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Pacific Thunder: The US Navy's Central Pacific Campaign, August 1943–October 1944
On 27 October 1942, four “Long Lance” torpedoes fired by the Japanese destroyers Makigumo and Akigumo exploded in the hull of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). Minutes later, the ship that had launched the Doolitte Raid six months earlier slipped beneath the waves of the Coral Sea. Of the pre-war carrier fleet the Navy had struggled to build over 15 years, only three were left: Enterprise, that had been badly damaged in the battle of Santa Cruz; USS Saratoga (CV-3) which lay in dry dock, victim of a Japanese submarine torpedo; and the USS Ranger (CV-4), which was in mid-Atlantic on her way to support Operation Torch.
For the American naval aviators licking their wounds in the aftermath of this defeat, it would be difficult to imagine that within 24 months of this event, Zuikaku, the last survivor of the carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor, would lie at the bottom of the sea. Alongside it lay the other surviving Japanese carriers, sacrificed as lures in a failed attempt to block the American invasion of the Philippines, leaving the United States to reign supreme on the world's largest ocean.
This is the fascinating account of the Central Pacific campaign, one of the most stunning comebacks in naval history as in 14 months the US Navy went from the jaws of defeat to the brink of victory in the Pacific.
For the American naval aviators licking their wounds in the aftermath of this defeat, it would be difficult to imagine that within 24 months of this event, Zuikaku, the last survivor of the carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor, would lie at the bottom of the sea. Alongside it lay the other surviving Japanese carriers, sacrificed as lures in a failed attempt to block the American invasion of the Philippines, leaving the United States to reign supreme on the world's largest ocean.
This is the fascinating account of the Central Pacific campaign, one of the most stunning comebacks in naval history as in 14 months the US Navy went from the jaws of defeat to the brink of victory in the Pacific.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published November 21, 2017
About the author
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
27 books38 followersMost of my non-fiction writing is in the field of aviation, primarily the history of people, units and events, though I am also interested in technological developments and their influence on events.
I first ran across "serious" aviation writing when I was 10 and found William Green's "All The World's Aircraft, 1954" - the first book I read that seriously dealt with aircraft development beyond picture books. Over the years I read many books by Bill (as I came eventually to know him), and 25 years later he was the first editor to professionally publish an article by me about an aviation topic (a feature about people in California who restored, owned and operated antique airplanes). Not only did he publish the article, he used my photograph for the cover of that issue of Air Enthusiast Quarterly! In the years that followed, Bill became a friend through the mail, a source of valuable insight about writing, and an enthusiastic supporter of my efforts. I've had a lot of success that way with fellow authors.
My interest in the field of aviation must be genetic. My mother's favorite tale about me was that my first word, spoken around age 1, was "o-pane!" when we were in a park in Denver, and I pointed up at a P-38 as it flew overhead.
My father was involved in aviation in the 1930s, and knew most of the Major Names of the era, like Jimmy Doolittle, Roscoe Turner, and even Ernst Udet. (As an aside, I met General Doolittle myself in 1976. Upon hearing my name, he looked me up and down, then shook his head and said "Nope, too young and too tall." Taken aback for a moment, I realized he was thinking of my father, also a Tom Cleaver. Once I identified myself, he told me a story about my father I had never heard before. I later discovered he had near-perfect recall of names and events.) I grew up looking at my father's photo albums of the old airplanes he had been around, which is probably why I most enjoy airplanes from those years.
In addition to writing about airplanes, I take pictures of them in flight. As a result of both activities, I have flown in everything from a Curtiss Jenny to an Air Force F-4E Phantom (definitely the best rollercoaster ride ever), and have additionally been up in World War II airplanes - the P-51 Mustang, P-40 Warhawk, SBD Dauntless, B-25 Mitchell, and many many many times in a T-6. As a pilot myself, I have about 200 hours in a Stearman biplane trainer as a member of a club back in the 1970s. I am certain my personal knowledge of flying as a pilot has helped me put a reader "in the cockpit" in my writing.
While I have advanced college and university degrees, I consider myself an autodidact, and I see the involvement with airplanes as my key to the world of self-education, as I would ask myself "what was that airplane used for?" which led to such questions as "how did that war happen?" I was also fortunate to grow up in a home with lots of books and a father who enjoyed history; between that and forays to the Denver Public Library (a Saturday spent in the stacks at the Main Library was a day in heaven), my education was very eclectic in subject matter.
My "film school" education came on Saturday afternoons spent at the old Park Theater on South Gaylord Street in Denver, where I went every Saturday from age 7 to age 15 when the theater closed, and watched everything that played on-screen. Somewhere along there, I learned the meaning of "good movie."
I first ran across "serious" aviation writing when I was 10 and found William Green's "All The World's Aircraft, 1954" - the first book I read that seriously dealt with aircraft development beyond picture books. Over the years I read many books by Bill (as I came eventually to know him), and 25 years later he was the first editor to professionally publish an article by me about an aviation topic (a feature about people in California who restored, owned and operated antique airplanes). Not only did he publish the article, he used my photograph for the cover of that issue of Air Enthusiast Quarterly! In the years that followed, Bill became a friend through the mail, a source of valuable insight about writing, and an enthusiastic supporter of my efforts. I've had a lot of success that way with fellow authors.
My interest in the field of aviation must be genetic. My mother's favorite tale about me was that my first word, spoken around age 1, was "o-pane!" when we were in a park in Denver, and I pointed up at a P-38 as it flew overhead.
