Very clear, readable history. Gives a good account of the people, places, and events.
( )

A great history, the first volume of a trilogy, that covers the war from Pearl Harbor to Midway. American, British, and Japanese sources and points of view are included. Toll does an excellent job of describing the principal personalities involved and of choosing the amount of detail to present in his account. The Kindle version has figures at the back that don't look too bad on the E-Ink screen. ( )

After reading some great stuff about the WW II European theater, I've been meaning to find an equivalent history of the Pacific theater. I finally found and read this, and it's fantastic. The first book of Toll's trilogy takes us on a deep dive into the period from Pearl Harbor to the Battle of Midway in June 1942. It doesn't skimp at all on details, with granular descriptions of the attack on Hawaii, the swift Japanese advance south toward Australia, the Battle of the Coral Sea, and of course Midway, which was the turning point of the war. In spite of the heavy detail, the book is surprisingly readable- Toll is a great writer, with the perfect mix of technical terms and a touch of flowery prose. Though I'm not much of a military expert, I was able to follow the descriptions well, and learned a tremendous amount.

Interesting takeaways that I didn't really understand at all: naval strategies were based on the writings of a 19th century theorist named Mahan, positing that the keys to victory were concentration of forces around great battleships. But the aviation age made those theories totally obsolete, and military planners hadn't really grasped this at the start of the war, that aircraft carriers were by far the most important ship. Of course the carrier's peculiar aspect was that it was offensively devastating, but at the same time very vulnerable itself when attacked; one bomb on the ship started lighting up all the gasoline in the planes and the fueling stations, so a relatively minor strike could take it to the bottom. The Battle of Midway was a great US victory mainly thanks to the work of the analysts in Hawaii who successfully broke the Japanese codes and allowed the US to know their plans; but then the key officer in Hawaii was drummed out of the job by his superiors in Washington because he had been proved right and they had been proven to be idiots. The Midway battle still swung on some strokes of good fortune, and could easily have gone the other way if Japanese scouts had spotted the US fleet a little earlier.

The book is long, so not for the faint of heart. But great- can't wait for the next one. ( )

If you are looking for an easy to read, interesting history of war in the pacific, this is the series for you. It is factual without being boring. I sat on the edge of my seat though the first book. I can't wait to start the second. ( )

Excellent work. Well laid out and eminently readable. Highly recommended. ( )