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WAR OVER THE PACIFIC, 1941-1945
Whilst browsing in a local Barnes & Noble bookstore a couple of weeks ago (i.e. February 21, 2020), I came across this book by chance. As a longtime aviation enthusiast, I resolved to buy this book forthwith.
"PACIFIC AIR: How Fearless Flyboys, Peerless Aircraft, and Fast Flattops Conquered the Skies in the War With Japan" is a fascinating story on many levels of how the U.S. Navy's aviation arm (inclusive of aircraft carriers) developed between the wars and became one of the key elements in America's arsenal that helped ensure victory against Imperial Japan in the Second World War. The book also shares with the reader the history of Grumman Aircraft, its burgeoning relationship with the U.S. Navy during the 1930s, and the aircraft it designed and perfected (e.g. the F4F Wildcat, the F6F Hellcat, and the TBF Avenger dive/torpedo bomber) whose pilots served as the spearhead from the earliest raids by U.S. carrier task forces against Japanese military installations in the Marshalls and Gilbert Islands in February 1942, to the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway, later to the struggles for Allied supremacy in the Solomon Islands during 1942 and 1943, and onward to the final decisive sea and air battles in the Central Pacific in 1944 and 1945.
What also makes this book doubly interesting are the insertion of eyewitness accounts from the various U.S. Navy personnel (flyers, gunners, and junior and senior staff officers), which give an immediacy to "PACIFIC AIR" that otherwise it would be without. Furthermore, I appreciated the author's mention in various parts of the book about the life and combat career of Saburo Sakai, a prewar trained Imperial Japanese Navy fighter pilot who was one of the few of Japan's top aces to survive the war. His record of combat from China, to the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, over Guadalcanal (August 1942), and over the Pacific and Japan (after surviving a grievous head wound sustained in combat with U.S. Navy fighters and dive bombers) during 1944 and 1945, is truly impressive.
I highly recommend "PACIFIC AIR" for anyone who is fascinated with aviation and compelling human interest stories. It also has some interesting photos of planes and the various U.S. Navy pilots and personnel who played crucial roles in the Second World War.