Pacific Carrier War: Carrier Combat from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa

by Mark E. Stille

A detailed and comprehensive study of the carrier formations of the Pacific War, including their origins, development and key battles from the Coral Sea, through Midway and Guadalcanal to the battle of the Philippine Sea.The defining feature of the Pacific Theatre of World War II was the clash of carriers that ultimately decided the fate of nations. The names of these battles have become legendary as some of the most epic encounters in the history of naval warfare. Pre-war assumptions about the impact and effectiveness of carriers were comprehensively tested in early war battles such as Coral Sea, while US victories at Midway and in the waters around Guadalcanal established the supremacy of its carriers. The US Navy's ability to adapt and evolve to the changing conditions of war maintained and furthered their advantage, culminating in their comprehensive victory at the battle of the Philippine Sea, history's largest carrier battle, which destroyed almost the entire Japanese carrier force. Examining the ships, aircraft and doctrines of both the Japanese and US navies and how they changed during the war, Mark E. Stille shows how the domination of American carriers paved the way towards the Allied victory in the Pacific.

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

459 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2021

Reviews

[Ronald Golden · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent analysis of the Pacific War. The author goes into just the right amount of detail (in my opinion) to breakdown the carrier war in the Pacific. Mr. Stille explains just how the United States went from a significant material and strategic disadvantage against what was arguably the world's most powerful navy, to gain the upper hand, decisively defeat that navy and in the process become the world's leading navel power. Stille even-handedly describes tactical and strategic correct decisions and errors among major participants on both sides of the fight.
Key among these points is the Japanese failure to take into account improvements and advances in the U.S. Navy both materially and technically as the war progressed. This offset any superiority in tactical proficiency that the Japanese continued to possess.
A great read for anyone interested in this subject matter. I have several more books by this author on my "to read" list.

[Desirae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Verified Purchase
The book is very good overall, and goes into a fair amount of detail on each of the five carrier-only confrontations between the U.S. and Japan in the Pacific. While I enjoyed the book, Stille has co-written several other books for Osprey Publishing that are shorter, stand-alone looks at each of these five engagements (Eastern Solomons/Santa Cruz are covered together in a single book). Essentially, Pacific Carrier War is just those stand-alone books combined into one long volume. This is not to say it is bad, or poorly written, but overall this title draws much of its content from previously published books, and it is fairly light on new content. However, Stille does a very good job of breaking down his topic area in a way that is accessible for all readers, and in spite of its length, the book is an easy read.

[John H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

good read

Really inciteful view of WW2 war in pacific. Correctly ignored all aspects of the war and its progress, and just focused of the war from carrier prospective. Useful integration of leadership during each campaign.

[Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because this only focuses on the carriers, the battles are not in context. That is fine as long as you know something about what was happening around the carrier battles, but if not another book might be best.

[Guillermo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written with interesting analysis of tactics, errors, technologies, and successes.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Account of the carrier battles in WW2.

Why I started this book: Looking for a solid history book.

Why I finished it: Short, and heavy on the military acronyms.

[Smokychimp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Stille’s Pacific Carrier Wars has the virtues and the main flaw of the “one-volume operational survey.” It’s energetic, packed with dates, ship and air group details, and a brisk march through the big carrier actions. If you want a fast, competent orientation to how the carrier war unfolded, it gives you that.

But it’s also too ambitious for its own page count and format. The Pacific War is not a single story arc with a clean through-line. It’s multiple overlapping campaigns, industrial and logistical asymmetries, shifting doctrine, intelligence coups, and human attrition, all changing month by month. When you try to compress that into one carrier-centered volume, you either drown in summary or you flatten the most important causal links. This book sometimes does both: lots of “what happened,” less “why it happened this way,” and even less on second-order effects (pilot quality erosion, sortie generation limits, damage control culture, replenishment at sea, repair pipeline, and the slow but decisive U.S. industrial ramp).

So the takeaway is basically what you said: the project definition is the problem. It reads like a capable digest. Useful as a primer or refresher, or a decent scaffold for further reading. However this is not the sort of single book that can make the Pacific carrier war feel comprehensible in its full strategic and operational depth.