My father was involved in aviation in the 1930s, and knew most of the Major Names of the era, like Jimmy Doolittle, Roscoe Turner, and even Ernst Udet. (As an aside, I met General Doolittle myself in 1976. Upon hearing my name, he looked me up and down, then shook his head and said "Nope, too young and too tall." Taken aback for a moment, I realized he was thinking of my father, also a Tom Cleaver. Once I identified myself, he told me a story about my father I had never heard before. I later discovered he had near-perfect recall of names and events.) I grew up looking at my father's photo albums of the old airplanes he had been around, which is probably why I most enjoy airplanes from those years.
In addition to writing about airplanes, I take pictures of them in flight. As a result of both activities, I have flown in everything from a Curtiss Jenny to an Air Force F-4E Phantom (definitely the best rollercoaster ride ever), and have additionally been up in World War II airplanes - the P-51 Mustang, P-40 Warhawk, SBD Dauntless, B-25 Mitchell, and many many many times in a T-6. As a pilot myself, I have about 200 hours in a Stearman biplane trainer as a member of a club back in the 1970s. I am certain my personal knowledge of flying as a pilot has helped me put a reader "in the cockpit" in my writing.
While I have advanced college and university degrees, I consider myself an autodidact, and I see the involvement with airplanes as my key to the world of self-education, as I would ask myself "what was that airplane used for?" which led to such questions as "how did that war happen?" I was also fortunate to grow up in a home with lots of books and a father who enjoyed history; between that and forays to the Denver Public Library (a Saturday spent in the stacks at the Main Library was a day in heaven), my education was very eclectic in subject matter.
My "film school" education came on Saturday afternoons spent at the old Park Theater on South Gaylord Street in Denver, where I went every Saturday from age 7 to age 15 when the theater closed, and watched everything that played on-screen. Somewhere along there, I learned the meaning of "good movie."
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 5, 2020
Meh. Not a bad read, but I didn't feel that Cleaver had anything new to teach me about this campaign. The focus is on aircraft carriers and aircraft, but because of that much about the complex and varied types of combat is neglected here.
December 29, 2018
An interesting read, covering the Central Campaign in the Pacific from August 1943 to October 1944. Cleaver separates out various aspects of the Pacific War by chapter – one chapter describes the assorted Admirals and command structures; one pretty interesting chapter discuses carrier development before and during the war; another narrates the submarine-based rescue policies… something that has gotten little recognition in WWII histories. Submarines were specifically assigned and stationed off target islands for the single purpose of rescuing downed aviators. Some of the more notable exploits are wonderful to read. Cleaver devotes another chapter to Captain Miles Browning, a man who had a huge impact on the naval war in the Pacific during this period – good and bad, very bad. He was protected from the consequences of his significant personal failings by his mentor, Admiral Halsey. He very nicely contrasts Spruance and Halsey, strengths and weaknesses and the effects their disparate personalities had on the naval war. He has another chapter devoted to Butch O’Hare, the US Navy’s first Medal of Honor winner.
Cleaver does a nice job of explaining the American and Japanese strategies, their differences and the underlying reasons for them as well as the real life consequences of the decisions and the tactics these differences created. In those chapters devoted to the respective battles and campaigns, he lays out the reasons for the events, the underlying strategy and the command influences of the top echelon commanders, before getting into a detailed account of the event itself. His depictions of the various air battles, big and small, read more like a box score than a story with lengthy listings of who shot down what Japanese airplanes and when… Lt Smith scored three Zekes, Ensign Jones got a Zeke and a Betty, Lt (jg) Adams shot down a Zeke… plus listing US losses by name and aircraft. When he does digress into a fuller narrative of an event or an aviator’s air battle, it is well done and exciting to read.
One thing that his approach does drive home is the continuous, unrelenting nature of the naval air war in the Pacific. We read extensive and detailed histories of the major battles – the Marianas Turkey Shoot, the Battles off Leyte – the constant raids and attacks that were the war effort before and after such major battles is far less recognized. Serial raids on Japanese strong-holds like Rabaul and Truk, the endless series of attacks on Japanese island fortifications and air bases, all get little more than passing notice when in fact they were constantly occurring, constantly drawing down resources and pilot endurance. Cleaver drives home the wear and tear on men and machines that this near constant war effort caused. The fleet command structure would get swapped out (Spruance and Halsey, for example) but the aviators and the sailors of the fleet stayed on the front lines.
Although mostly an air campaign history, as this period manifestly was, Cleaver’s account of the Japanese attack off Leyte, the Battles of Surigao Straits, San Bernardino Straits and Samar, are exceptionally well done. Brief, as is the book in its entirety, but thrilling and insightful. His abbreviated account of the destroyers Johnston, Hoel and Heerman plus the gallant little DE Samuel Roberts attacking the Japanese battle line off Samar is gripping despite the brevity. See “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” by James D. Hornfischer for a superb history that properly immortalizes the courage and the gallantry of these four ships and their crews.
All in all, Cleaver’s work is excellent. It is short, very readable, and filled with insights, observations and relevant information. It is a clear-eyed, objective testament to the stamina, dedication and courage of so many… and so many of them named in the book. Well worth the read!
