Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific

Amazon.com
The South Pacific campaign of World War II set new standards for savagery in modern warfare. The ground fighting reached a peak of intensity when the U.S. Marines landed at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands while the Australians repulsed the Japanese advance across New Guinea. Battling jungle rot and malaria, the Australian Army teamed with the U.S. against the Japanese, whose battle ethos demanded they fight until victory or extermination. In Touched by Fire, Eric Bergerud, a professor of military and American history at Lincoln University in San Francisco, restores the campaign to its rightful place of importance as a diabolical struggle for survival in World War II's most heartless terrain.


From Publishers Weekly
Turning his attention from the Vietnam War (Red Thunder, Tropical Lightning; The Dynamics of Defeat), Bergerud, who teaches military and American history at San Francisco's Lincoln University, focuses on ground combat in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands from mid-1942 until early 1944-a time when the South Pacific was the focal point of the land war between Japan and U.S. By synthesizing dozens of interviews with American and Australian participants into a strong analytical framework, he provides a definitive presentation of the dynamics of jungle war. Tactics, weapons, morale, medical services, human relationships in squads, platoons and companies-all are covered. The author's sources provide a vivid sense of what it was like to lead a patrol, to survive a firefight and to bury the dead. Bergerud is at his best discussing the strengths and weaknesses of American National Guard divisions that formed the backbone of the U.S. contribution to the South Pacific theater. At times, he seems too ready to take the Australians at their own, high evaluation of themselves-but he is hardly the first military historian to be seduced by the myths surrounding the Australian Imperial Forces. And if his discussion of the Japanese side doesn't match his treatment of the Allied forces, Meirion and Susie Harries's Soldiers of the Sun can be consulted for balance. Bergerud makes a major contribution here to our understanding not only of a specific campaign but of the nature of war itself. Maps. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Bergerud (military and American history, Lincoln Univ., San Francisco) turns his attention to the land war between Japan and the Allies in New Guinea, New Britain, and the Solomon Islands from July 1942 to early 1944. The "general public has largely forgotten a long and crucial portion of the Pacific War," Bergerud writes, and he goes on to claim that the nature of this particular ground combat was unique in this century. Using a topical approach to the campaign, the author is concerned with the geography of the South Pacific, the men themselves, their weapons, and a sizable amount of oral history taken from survivors on both sides. Bergerud pulls no punches in his opinions when dealing with topics such as the reason for the ferocity of the combat, Japan's strategic failure, the arrogance and racism displayed by both sides, and the role of the United States. While one may argue with some of his conclusions, Bergerud has written a highly detailed and interesting account of a campaign that, with the exception of Guadalcanal, has not received its fair share of attention. This book should be the starting point for any serious study of the war in the South Pacific.?Harold N. Boyer, Locust Valley Lib., N.Y.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Kenneth J. Hagan
The Americans who fought and died in the South Pacific were members of a generation inured to hardship and deprivation by the Great Depression, a fact that leads Mr. Bergerud to conclude that they were uniquely prepared to bear the brunt of an especially ferocious war.


From Booklist
After reading Bergerud's magisterial account of the World War II campaign in the South Pacific, one may feel that what should have been done by all involved would have been to declare the whole area neutral, then award it to the loser at the war's end. But in actuality, the Japanese moved against American communications with Australia, the Americans and Australians fought back, and the fighting continued in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands from mid-1942 to early 1944. Bergerud provides a brief and sound chronology, then proceeds with a thematic approach, considering terrain (rugged), climate (abominable), diseases (many and deadly), and so on through the organization of the three combatants' armies, their weapons, tactics, morale, medical services, etc. The coverage is balanced, the research thorough, the writing lucid. Altogether, this is one of those rare books that is accessible to the novice and valuable to the serious student of military history. Roland Green


From Kirkus Reviews
Eyewitness accounts by combat survivors of early battles of the Pacific, interspersed with lucid commentary by the author, recounting how green American and veteran Australian troops stopped the seemingly invincible Japanese army in mid-1942 in Guadalcanal and New Guinea. (For an account of one American's war in the South Pacific, see Peter Richmond, My Father's War, p. 672.) Military historian Bergerud (Lincoln Univ.; Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning, 1993) captures the reality of life in the firing pits for untested Allied soldiers opposing an experienced, ruthless enemy with a reputation for cruelty. The South Pacific, Bergerud reminds us, was a terrible place to fight a war, with its dense and dangerous jungles, extreme heat and humidity, and frequent torrential rains. Diseases like malaria, dengue fever, scrub typhus, and dystentery took as high a toll as combat. Battles were fought at very close quarters, often by small units led by captains, lieutenants, and sergeants, not generals. Bergerud rates General MacArthur, despite flaws, as a great strategic leader, and the Australian army as the best infantry in the South Pacific. In addition, the First Marine Division, with many underage youngsters, fought with great endurance and bravery, and increasing skill, at Guadalcanal. Nevertheless, Bergerud notes that the army greatly outnumbered marines in the South Pacific and did far more of the fighting, despite the general impression created by the outstanding marine publicity machine. In the later central Pacific campaigns, on the other hand, the marines were in fact responsible for some sanguinary victories. The author discusses in detail the daily life of the soldiers and the weaponry and tactics central to the dreadful process of combat. According to Bergerud, the growing Japanese emphasis on fighting to the end resulted in a ``take no prisoners'' attitude by the Allies. Victory in the South Pacific in 194243 was, Bergerud persuasively argues, the first crucial step in bringing the war home to the Japanese and thereby ending it. One of the best books about WW II, capturing both the powerful if narrow view of the combat soldier and the panoramic vantage point of the military historian. (8 pages b&w photos, 8 maps) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Midwest Book Review
After setting the scene with a brief narrative of the war in the South Pacific, Eric Bergerud's Touched With Fire: The Land War In The South Pacific examines such key elements of the conflict as the area's malignant terrain, with its multiple plagues of heat, humidity, rain, and mud; the heroic and often overlooked efforts of the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF); the involvement of (and the war's effect on) the indigenous population; the role of new developments in artillery, tanks, and other weaponry; air transport; medical care and the various tropical diseases that caused far more casualties than combat; morale and spiritual support; and "the intense fear, coupled with a powerful lust for revenge, that poisoned the battlefield. " Unique in its approach, and enriched by the voices of those who fought, Touched With Fire includes eight pages of b&w photos and twelve maps. Touched With Fire is vividly, brilliantly written, Bergerud's scholarship and story-telling abilities make this a gripping historical read for any student of the war in the Pacific!


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices