinating view of British merchant seafaring life. In many respects it resembles Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, written in 1840. Photographs of contemporary art and documents add to this fascination. The references are extensive, detailed, and well worth reading as they lend explication to the text for those unfamiliar with British maritime history. The sources and bibliography display an excellent mix of primary and secondary sources. The subject index, however, is unfortunately inadequate to the task, with many subjects not receiving entries.