Cleaver does a nice job of explaining the American and Japanese strategies, their differences and the underlying reasons for them as well as the real life consequences of the decisions and the tactics these differences created. In those chapters devoted to the respective battles and campaigns, he lays out the reasons for the events, the underlying strategy and the command influences of the top echelon commanders, before getting into a detailed account of the event itself. His depictions of the various air battles, big and small, read more like a box score than a story with lengthy listings of who shot down what Japanese airplanes and when… Lt Smith scored three Zekes, Ensign Jones got a Zeke and a Betty, Lt (jg) Adams shot down a Zeke… plus listing US losses by name and aircraft. When he does digress into a fuller narrative of an event or an aviator’s air battle, it is well done and exciting to read.
One thing that his approach does drive home is the continuous, unrelenting nature of the naval air war in the Pacific. We read extensive and detailed histories of the major battles – the Marianas Turkey Shoot, the Battles off Leyte – the constant raids and attacks that were the war effort before and after such major battles is far less recognized. Serial raids on Japanese strong-holds like Rabaul and Truk, the endless series of attacks on Japanese island fortifications and air bases, all get little more than passing notice when in fact they were constantly occurring, constantly drawing down resources and pilot endurance. Cleaver drives home the wear and tear on men and machines that this near constant war effort caused. The fleet command structure would get swapped out (Spruance and Halsey, for example) but the aviators and the sailors of the fleet stayed on the front lines.
Although mostly an air campaign history, as this period manifestly was, Cleaver’s account of the Japanese attack off Leyte, the Battles of Surigao Straits, San Bernardino Straits and Samar, are exceptionally well done. Brief, as is the book in its entirety, but thrilling and insightful. His abbreviated account of the destroyers Johnston, Hoel and Heerman plus the gallant little DE Samuel Roberts attacking the Japanese battle line off Samar is gripping despite the brevity. See “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” by James D. Hornfischer for a superb history that properly immortalizes the courage and the gallantry of these four ships and their crews.
All in all, Cleaver’s work is excellent. It is short, very readable, and filled with insights, observations and relevant information. It is a clear-eyed, objective testament to the stamina, dedication and courage of so many… and so many of them named in the book. Well worth the read!
June 19, 2021
Great overview of the U.S. Navy’s Central Pacific campaign in World War II, pretty much starting from just after the Guadalcanal Campaign, covering actions in the Gilbert Islands, Marshall Islands, Mariana Islands, and the Palau Islands and elsewhere, all the way to the conclusion of the fighting at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines and after the first major kamikaze attacks on U.S. Navy ships. I read it after a recent read of James D. Hornfischer’s absolutely excellent _Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal_ and the two books combined are a really good read about much of the Pacific Campaign in World War II after the events of Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, and Midway.
The book, covering a much larger topic than the Hornfischer work I mentioned, isn’t a purely narrative history akin to _Neptune’s Inferno_ and perhaps by necessity doesn’t as much as Hornfischer did put the reader into a novelistic retelling of events, but then again author Thomas McKelvey Cleaver is covering figuratively and literally quite a lot of territory in _Pacific Thunder_ (and at times Cleaver did indeed put the reader into the midst of incredible events and describe what people saw and experienced, often using their own words).
In addition to retelling both the overall carrier campaign from August 1943 to October 1944 as well as individual events, in the book Cleaver had chapters dedicated to topics relevant to the history. Early on he introduced the reader to the types of carriers used, going into some of the history and differences between major fleet carriers like the Essex carriers, the light aircraft carriers or CVLs, and the escort carriers or CVEs, with some really interesting reading on the latter, sometimes known as “Jeep carriers,” “Woolworth flattops,” “one-torpedo ships,” and with a nod to their builder Henry J. Kaiser, “Kaiser coffins.” There was some really nice history of some of the carrier aircraft used, such as for instance the F6F Hellcat, discussing whether or not it was an “answer” to the Japanese Zeke, how it was an improvement on its predecessor, the Wildcat, and the role Naval aviators like Lieutenant Edward “Butch” O’Hare, the Navy’s first ace, played in advising Grumman on its design, a plane that soon after its introduction became beloved by fighter pilots, as well as the SB2C Helldiver, “arguable the worst airplanes to operate off carriers during the war” and because “of its poor flying capabilities it quickly became known as the “Beast” and for its operational capability as “Sumbitch Second Class.”” Also, early on in the book was a nice section of biographies of people prominent in the Central Pacific campaign, including such people as the aforementioned O’Hare, naval aviator Lieutenant Commander John S. “Jimmy” Thatch (who developed an important combat tactic known as the “Thatch Weave”), Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (“author of the Central Pacific campaign”), Admirals William F. Halsey, Jr. and Raymond A. Spruance (“Nimitz’s two senior commanders who led the fast carrier battle fleet across the Central Pacific” and who “could not have been more different”), Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher (“whose leadership was crucial to victory in the Central Pacific campaign”), and Rear Admiral William K. Harrill (a man who mismanaged his resources and was “renowned for his inability to make a decision”).
Though the book is a good overview and an introduction to central concepts in understanding the Central Pacific campaign, to me the author most succeeds in individual chapters. Three favorites are Chapter Nine: Lifeguards (about the U.S. Navy’s lifeguard submarines, who saved many a downed aviator, with some really gripping stories contained in the chapter), Chapter Twelve: The Mission Beyond Darkness (part of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, when the U.S. Navy launched two hundred thirty aircraft to attack the Japanese fleet at night, the enemy so distant only 115 planes made it back to the carriers, with twenty “lost to flak over the Japanese fleet, while the rest were lost on the return to the fleet from fuel starvation,” a gripping read), and in Chapter Sixteen: The Battles of Leyte Gulf (which covered the “Navy’s finest hour,” the Battle off Samar, which focused on the bravery and success of not just naval aviators but also the sailors of the carriers themselves – such as those of the _White Plains_ - CVE-66 – which against impossible odds was credited by the U.S. Navy for sinking “the only ship ever sunk by surface gunfire from an aircraft carrier”, though sadly with the loss of _Gambier Bay_ - CVE-73 – “the only American aircraft carrier sunk in a surface engagement”). Though Cleaver did a fantastic job on Battle off Samar, Hornfischer also wrote on the subject, _Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors_, which I highly recommend.
