Battle Digest: Pearl Harbor

Battle Digest: Pearl Harbor
Author: Christopher J. Petty
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Total Pages: 6
Release: 2020-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1649217099

A concise guide to the Japanese attack on Hawaii that plunged America into WWII, with facts, maps, historical significance, and more. As America prepared for WWII, everything changed on December 7, 1941—described by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a “date which will live in infamy”—when Japan launched a successful surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor. The devastating attack crippled the fleet, while showing the world the new dominance of carrier-borne aircraft in naval warfare. Japan’s tactical success, however, belied her strategic failure. With America’s declaration of war the following day, Japan had created a determined and powerful enemy. And while Japan did gain time to expand in the Pacific, that time would be short-lived. Japan had awakened the “sleeping giant” of America. Learn how Admiral Yamamoto’s bold plan caught America by surprise yet doomed the larger Japanese cause. Learn also about Japan’s lost opportunities during the attack—opportunities that would have tilted the scales decidedly more in her favor. The Battle Digest summary includes all the key aspects of the campaign and battle, including maps, images, and lessons learned.

All the Gallant Men

All the Gallant Men
Author: Donald Stratton
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2016-11-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0062645374

The New York Times bestselling memoir of survival and heroism at Pearl Harbor “An unforgettable story of unfathomable courage.” —Reader’s Digest In this, the first memoir by a USS Arizona sailor, Donald Stratton delivers an inspiring and unforgettable eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack and his remarkable return to the fight. At 8:10 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Seaman First Class Donald Stratton was consumed by an inferno. A million pounds of explosives had detonated beneath his battle station aboard the USS Arizona, barely fifteen minutes into Japan’s surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor. Near death and burned across two thirds of his body, Don, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan who had been steeled by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, summoned the will to haul himself hand over hand across a rope tethered to a neighboring vessel. Forty-five feet below, the harbor’s flaming, oil-slick water boiled with enemy bullets; all around him the world tore itself apart. In this extraordinary, never-before-told eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack—the only memoir ever written by a survivor of the USS Arizona—ninety-four-year-old veteran Donald Stratton finally shares his unforgettable personal tale of bravery and survival on December 7, 1941, his harrowing recovery, and his inspiring determination to return to the fight. Don and four other sailors made it safely across the same line that morning, a small miracle on a day that claimed the lives of 1,177 of their Arizona shipmates—approximately half the American fatalaties at Pearl Harbor. Sent to military hospitals for a year, Don refused doctors’ advice to amputate his limbs and battled to relearn how to walk. The U.S. Navy gave him a medical discharge, believing he would never again be fit for service, but Don had unfinished business. In June 1944, he sailed back into the teeth of the Pacific War on a destroyer, destined for combat in the crucial battles of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, and Okinawa, thus earning the distinction of having been present for the opening shots and the final major battle of America’s Second World War. As the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack approaches, Don, a great-grandfather of five and one of six living survivors of the Arizona, offers an unprecedentedly intimate reflection on the tragedy that drew America into the greatest armed conflict in history. All the Gallant Men is a book for the ages, one of the most remarkable—and remarkably inspiring—memoirs of any kind to appear in recent years. *Library Journal

Battle Digest: Bunker Hill

Battle Digest: Bunker Hill
Author: Christopher J. Petty
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Total Pages: 6
Release: 2021-10-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1637956053

The Battle Digest summary includes all the key aspects of the campaign and battle, including maps, images, and lessons learned. In the weeks following the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, Colonial militia and volunteers rallied around Boston to besiege Lt. Gen. Thomas Gage’s British garrison. But when reinforcements arrived from England, Gage devised a plan to regain the initiative by occupying Dorchester Heights south of town. When the Colonials heard of Gage’s plan, however, they preempted him by occupying different high ground ? the heights of Bunker Hill near Charlestown. When Gage awoke on 17 June to the sight of rebel positions on Breed’s Hill, he quickly attacked in what would be the first pitched battle of the American Revolution. The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill would prove a costly and shocking victory for the British, while giving the Colonials faith in their militias and an important boost of confidence for the long struggle ahead.

Battle Digest: Midway

Battle Digest: Midway
Author: Christopher J. Petty
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Total Pages: 6
Release: 2020-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1649216998

The Battle Digest summary includes all the key aspects of the campaign and battle, including maps, images, and lessons learned. After the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, it seemed nothing could stop Japanese offensive momentum in the Pacific. A string of victories and territorial conquests fueled optimism and confidence throughout Japan. But the U.S. Pacific Fleet was still a problem they had to solve. To complete its destruction and prevent further interference with Japan’s expansion plans, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto devised a plan to surprise U.S. forces by seizing Midway ? key strategic terrain that Japanese naval leaders were certain the U.S. would contest. The plan was designed to force the weakened U.S. fleet into battle.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor
Author: Homer N. Wallin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2001-09
Genre: Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941
ISBN: 9780898755657

Pearl Harbor will long stand out in mens minds as an example of the results of basic unpreparedness of a peace loving nation, of highly efficient treacherous surprise attack and of the resulting unification of America into a single tidal wave of purpose to victory. Therefore, all will be interested in this unique narrative by Admiral Wallin. The Navy has long needed a succinct account of the salvage operations at Pearl Harbor that miraculously resurrected what appeared to be a forever shattered fleet. Admiral Wallin agreed to undertake the job. He was exactly the right man for it _ in talent, in perception, and in experience. He had served intimately with Admiral Nimitz and with Admiral Halsey in the South Pacific, has commanded three different Navy Yards, and was a highly successful Chief of the Bureau of Ships. On 7 December 1941 the then Captain Wallin was serving at Pearl Harbor. He witnessed the events of that shattering and unifying "Day of Infamy." His mind began to race at high speeds at once on the problems and means of getting the broken fleet back into service for its giant task. Unless the United States regained control of the sea, even greater disaster loomed. Without victory at sea, tyranny soon would surely rule all Asia and Europe. In a matter of time it would surely rule the Americas. Captain Wallin salvaged most of the broken Pearl Harbor fleet that went on to figure prominently in the United States Navys victory. So the account he masterfully tells covers what he masterfully accomplished. The United States owes him an unpayable debt for this high service among many others in his long career.

