Due to its title, I hoped this book would be full of reminiscences by World War II participants. Unfortunately, I soon realized it was mostly a synopsis of that war's events, with occasional stories from participants. So I was initially disappointed and felt I wasn't going to learn as much from the book as I hoped. However, as I continued reading I realized the authors were doing a great job of covering the war for people who weren't well read in World War II history. And although I have bookcases full of histories of this war, I even learned a few new things.

They were certainly up-to-date in much of the revised history of the war, relating aspects of it not usually covered in more general books about this conflict. The aspects I refer to are the personalities of the major players, the "Code Wars" regarding reading the other side's messages, and correctly putting to rest popular myths about the war which many authors continue to repeat. As such, I feel this is a very good book for those wanting to know about the war and which might led those readers to investigate certain aspects more deeply.

The authors, based on their professional bios, have experience in creating popularized books on other subjects, mostly the American Civil War. So I was surprised they used italics for text under images or as preambles for most of the personal reminiscences scattered throughout the book. I say this as the italics were in a font size which made it difficult to read.

I did find one interesting mistake. The authors state the writer William Manchester was a lieutenant in the Marines when on Okinawa. Actually, the highest rank he achieved was sergeant.

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