Though the book is primarily about the naval aviators and the captains and admirals and crews of the various Navy carriers, I appreciated how Cleaver weaved in the relevant stories of others, from again and again really gripping stories of the captains and crews of Navy submarines that at great risk rescued downed aviators, provided valuable intelligence, or targeted Japanese ships that were a threat to the fleet carriers and their escorts to epic story of “Sammy-B” (_Samuel B. Roberts_, DE-413), “the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship” whose crew gave their all to defend Taffy-3, a group of six CVEs, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts from attack by a much larger, faster, and more powerful Japanese surface fleet. Though 95% I guess of the book is about the Americans, the Japanese do come up in terms of biographies sometimes, notably Saburo Sakai, Japanese naval fighter pilot who after the war would publish his autobiography, _Samurai_, which at one point Cleaver quotes from.
Not really any complaints about the book. Sometimes some battles read like action reports or the like, as “this happened and then this happened and then that happened” which is fine history but not as engaging as being in the battle, but then in a later chapter Cleaver would indeed put the reader in the midst of events so all was forgiven. If you don’t know the roles of the different Naval aircraft you sure soon learn them reading this book. A few more maps would have been nice, especially just good regional maps to know where these island groups are, and not every battle got maps, but when battle maps were provided they were good. I liked the black and white photos of the different types of carriers, types of aircraft, and most if not all the men mentioned again and again in the text.
Though I would have liked more maps, there are a number of good battle and campaign maps. Though not a picture book, there are many excellent black and white photos, including a number of famous photos I am glad were included. There is also a bibliography and an index.
The book, covering a much larger topic than the Hornfischer work I mentioned, isn’t a purely narrative history akin to _Neptune’s Inferno_ and perhaps by necessity doesn’t as much as Hornfischer did put the reader into a novelistic retelling of events, but then again author Thomas McKelvey Cleaver is covering figuratively and literally quite a lot of territory in _Pacific Thunder_ (and at times Cleaver did indeed put the reader into the midst of incredible events and describe what people saw and experienced, often using their own words).
In addition to retelling both the overall carrier campaign from August 1943 to October 1944 as well as individual events, in the book Cleaver had chapters dedicated to topics relevant to the history. Early on he introduced the reader to the types of carriers used, going into some of the history and differences between major fleet carriers like the Essex carriers, the light aircraft carriers or CVLs, and the escort carriers or CVEs, with some really interesting reading on the latter, sometimes known as “Jeep carriers,” “Woolworth flattops,” “one-torpedo ships,” and with a nod to their builder Henry J. Kaiser, “Kaiser coffins.” There was some really nice history of some of the carrier aircraft used, such as for instance the F6F Hellcat, discussing whether or not it was an “answer” to the Japanese Zeke, how it was an improvement on its predecessor, the Wildcat, and the role Naval aviators like Lieutenant Edward “Butch” O’Hare, the Navy’s first ace, played in advising Grumman on its design, a plane that soon after its introduction became beloved by fighter pilots, as well as the SB2C Helldiver, “arguable the worst airplanes to operate off carriers during the war” and because “of its poor flying capabilities it quickly became known as the “Beast” and for its operational capability as “Sumbitch Second Class.”” Also, early on in the book was a nice section of biographies of people prominent in the Central Pacific campaign, including such people as the aforementioned O’Hare, naval aviator Lieutenant Commander John S. “Jimmy” Thatch (who developed an important combat tactic known as the “Thatch Weave”), Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (“author of the Central Pacific campaign”), Admirals William F. Halsey, Jr. and Raymond A. Spruance (“Nimitz’s two senior commanders who led the fast carrier battle fleet across the Central Pacific” and who “could not have been more different”), Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher (“whose leadership was crucial to victory in the Central Pacific campaign”), and Rear Admiral William K. Harrill (a man who mismanaged his resources and was “renowned for his inability to make a decision”).
Though the book is a good overview and an introduction to central concepts in understanding the Central Pacific campaign, to me the author most succeeds in individual chapters. Three favorites are Chapter Nine: Lifeguards (about the U.S. Navy’s lifeguard submarines, who saved many a downed aviator, with some really gripping stories contained in the chapter), Chapter Twelve: The Mission Beyond Darkness (part of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, when the U.S. Navy launched two hundred thirty aircraft to attack the Japanese fleet at night, the enemy so distant only 115 planes made it back to the carriers, with twenty “lost to flak over the Japanese fleet, while the rest were lost on the return to the fleet from fuel starvation,” a gripping read), and in Chapter Sixteen: The Battles of Leyte Gulf (which covered the “Navy’s finest hour,” the Battle off Samar, which focused on the bravery and success of not just naval aviators but also the sailors of the carriers themselves – such as those of the _White Plains_ - CVE-66 – which against impossible odds was credited by the U.S. Navy for sinking “the only ship ever sunk by surface gunfire from an aircraft carrier”, though sadly with the loss of _Gambier Bay_ - CVE-73 – “the only American aircraft carrier sunk in a surface engagement”). Though Cleaver did a fantastic job on Battle off Samar, Hornfischer also wrote on the subject, _Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors_, which I highly recommend.