Digest

Digest
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 988
Release: 1915
Genre:
ISBN:

Battle Digest: D-Day

Battle Digest: D-Day
Author: Christopher J. Petty
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Total Pages: 6
Release: 2020-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1649217080

A concise guide to the Normandy invasion with facts, maps, historical significance, strategies, and more. Operation Overlord, commonly referred to as “D-Day,” was the Allied invasion to secure a foothold in northern France to enable the final offensive into Germany. The Normandy invasion would be the largest combined air-sea assault landing in history. This massive feat would finally enable the Allies to deploy forces on the continent, of sufficient size and scale, to bring about the beginning of the end of Hitler and his Third Reich. Learn how General Eisenhower managed to attack German weakness with Allied strength as well as how intelligence and deception were crucial to the outcome. The Battle Digest summary includes all the key aspects of the campaign and battle, including maps, images, and lessons learned.

Battle Digest: Okinawa

Battle Digest: Okinawa
Author: Christopher J. Petty
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Total Pages: 6
Release: 2020-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 164921698X

The Battle Digest summary includes all the key aspects of the campaign and battle, including maps, images, and lessons learned. By early 1945, American forces had been fighting their way across the Pacific for over two and a half years. General Douglas MacArthur’s drive in the Southwest Pacific had reached the Philippines, while Admiral Chester Nimitz’s drive across the Central Pacific had advanced to the island of Iwo Jima. The next objective was Okinawa. With the capture of this key island, only 340 miles from the Japanese mainland, the Allies would secure their final staging base for the invasion of Japan. In the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific War, soldiers and Marines would grind through 82 days of combat. At the same time, U.S. and Allied ships would suffer their worst losses of the war from waves of Japanese kamikazes. But with this important victory, the Allies’ path to Japan was finally open.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor
Author: Craig Nelson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2016-09-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1451660510

“A valuable reexamination” (Booklist, starred review) of the event that changed twentieth-century America—Pearl Harbor—based on years of research and new information uncovered by a New York Times bestselling author. The America we live in today was born, not on July 4, 1776, but on December 7, 1941, when an armada of 354 Japanese warplanes supported by aircraft carriers, destroyers, and midget submarines suddenly and savagely attacked the United States, killing 2,403 men—and forced America’s entry into World War II. Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness follows the sailors, soldiers, pilots, diplomats, admirals, generals, emperor, and president as they engineer, fight, and react to this stunningly dramatic moment in world history. Beginning in 1914, bestselling author Craig Nelson maps the road to war, when Franklin D. Roosevelt, then the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, attended the laying of the keel of the USS Arizona at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Writing with vivid intimacy, Nelson traces Japan’s leaders as they lurch into ultranationalist fascism, which culminates in their scheme to terrify America with one of the boldest attacks ever waged. Within seconds, the country would never be the same. Backed by a research team’s five years of work, as well as Nelson’s thorough re-examination of the original evidence assembled by federal investigators, this page-turning and definitive work “weaves archival research, interviews, and personal experiences from both sides into a blow-by-blow narrative of destruction liberally sprinkled with individual heroism, bizarre escapes, and equally bizarre tragedies” (Kirkus Reviews). Nelson delivers all the terror, chaos, violence, tragedy, and heroism of the attack in stunning detail, and offers surprising conclusions about the tragedy’s unforeseen and resonant consequences that linger even today.

Pearl Harbor Revisited

Pearl Harbor Revisited
Author: Frederick D. Parker
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 104
Release: 2012-07-31
Genre: Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941
ISBN: 9781478344292

This is the story of the U.S. Navy's communications intelligence (COMINT) effort between 1924 and 1941. It races the building of a program, under the Director of Naval Communications (OP-20), which extracted both radio and traffic intelligence from foreign military, commercial, and diplomatic communications. It shows the development of a small but remarkable organization (OP-20-G) which, by 1937, could clearly see the military, political, and even the international implications of effective cryptography and successful cryptanalysis at a time when radio communications were passing from infancy to childhood and Navy war planning was restricted to tactical situations. It also illustrates an organization plagues from its inception by shortages in money, manpower, and equipment, total absence of a secure, dedicated communications system, little real support or tasking from higher command authorities, and major imbalances between collection and processing capabilities. It explains how, in 1941, as a result of these problems, compounded by the stresses and exigencies of the time, the effort misplaced its focus from Japanese Navy traffic to Japanese diplomatic messages. Had Navy cryptanalysts been ordered to concentrate on the Japanese naval messages rather than Japanese diplomatic traffic, the United States would have had a much clearer picture of the Japanese military buildup and, with the warning provided by these messages, might have avoided the disaster of Pearl Harbor.