MacArthur's Victory: The War in New Guinea, 1943-1944

by Harry A. Gailey

A GREAT WARRIOR AT THE PEAK OF HIS POWERS

In March 1942, General Douglas MacArthur faced an enemy who, in the space of a few months, captured Malaya, Burma, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, and, from their base at Raubaul in New Britain, threaten Australia. Upon his retreat to Australia, MacArthur hoped to find enough men and matériel for a quick offensive against the Japanese. Instead, he had available to him only a small and shattered air force, inadequate naval support, and an army made up almost entirely of untried reservists.

Here is one of history’s most controversial commanders battling his own superiors for enough supplies, since President Roosevelt favored the European Theater; butting heads with the Navy, which opposed his initiatives; and on his way to making good his promise of liberating the Philippines.

In the battles for Buna, Lae, and Port Moresby, the capture of Finschhafen, and other major actions, he would prove his critics wrong and burnish an image of greatness that would last through the Korean War. This was the “other” Pacific the one MacArthur fought in New Guinea and, against all odds and most predictions, decisively won.

Genres: History, World War II, Military History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction, American

304 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 2004

About the author

A specialist in the history of Britain's African colonies, Harry Alfred Gailey served in the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, after which he worked as a civil and mechanical engineer. After earning a Ph.D. in history at UCLA in 1958, Gailey taught at Northwest Missouri State University for five years before joining the faculty at San Jose State University, where he taught until he assumed emeritus status. In his retirement, Gailey wrote several books about the Pacific campaigns in World War II.

Reviews

[Steve Dedier · Rating 3 out of 5]

While providing a good overview of the campaign, it's very dry reading.
The author praises MacArthur while repeatedly pointing out his failings as a commander. Ignoring intelligence on enemy strength. Criticized the Australian troops and commanders while they bore the brunt of early fighting. Leading from Australia and having no idea of the situation on the ground.
But mostly, his single minded push to return to the Philippines and not thinking of the bigger picture of defeating Japan.

[Bruinrefugee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn a little about this book -- in part because I read this and the author's MacArthur Strikes Back back-to-back. On the one hand, it's fair coverage of a World War II arena that gets precious little coverage and it's informative. On the other, there are certain points that get overly repetitious, especially when contained in both books. This tends to occur when relating the command relationships, but the same problem happens whenever the book is relating events that the books organizes as occurring in parallel time -- you get a cross-over fact a first time, then a second, then maybe a third but without narrative connection to the previous times.

Pros: informative, when it has them the maps are informative, a decent perspective, and until near the end Australian armed forces play a prominent role, and I felt I learned something meaningful about MacArthur.

My one last wish is that it had tied the Japanese situation and their overall dispositions together better. There's references to 350,000 troops in the area but their in all these small packets. The reasoning seems to be implicit in the discussion of challenges re: supply and the like, but a little more strategic overview would have been great. Still a good addition.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book.