Though the book is primarily about the naval aviators and the captains and admirals and crews of the various Navy carriers, I appreciated how Cleaver weaved in the relevant stories of others, from again and again really gripping stories of the captains and crews of Navy submarines that at great risk rescued downed aviators, provided valuable intelligence, or targeted Japanese ships that were a threat to the fleet carriers and their escorts to epic story of “Sammy-B” (_Samuel B. Roberts_, DE-413), “the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship” whose crew gave their all to defend Taffy-3, a group of six CVEs, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts from attack by a much larger, faster, and more powerful Japanese surface fleet. Though 95% I guess of the book is about the Americans, the Japanese do come up in terms of biographies sometimes, notably Saburo Sakai, Japanese naval fighter pilot who after the war would publish his autobiography, _Samurai_, which at one point Cleaver quotes from.
Not really any complaints about the book. Sometimes some battles read like action reports or the like, as “this happened and then this happened and then that happened” which is fine history but not as engaging as being in the battle, but then in a later chapter Cleaver would indeed put the reader in the midst of events so all was forgiven. If you don’t know the roles of the different Naval aircraft you sure soon learn them reading this book. A few more maps would have been nice, especially just good regional maps to know where these island groups are, and not every battle got maps, but when battle maps were provided they were good. I liked the black and white photos of the different types of carriers, types of aircraft, and most if not all the men mentioned again and again in the text.
Though I would have liked more maps, there are a number of good battle and campaign maps. Though not a picture book, there are many excellent black and white photos, including a number of famous photos I am glad were included. There is also a bibliography and an index.
July 17, 2023
A deeply granular rendition of the Pacific Naval battles of World War II, littered with excerpts from naval personnel interviews, large and small, notes on the quirks and advantages of the equipment in use, and extremely detailed reviews of the encounters and campaigns. It is a work that is daunting in its precision to such a degree the campaigns themselves nearly get lost in all the anecdotes, minor details, individual events, personal recollections, vessel/aircraft names and designations, and performance quirks.
It's a magnificently researched book for those who enjoy examining every molecule available to the reader. If you're the sort who prefers the trees to the forest, you're going to enjoy this one.
It's a magnificently researched book for those who enjoy examining every molecule available to the reader. If you're the sort who prefers the trees to the forest, you're going to enjoy this one.
April 9, 2018
Hat's off to the Navy!
This is the side you never hear about. Those guys on those ships had no place to hide. Those time in combat was long and hard. Like all the men of that germination they saw it thought to the end.
This is the side you never hear about. Those guys on those ships had no place to hide. Those time in combat was long and hard. Like all the men of that germination they saw it thought to the end.
November 29, 2021
This wasn't bad at all, it just didn't have much new to say. It did discuss Admiral Halsey and Spruance and the unusual rotating command structure that was used in the Pacific. A lot of the book was dedicated to these two men, their differences, similarities, strengths and weaknesses.
February 22, 2018
The author covers the US Navy's central Pacific campaign from August 1943 to October 1944. It's mainly the carrier air war between the American and Imperial Japanese navies. Cleaver goes into pre-WWII naval aerial doctrine, tactics, organization, and logistics and how they affected the outcome of the conflict.
Military planner had been expecting a naval war between Imperial Japanese and US navies since the 1920s. They thought it would be fought with battleships. The old battle wagons were sunk at Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The only capital ships the US Navy had left after that were flat-tops. So the Second World War in the Pacific theater was fought by carrier fleets.
The Battle of Midway was the decisive battle of in the Pacific. Everything after that were mopping up operations against the Imperial Japanese navy. The Japanese overplayed their hand at Midway and lost. Admiral Nimitz's plan was bypass their Pacific strongholds and go for the jugular vein of the Japanese home islands. That plan infuriated General MacArthur. He wanted to liberate the Philippines, first. Invading Japan was projected to cost millions of casualties. That is why Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That is outside the scope of this book, which looked at the US central Pacific naval campaign to crush the Japanese. It was brutal, effective, and it worked. The Japanese couldn't afford to lose their carrier pilots. The US Navy had a luxury of experienced naval aviators and aces. The campaigns in the Marianas, Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf provide the worth of Nimitz's staff and underlings. It went a long way in winning the Pacific theater....
Recommended.
Military planner had been expecting a naval war between Imperial Japanese and US navies since the 1920s. They thought it would be fought with battleships. The old battle wagons were sunk at Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The only capital ships the US Navy had left after that were flat-tops. So the Second World War in the Pacific theater was fought by carrier fleets.
The Battle of Midway was the decisive battle of in the Pacific. Everything after that were mopping up operations against the Imperial Japanese navy. The Japanese overplayed their hand at Midway and lost. Admiral Nimitz's plan was bypass their Pacific strongholds and go for the jugular vein of the Japanese home islands. That plan infuriated General MacArthur. He wanted to liberate the Philippines, first. Invading Japan was projected to cost millions of casualties. That is why Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That is outside the scope of this book, which looked at the US central Pacific naval campaign to crush the Japanese. It was brutal, effective, and it worked. The Japanese couldn't afford to lose their carrier pilots. The US Navy had a luxury of experienced naval aviators and aces. The campaigns in the Marianas, Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf provide the worth of Nimitz's staff and underlings. It went a long way in winning the Pacific theater....
Recommended.
March 12, 2018
Incredible Story, Incredible Heroes
This book action by action recounts the seemingly unlikely story of the men who were the difference between defeat and subsequent victory over the Japanese in the Pacific .
