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Utmost Savagery : The Three Days of Tarawa by Joseph H., Col. Alexander | |
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From Booklist , 09/01/95:
Colonel Alexander brings to his outstanding account of the Battle of Tarawa in 1943 a Marine Corps career largely spent with the amphibious tractors whose ancestors had their first combat test at Tarawa. He makes plain that the assault on heavily defended Betio was strategically essential but included a number of tactical mistakes, such as too light a bombardment. The marines also had bad luck with the tides and faced a well-trained, well-fortified, equally determined opponent--their counterparts in the Japanese Naval Landing Force, Alexander's account of whom draws upon Japanese sources used adequately for the first time ever. At the cost of a thousand dead, the marines prevailed. It is a tribute to Alexander that the reader sweats out every hour of the battle as if the book were a novel. Alexander's surpasses every other existing account of the battle by a considerable margin.
Copyright© 1995, American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title.
Synopsis:
On November 20, 1943, 5,000 American soldiers stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a Japanese island fortress. Now, Col. Joseph Alexander, a combat Marine himself, presents the full story in all its horror and glory. A Military Book Club main selection, this work has received the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Outstanding Writer of the Year, the Roosevelt Naval History Prize, and the 1995 General Wallace M. Greene, Jr. Award as best nonfiction book pertinent to Marine Corps history.
Booknews, Inc. , 02/01/96:
The Battle of Tarawa in November 1943 left 6,000 dead in an area the size of the Pentagon and its parking lots. Drawing on primary sources, new translations of Japanese documents, and interviews with survivors, the author describes the bloody conquest by the newly created Central Pacific Force, the first trial-by-fire of America's fledgling amphibious assault doctrine. Includes b&w photos and drawings. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title.
Customer Comments
[email protected] from Nashville, TN , 10/25/97, rating=8:
A military analysis, not a war story.
While the book gives a thorough description of the battle, it is more a military analysis than a war story. The author discusses many military aspects of the campaign, including background on the decision to attack the Gilberts and the planning of Operation Galvanic, the problems preparing for the attack, the nightmarish experience of the Marines in the landing, the post-battle recognition of the Betio assault as a watershed between Gallipoli and Normandy in the history of amphibious warfare, and much more. Many of the complexities of this type of assault were encountered for the first time at Betio, emerging as critical failures at great cost of life, such as proper equipment for crossing the shallow reef of an atoll while under fire, the consequences of inadequate communications and the failure of the pre-landing artillery barrage to suppress the defense, all of which are discussed in detail. Many of these problems were solved as the battle progressed, and the author describes how new assault tactics were developed by units in the field. The portion of the book which chronicles the assault itself was painstakingly researched and documented, and though it includes accounts of individual actions and heroism, there is very little first-person narrative other than comments used as corroboraton for some conclusion by the author. Nontheless, the "utmost savagery" and horror of close combat to the death by thousands of highly trained, heavily armed men on this small, flat island is clearly communicated. I appreciated the inclusion of the Japanese side of the story; the explanation of their overall situation at this point in the war, their defensive strategy and preparations for the assault, unrealized plans for a counterattack against the American fleet, and accounts from the few Japanese survivors are very illuminating and add important context to the story. Although I can't say I "enjoyed" the book in the usual sense - does one "enjoy" a textbook? - I have gained a larger understanding and appreciation of the battle that will be most useful as I go on to read other, more personal accounts. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title.
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