Thomas F. (hardtack) -
I found this to be a good overview of the WW II New Guinea campaign. While I knew some of what took place there, this book filled in a lot of holes. And I'm going to have to dig out Dad's service record, as he was a radio operator and gunner on a B-24 in the 5th Air Force and served in the latter stages of this campaign.
A review on the Amazon site disparages this book as an anti-MacArthur rant. However, as a person who has learned through my reading to really dislike MacArthur, I thought the book was a fair appraisal of that general, listing both his good and bad faults, decisions, etc. Especially, when the author states that MacArthur set strategy and mostly left the ground war to his subordinates. And a good part of the book was about those subordinates.
Frankly, while I dislike MacArthur, I feel his insistence on liberating the Philippines, versus attacking Formosa, was our moral duty. Unfortunately, MacArthur once he defeated the Japanese in the Philippines, wasted, as pointed out in the book, the 8th Army 'liberating' the southern Philippine islands, most of which were already under control of the Philippine guerrillas. But that's another story relating to the disturbing part of MacArthur's personality.
A review on the Amazon site disparages this book as an anti-MacArthur rant. However, as a person who has learned through my reading to really dislike MacArthur, I thought the book was a fair appraisal of that general, listing both his good and bad faults, decisions, etc. Especially, when the author states that MacArthur set strategy and mostly left the ground war to his subordinates. And a good part of the book was about those subordinates.
Frankly, while I dislike MacArthur, I feel his insistence on liberating the Philippines, versus attacking Formosa, was our moral duty. Unfortunately, MacArthur once he defeated the Japanese in the Philippines, wasted, as pointed out in the book, the 8th Army 'liberating' the southern Philippine islands, most of which were already under control of the Philippine guerrillas. But that's another story relating to the disturbing part of MacArthur's personality.