This book action by action recounts the seemingly unlikely story of the men who were the difference between defeat and subsequent victory over the Japanese in the Pacific .
June 17, 2019
As stated in the subtitle, this book describes the central Pacific island- hopping campaign through the Marshal, Gilbert, Caroline and Marianas islands and closes with the battle of Leyte Gulf. In my review, I will avoid discussing the history (If you want the history, read the book.); rather, I will focus on how Mr. Cleaver, himself a Vietnam era Navy veteran, brings it to life with his writing style and editorial choices.
Mr. Cleaver tells the story of the campaign from the perspective of the naval aviators. Given that aircraft carriers had supplanted battleships as the centerpiece of naval tactics and strategy, this is understandable. After all, it was carrier aircraft that protected the fleets from Japanese air attacks, raided Japanese airfields and other installations and attacked Japanese fleet units. If any one other ship type receives any focus, it was the submarine, primarily for its role in rescuing downed flyers. An entire chapter is devoted to this support role that submarines played in this campaign.
Mr. Cleaver adopts an interesting writing style for this book. On the one hand, the book is a survey of the history of the campaign and can discuss each action at a high level only. On the other hand, in telling the story from the perspective of the aviators themselves, he describes how different pilots shot down Japanese planes and were themselves sometimes shot down and killed. It is an unusual mix of the big picture and the magnifying glass, but I think I understand why he chose to do this. When he describes the air battles, he moves quickly from one pilot’s actions to another, almost mimicking the fast-moving pace of an air battle, in which a pilot may have mere seconds to identify and engage an enemy plane or to evade one. For example, he described on air battle in which an American fighter pilot engaged and shot down three Japanese planes in quick succession. While the pilot felt that he had been fighting for an eternity, a quick glance at his wristwatch informed him that only a minute had passed. Things happened fast in the skies of the central Pacific, and the pace correspondingly moves fast in this book.
With the first chapter of the book, Torpedo Junction, which describes the sinking of the light carrier Wasp, Mr. Cleaver makes the point that the nature of the Pacific war had changed. At the outset of the war, the U.S. and Japan were at parity in the Pacific. The early battles served as a meat grinder for men, ships and aircraft, and the Navy was holding on for dear life until the home front war machine could replace its losses. At the start of the war, the Navy had eight aircraft carriers:
• Langley, the Navy’s first aircraft carrier, was operating as a seaplane tender at the time of Pearl Harbor.
• Lexington and Saratoga had started construction as battlecruisers but had been finished as aircraft carriers after an armaments treaty limited the overall tonnage of battlecruisers.
• Ranger was the first carrier designed for that role but was considered too lightly armored for battles with the Japanese naval air force. For this reason, it operated in the Atlantic escorting convoys.
• The Yorktown class, Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet, were the most advanced aircraft carriers in the fleet when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
• Wasp, a light carrier built between Enterprise and Hornet, had been sized to allow for an additional aircraft carrier without exceeding an overall aircraft carrier tonnage limit in an armaments treaty. Like Ranger, it was under-armored and relegated to convoy escort in the Atlantic.
In 1942, Langley, Lexington, Yorktown and Hornet were sunk. Saratoga survived being torpedoed but had to spend time in drydock. Enterprise was badly damaged in the battle that claimed Hornet and was limping along with a temporary repair. The Navy was so desperate for aircraft carriers in the Pacific that Wasp was transferred from the Atlantic only to be torpedoed by a submarine and sunk. In other words, by the end of 1942, the only operating carrier in the Pacific to support the Solomon Islands campaign was a limping Enterprise. By mid-1943, however, fleet carriers, light carriers and escort carriers arriving in strength from America’s shipyards allowed the Navy to seize and hold the initiative for the remainder of the war. At the beginning of the campaign, Japanese aircraft carriers were a credible threat, but they had all been destroyed and their air wings decimated by the end of it. Japanese victory at sea was no longer a threat, and it was only a matter of time before Japan was vanquished.
Mr. Cleaver tells the story of the campaign from the perspective of the naval aviators. Given that aircraft carriers had supplanted battleships as the centerpiece of naval tactics and strategy, this is understandable. After all, it was carrier aircraft that protected the fleets from Japanese air attacks, raided Japanese airfields and other installations and attacked Japanese fleet units. If any one other ship type receives any focus, it was the submarine, primarily for its role in rescuing downed flyers. An entire chapter is devoted to this support role that submarines played in this campaign.
Mr. Cleaver adopts an interesting writing style for this book. On the one hand, the book is a survey of the history of the campaign and can discuss each action at a high level only. On the other hand, in telling the story from the perspective of the aviators themselves, he describes how different pilots shot down Japanese planes and were themselves sometimes shot down and killed. It is an unusual mix of the big picture and the magnifying glass, but I think I understand why he chose to do this. When he describes the air battles, he moves quickly from one pilot’s actions to another, almost mimicking the fast-moving pace of an air battle, in which a pilot may have mere seconds to identify and engage an enemy plane or to evade one. For example, he described on air battle in which an American fighter pilot engaged and shot down three Japanese planes in quick succession. While the pilot felt that he had been fighting for an eternity, a quick glance at his wristwatch informed him that only a minute had passed. Things happened fast in the skies of the central Pacific, and the pace correspondingly moves fast in this book.
