Reader's Guide to Military History

Reader's Guide to Military History
Author: Charles Messenger
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 985
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135959706

This book contains some 600 entries on a range of topics from ancient Chinese warfare to late 20th-century intervention operations. Designed for a wide variety of users, it encompasses general reviews of aspects of military organization and science, as well as specific wars and conflicts. The book examines naval and air warfare, as well as significant individuals, including commanders, theorists, and war leaders. Each entry includes a listing of additional publications on the topic, accompanied by an article discussing these publications with reference to their particular emphases, strengths, and limitations.

A Magnificent Fight

A Magnificent Fight
Author: Robert J Cressman
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2013-09-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1612512305

Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese land-based bombers pounded Wake Island, the American advanced base that was key to the U.S. Navy’s strategy in the Pacific. Throughout the next two weeks, the Wake Island garrison survived nearly daily bombings and repulsed the first Japanese attempt to take the atoll. The determined defenders provided a badly needed lift to American morale. Cressman was the first to make extensive use of Japanese materials to identify the enemy order of battle and the roles each unit played in the drama to provide a moving account of the heroism of the defenders in the face if tremendous odds.

Historical Dictionary of World War II

Historical Dictionary of World War II
Author: Anne Sharp Wells
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2023-12-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1538102560

World War II was the largest and most costly conflict in history, the first true global war. Fought on land, on sea, and in the air, it involved numerous countries and killed, maimed, or displaced millions of people, both civilian and military, around the world. In spite of the alliances that bound many of the same participants, the war was essentially two separate but simultaneous conflicts: one involved Japan as the major antagonist and took place mostly in Asia and the Pacific; and the other, initiated by Germany and Italy, was contested mainly in Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. This book focuses on the lesser known war, the war with Japan. It begins with Japan’s seizure of Manchuria from China in 1931 and covers Japan’s ambitious attacks on Pearl Harbor and other territories ten years later, the use of atomic bombs on Japan’s cities, and the end of the Allied occupation of Japan in 1952. Although Japan renounced war in its 1947 constitution, conflict continued across Asia, as former colonies fought for independence and civil war engulfed other areas. Historical Dictionary of World War II: The War Against Japan, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 500 cross-referenced entries on the military, diplomatic, political, social, economic, and scientific aspects of the war, in addition to the lives of the people who participated in and directed the war. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the war against Japan during World War II.

Rising Sun, Falling Skies

Rising Sun, Falling Skies
Author: Jeffrey Cox
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 506
Release: 2014-03-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472808347

Author Jeffrey Cox conducts a thorough and compelling investigation of the Java Sea Campaign, the first major sea battle of the Pacific War, which inflicted huge costs on the Allies and set the stage for Japan's rout across the Pacific and Indian oceans. Few events have ever shaken a country in the way that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor affected the United States. The Japanese forces then continued to overwhelm the Allies, attacking Malaya with its fortress of Singapore, and taking resource-rich islands in the Pacific in their own blitzkrieg offensive. Allied losses in these early months after America's entry into the war were great, and among the most devastating were those suffered during the Java Sea Campaign, where a small group of Americans, British, Dutch, and Australians were isolated in the Far East – directly in the path of the Japanese onslaught. It would be the first major sea battle of World War II in the Pacific.

The Dutch Naval Air Force Against Japan

The Dutch Naval Air Force Against Japan
Author: Tom Womack
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2023-09-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1476648182

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Dutch Naval Air Force--or Marine Luchtvaart Dienst (MLD)--played a significant but largely overlooked role in the opening months of the Pacific War. With 175 aircraft, the MLD greatly outnumbered the combined forces of its American and British allies. In three months of intense combat, the MLD lost 50 percent of its personnel and 80 percent of its aircraft, as the Netherlands' colonial empire was stripped away. This book details MLD operations during the Japanese invasion of Dutch East Indies, giving a comprehensive overview of organization, personnel, aircraft, equipment and tactics. For the first time in English, the failed evacuation of Java is examined.