I have the huge John Costello book, The Pacific War: 1941-1945. It's not very portable, so might not be what you are looking for, but it has to be as comprehensive as a single volume, general overview of this vast war that is available.

I'm not much of a twentieth century reader, so that's all I got.

I do remember a class on amphibious warfare I attended. We discussed Tarawa at length and the difficulties one might encounter in a landing...difficulties like losing 80% of your first wave. The only question I could think to ask of the instructor when the time came was, "how do I ensure that I end up in wave 10 or later?"

I guess there was also Ronald Spector's book Eagle Against the Sun, which was very popular in its day. Also a hefty book, but looks like it is available on kindle. I did not end up getting that one because the title made me think it did not cover, or covered very lightly, the conflicts in China, Burma, and so on where Americans were not doing the bulk of the fighting and I wanted the entire war. Maybe that book does cover these areas in more detail than I think. I've never read it, but I think it is held in high regard.

Last edited by Jeff Reed (2015-02-19 20:04:10)

Definitely a mistake. It's a big book. I remember it always being on the shelves at the big bookstores back in the 80s and 90s.

My grandfathers both ended up in Europe. But all of my great uncles were in the Pacific. One was an army medic. No thanks.

My paternal granfather, Mr. Reed came back with what we would call PTSD today. Great guy, but totally shattered by the war. His unit came to the continent in mid-December 1944 and were placed in Patton's army. Totally new to combat, they were thrown in to stop the German attack in the Ardennes, and by all accounts they got messed up pretty bad. They subsequently moved near to Buchenwald shortly after its liberation.

I have a German pistol he brought back, his helmet, and more mundane, his issued sewing kit. Also have a Japanese sword and scabbard with characters engraved on it that one of my great uncles took.

Eagle Against the Sun is the front runner for now.  Looks good, comes highly recommended (by you guys and others) and seems like a good primer on the subject.