With the first chapter of the book, Torpedo Junction, which describes the sinking of the light carrier Wasp, Mr. Cleaver makes the point that the nature of the Pacific war had changed. At the outset of the war, the U.S. and Japan were at parity in the Pacific. The early battles served as a meat grinder for men, ships and aircraft, and the Navy was holding on for dear life until the home front war machine could replace its losses. At the start of the war, the Navy had eight aircraft carriers:
• Langley, the Navy’s first aircraft carrier, was operating as a seaplane tender at the time of Pearl Harbor.
• Lexington and Saratoga had started construction as battlecruisers but had been finished as aircraft carriers after an armaments treaty limited the overall tonnage of battlecruisers.
• Ranger was the first carrier designed for that role but was considered too lightly armored for battles with the Japanese naval air force. For this reason, it operated in the Atlantic escorting convoys.
• The Yorktown class, Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet, were the most advanced aircraft carriers in the fleet when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
• Wasp, a light carrier built between Enterprise and Hornet, had been sized to allow for an additional aircraft carrier without exceeding an overall aircraft carrier tonnage limit in an armaments treaty. Like Ranger, it was under-armored and relegated to convoy escort in the Atlantic.
In 1942, Langley, Lexington, Yorktown and Hornet were sunk. Saratoga survived being torpedoed but had to spend time in drydock. Enterprise was badly damaged in the battle that claimed Hornet and was limping along with a temporary repair. The Navy was so desperate for aircraft carriers in the Pacific that Wasp was transferred from the Atlantic only to be torpedoed by a submarine and sunk. In other words, by the end of 1942, the only operating carrier in the Pacific to support the Solomon Islands campaign was a limping Enterprise. By mid-1943, however, fleet carriers, light carriers and escort carriers arriving in strength from America’s shipyards allowed the Navy to seize and hold the initiative for the remainder of the war. At the beginning of the campaign, Japanese aircraft carriers were a credible threat, but they had all been destroyed and their air wings decimated by the end of it. Japanese victory at sea was no longer a threat, and it was only a matter of time before Japan was vanquished.
July 28, 2021
Not a bad book if you like reading military history and WWII in particular. The main emphasis is on aircraft carriers and naval airplanes, with submarines and surface units squeezing in. One item I did not previously know was that Iwo Jima was only lightly defended when the US military took the Mariana Islands in 1944 and taking Iwo Jima at the same time should have been relatively easy. Instead the US military gave Japanese forces time to fortify the island properly before invading in 1945 and found the going much tougher - but the book stops before then as the title indicates.
It's interesting to read about the many mistakes committed by both sides in the fog of war. You could make things a lot easier for either side if you were to go back in time with a sack of history books, to let the struggling commanders benefit from our decades of hindsight. However, one side - the Allies - were able to compensate for all their mistakes with the advantage of industrial production. Naval strategy is built strategy and the USA had that covered by late 1943. The early-war Japanese advantages in numbers, training, and technology (such as torpedoes that actually worked in contrast to America's early-war duds) were so thoroughly eclipsed in just two years that the Japanese had to resort to suicide tactics to have any hope of making a dent. But even that couldn't slow the largely American onslaught in the Pacific War.
As another reviewer mentions, this is a good book to read after Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal, a chronicle of the US Navy's struggles in 1942 when it had to confront the Imperial Japanese Navy on closer to even terms. That's definitely not the American way! It's much better to fight with every advantage of logistics, numbers, manpower, training, and if possible intelligence although the USN clearly still needed work on that last one as the Battle off Samar made alarmingly clear.
It's interesting to read about the many mistakes committed by both sides in the fog of war. You could make things a lot easier for either side if you were to go back in time with a sack of history books, to let the struggling commanders benefit from our decades of hindsight. However, one side - the Allies - were able to compensate for all their mistakes with the advantage of industrial production. Naval strategy is built strategy and the USA had that covered by late 1943. The early-war Japanese advantages in numbers, training, and technology (such as torpedoes that actually worked in contrast to America's early-war duds) were so thoroughly eclipsed in just two years that the Japanese had to resort to suicide tactics to have any hope of making a dent. But even that couldn't slow the largely American onslaught in the Pacific War.
As another reviewer mentions, this is a good book to read after Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal, a chronicle of the US Navy's struggles in 1942 when it had to confront the Imperial Japanese Navy on closer to even terms. That's definitely not the American way! It's much better to fight with every advantage of logistics, numbers, manpower, training, and if possible intelligence although the USN clearly still needed work on that last one as the Battle off Samar made alarmingly clear.
February 19, 2020
Pacific Thunder is a good, in-depth look at the naval campaign against the Empire of Japan during World War 2. There is a lot of detail, but I found the writing style at times to be stilted, like I was reading the specific logs of battles, rather than a narrative history of the men and battles. There were aspects of the book that I really liked that many authors about the war don't always include, or tend to just gloss over. Cleaver took the time to discuss the development of the aircraft carrier as a ship of war for the US Navy, discussing the early ships, the doctrine, and the thoughts that went into creating the aircraft carrier's role in the US Nave in the interwar years. Another chapter dealt with the topic of downed pilots and the amazing role that US submarines played when on "lifeguard" duty during a battle. This is an aspect of the Pacific War that is usually not discussed at all in books about the battles, and I found this chapter to be fascinating. I need to see if anybody has written more detailed accounts of these submarines and their crews, and the heroic work they did to save downed pilots.
Overall, I enjoyed Pacific Thunder. I would have preferred a more narrative style of writing, but overall Cleaver provides a detailed account of the war in the central Pacific.
