Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #347311 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Amazon.com
The South Pacific campaign of World War II set new standards for savagery in modern warfare. The ground fighting reached a peak of intensity when the U.S. Marines landed at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands while the Australians repulsed the Japanese advance across New Guinea. Battling jungle rot and malaria, the Australian Army teamed with the U.S. against the Japanese, whose battle ethos demanded they fight until victory or extermination. In Touched by Fire, Eric Bergerud, a professor of military and American history at Lincoln University in San Francisco, restores the campaign to its rightful place of importance as a diabolical struggle for survival in World War II's most heartless terrain.

From Publishers Weekly
Turning his attention from the Vietnam War (Red Thunder, Tropical Lightning; The Dynamics of Defeat), Bergerud, who teaches military and American history at San Francisco's Lincoln University, focuses on ground combat in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands from mid-1942 until early 1944-a time when the South Pacific was the focal point of the land war between Japan and U.S. By synthesizing dozens of interviews with American and Australian participants into a strong analytical framework, he provides a definitive presentation of the dynamics of jungle war. Tactics, weapons, morale, medical services, human relationships in squads, platoons and companies-all are covered. The author's sources provide a vivid sense of what it was like to lead a patrol, to survive a firefight and to bury the dead. Bergerud is at his best discussing the strengths and weaknesses of American National Guard divisions that formed the backbone of the U.S. contribution to the South Pacific theater. At times, he seems too ready to take the Australians at their own, high evaluation of themselves-but he is hardly the first military historian to be seduced by the myths surrounding the Australian Imperial Forces. And if his discussion of the Japanese side doesn't match his treatment of the Allied forces, Meirion and Susie Harries's Soldiers of the Sun can be consulted for balance. Bergerud makes a major contribution here to our understanding not only of a specific campaign but of the nature of war itself. Maps.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Bergerud (military and American history, Lincoln Univ., San Francisco) turns his attention to the land war between Japan and the Allies in New Guinea, New Britain, and the Solomon Islands from July 1942 to early 1944. The "general public has largely forgotten a long and crucial portion of the Pacific War," Bergerud writes, and he goes on to claim that the nature of this particular ground combat was unique in this century. Using a topical approach to the campaign, the author is concerned with the geography of the South Pacific, the men themselves, their weapons, and a sizable amount of oral history taken from survivors on both sides. Bergerud pulls no punches in his opinions when dealing with topics such as the reason for the ferocity of the combat, Japan's strategic failure, the arrogance and racism displayed by both sides, and the role of the United States. While one may argue with some of his conclusions, Bergerud has written a highly detailed and interesting account of a campaign that, with the exception of Guadalcanal, has not received its fair share of attention. This book should be the starting point for any serious study of the war in the South Pacific.?Harold N. Boyer, Locust Valley Lib., N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.