writing for Google since 2003
On this date, 65 years ago the Malmedy Massacre took place – this was when the Waffen-SS murdered 115 American soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge.
The following is an excerpt from World’s Bloodiest History: Massacre, Genocide, and the Scars They Left on Civilization by Joseph Cummins. I plan on reviewing the book in a few weeks.
Patrick K. O’Donnell explores one of the most intriguing stories out of World War II - clandestine operations led by ex-German Jews against Nazi Germany – in his book They Dared Return: The Untold Story of Jewish Spies behind the Lines in Nazi Germany.
The book generally describes the planning and execution of several operations conducted by the American Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency) against the Nazis in German-occupied Austria and Yugoslavia. The operations centered around a group of Jewish soldiers who were German expatriates and who wanted to help the Allies defeat Nazi Germany – most of them had family members in the concentration camps. O’Donnell focuses mainly on Operation Greenup – an effort to find out about and try to thwart the Nazis’ plan to build a heavily fortified area for their last stand against the Allies.
Image via Wikipedia
I have read a lot of books on the individual battles fought in the Pacific Theater during World War II, but I have not read much on the strategy used by American political and military leaders – other than Plan Orange. So, in order to learn more about the strategy, I decided to read The Pacific War: The Strategy, Politics, and Players That Won the War by William B. Hopkins.
At a little less than 400 pages, this book is an excellent overview of the strategy and major personalities that shaped the American war effort in the Pacific. Hopkins succinctly explains the various strategies in competition with each other on how to defeat the Japanese – some of these strategies were advocated by one armed service over another one. For example, General Douglas MacArthur advocated that the main thrust of the American counterattack should start from Australia and move north with the U.S. Army taking the lead and the U.S. Navy taking a support role. However, Admiral Ernest King (Chief of Naval Operations), with the full support of Admiral Chester Nimitz (Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet), advocated an island hopping strategy across the Central Pacific with the U.S. Navy taking the lead (Hopkins is very partial to this plan).
Hopkins also brings much-needed attention to the unsung heroes of the Pacific Theater – the cryptologists and the submariners. The cracking of the Japanese military code and the information obtained – codenamed Japanese ULTRA – was a major intelligence coup that gave the United States a decided advantage over the Japanese. The Americans used ULTRA to its advantage in many battles. For example, Hopkins adroitly points out that the Americans knew where to send their precious carriers for maximum effect in the Battle of Midway.
World War II Japanese Tank Tactics by Gordon L. Rottman and Akira Takizawa is another booklet in Osprey’s “Elite” series, which explores the history of military forces, artifacts, personalities, and techniques of warfare. The book is 63 pages, including a few pages of additional commentary at the back of the book.
The book is divided into the following parts: Introduction (covering the creation of the first armored unit in the Imperial Japanese Army in 1934 to 1941); Unit Organization (the most common unit was the regiment); Doctrine (from infantry support to spearheading assaults); Tactics (attack and formation movements at the various unit levels); Tank Troops (selection and training); Communications and Maintenance (radio and other methods of communication and maintaining the armored forces); and Battle History (examples of battles involving Japanese armor).
Any aficionado of armor warfare will appreciate this book. The details in tactics and types of armor in the Imperial Japanese Army are excellent. For example, there are diagrams detailing the various attack movements of platoon and company formations of tanks. These visual aides, in conjunction with the text, help the reader have a better understanding of how the Japanese military leaders thought about the role of tanks in battle.
The authors argue that the Japanese Imperial Army never really embraced or understood the full potential of the tank. A majority of the early battles that their tanks were in were against infantry, not armor. Thus, the Japanese tank development never incorporated thicker armor. As a result, when the Japanese did encounter armor later in the war, their tanks were sorely outmatched.
In addition to the detailed text, the book is full of color diagrams and black and white photographs (many from Japanese archives – never seen by Western publishers).
This book is an excellent reference for knowing and understanding how Japanese armor was used in World War II.