Overall, I enjoyed Pacific Thunder. I would have preferred a more narrative style of writing, but overall Cleaver provides a detailed account of the war in the central Pacific.
December 16, 2020
Pacific Thunder: The US Navy's Central Pacific Campaign, August 1943–October 1944 by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver Takes readers through the series of naval battles and island invasions during the war in the Pacific through late 1944. Having been knocked back on their heels with the Pearl Harbor surprise attack and the months immediately following, the United States Navy slowly but steadily repaired and rebuilt its fleets and then went on the offensive. The author explains the strategy of island hopping where militarily important islands that, if taken, would help shorten the war, were given higher priority for invasion while strategically unimportant islands were bypassed and left to wither with resupply cutoff. Meanwhile the US Marines and Army would proceed with all of the land battles to take and secure the identified islands. In a series of large naval encounters the US Navy proceeded to decimate the Japanese Navy by sinking more of their ships than those lost by the Americans, including all of the Japanese aircraft carriers that took part in the Pearl Harbor attacks. Well written and easy to follow story of how the US Navy turned things around and went on the offensive in the Pacific War.
November 3, 2021
A good book, providing a history of the US Navy's Central Pacific campaign in World War II. The author, noted aviation historian Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, provides his usual high level of detail to explain not just the 'what' of this campaign but the 'how.' Cleaver lays a good foundation by explaining the state of the war in the Pacific following the Solomon Islands campaign - how the Japanese were working to recover from the attrition of the first years of the war and how US industry was starting to deliver a massive operational Fleet. The author does his usual great job of explaining the relation between the Fleet's material capabilities and tactical doctrine. He provides the 'why' of various efforts and campaigns, delving into the reason each side fought the way they did. The book is not all about aviation, Cleaver does an excellent job explaining how the US advantage stemmed from the use of multi-domain warfare, with forces of different types supporting each other. A great book for anyone wishing to understand the dynamics of the Central Pacific Campaign. Highly recommended for those interested in World War II aviation history.
March 24, 2019
Detailed accounting of Naval operations in the Pacific during World War II.
The author has done an outstanding job of recounting the operations conducted against Japan by the US Navy in World War II. The volume is marked by an extreme level of detail in all aspects: strategy, warship and aircraft design, training and personnel policies as well as the operations themselves. While most treatments address just the major battles of the Pacific War (e.g., Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal battles, etc.) the author treats the hundreds of “minor” operations conducted in between times as well, making for a more complete picture.
The author has done an outstanding job of recounting the operations conducted against Japan by the US Navy in World War II. The volume is marked by an extreme level of detail in all aspects: strategy, warship and aircraft design, training and personnel policies as well as the operations themselves. While most treatments address just the major battles of the Pacific War (e.g., Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal battles, etc.) the author treats the hundreds of “minor” operations conducted in between times as well, making for a more complete picture.
May 1, 2019
This is a good book that gives a good summary of the Central Pacific campaign. In my opinion, the author focuses too much on the aircraft carriers. While the aircraft carriers are supremely important in the pacific campaigns, the screening vessels also served crucial roles. If I could change one thing about Pacific Thunder, I would have the author increase the amount of attention given to destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and other important naval ships.
July 12, 2019
This is a very detailed history of the US Navy's campaign in the Central Pacific during WWII. I love history so I found this book to be very well researched and detailed in its explanation of events. I will say that the extensive listing of ships, planes and men often bogged down the narrative from my viewpoint but I also think the level of detail was impressive and the heroic men portrayed deserve the recognition. This one is for history junkies.
August 19, 2020
This book is an excellent overview of a crucial year in the Pacific air war of World War II. These men took off from moving ships, navigated and flew for hundreds of miles, fought the enemy, and then flew back to (and landed on) those same moving ships. With 1940s tech. My respect for them is immense. The book has something for people new to the topic as well as for people who have read MANY books about WW II aviation.
November 19, 2020
The book covers a specific part of the Pacific campaign. It could have a greater depth with an emphasis on the Japanese side. Even so, it brings a lot of information and makes an excellent summary. I recommend reading.
February 21, 2022
Enjoyed good read
June 10, 2022
Needed an editor or at least a proofreader.
October 18, 2022
So much detail I felt at times I needed to take notes. Mr Cleaver has a great style and is easy to read. I have read multiple volumes on this part of US history and learned many new things.
February 16, 2024
An excellent read. A detailed, knowledgeable account of the war in the Pacific, admittedly from a US perspective. Riveting, nonetheless.
Read
February 28, 2026Great book. Lots of personal stories from the men who served during WWII.
January 21, 2020
Pacific Thunder is the naval battle between Nations.
A up to date recount of how it all went down as recounts what the air battles of WW2 in the Pacific were truly like. T. Cleaver recounting leaves nothing out including not only how each important flier won his Wings of Gold as well as other feats such as winning The Medal of Honor.
A up to date recount of how it all went down as recounts what the air battles of WW2 in the Pacific were truly like. T. Cleaver recounting leaves nothing out including not only how each important flier won his Wings of Gold as well as other feats such as winning The Medal of Honor.
February 10, 2020
Impressive, very detail
February 11, 2025
This is the first book I read by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver. Reading it again after I Will Run Wild and Under the Southern Cross emphasizes how well these books complement each other if you read them in chronological order instead of publication order. It’s a very detailed account of the Central Pacific Campaign that sometimes feels a little too detailed with how many names you might have to remember, but Cleaver controls the narrative by focusing in on a few key groups like Air Group 15, which was chosen no doubt due to his previous experience writing about this particular group.
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