With the 41st Division in the Southwest Pacific
With the 41st Division in the Southwest Pacific

Author: Francis B. Catanzaro

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2002-10-24

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 0253109477

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"[W]e began our advance toward the Mokmer Airstrip.... The road climbed a ridge 15 or 20 feet high and we found ourselves on a flat coral plateau sparsely covered by small trees and scrub growth.... As we moved westward along the road, two of our destroyers were sailing abreast of the lead elements of the advancing column. The first indication of trouble was the roar of heavy artillery shells sailing over our heads... aimed at our destroyers.... Shortly after that our forward movement stopped, and we heard heavy firing from the head of the column.... As we waited, we began to hear heavy fire from the rear.... We were cut off and surrounded!" In the enormous literature of the Second World War, there are surprisingly few accounts of fighting in the southwest Pacific, fewer still by common infantrymen. This memoir, written with a simple and direct honesty that is rare indeed, follows a foot soldier's career from basic training to mustering out. It takes the reader into the jungles and caves of New Guinea and the Philippines during the long campaign to win the war against Japan. From basic training at Camp Roberts through combat, occupation, and the long journey home, Francis Catanzaro's account tells of the excitement, misery, cruelty, and terror of combat, and of the uneasy boredom of jungle camp life. A member of the famed 41st Infantry Brigade, the "Jungleers," Catanzaro saw combat at Hollandia, Biak, Zamboanga, and Mindanao. He was a part of the Japanese occupation force and writes with feeling about living among his former enemies and of the decision to drop the atom bomb. With the 41st Division in the Southwest Pacific is a powerful, gritty, and moving narrative of the life of a soldier during some of the most difficult fighting of World War II.

The Jungleers
The Jungleers

Author: William F. McCartney

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2018-03-12

Total Pages: 581

ISBN-13: 1789121159

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“This book gives the history of your unprecedented accomplishments over a period of four years of combat in World War II. They were, for many of you, painful years through which you fought your way valiantly, step by step, from Australia to the distant final objective, Japan. The magnificent manner in which our Division relentlessly met, defeated, and pursued the enemy shall forever be an inspiration to all military men who believe in Democracy and Freedom. “Herein are transcribed names and events which will help those who were not there to understand; and will be for those of us who stood together a permanent record of some of the experiences we shared. It is not possible to set down the full story in writing. Only a hint of the real hardships, sufferings and anxieties which we experienced; of the courage, determination, and heroism demonstrated in alt units, can be given. The full story can only be known by those who participated.”

Tropical Warfare in the Asia-Pacific Region, 1941-45
Tropical Warfare in the Asia-Pacific Region, 1941-45

Author: Kaushik Roy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-25

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1317538315

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the land war during the Second World War in South-East Asia and the South and South-West Pacific. The extensive existing literature focuses on particular armies – Japanese, British, American, Australian or Indian – and/or on particular theatres – the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Malaya or Burma. This book, on the contrary, argues that warfare in all the theatres was very similar, especially the difficulties of the undeveloped terrain, and that there was considerable interchange of ideas between the allied armies which enabled the spread of best practice among them. The book considers tactics, training, technology and logistics, assesses the changing state of the combat effectiveness of the different armies, and traces the course of the war from the Japanese Blitzkrieg of 1941, through the later stalemate, and the hard fought Allied fightback. Although the book concentrates on ground forces, due attention is also given to air forces and amphibious operations. One important argument put forward by the author is that the defeat of the Japanese was not inevitable and that it was brought about by chance and considerable tactical ingenuity on the part of US and British imperial forces.

U.S. Army Divisions of the Pacific War
U.S. Army Divisions of the Pacific War

Author: Stephen R. Taaffe

Publisher: Casemate

Published: 2024-08-14

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1636244505

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A new narrative and analytic history of the twenty U.S. Army divisions that fought in the Pacific War. Despite the prevailing view that the Marine Corps bore the brunt of the fighting in the Pacific War, the men of the US Army played a decisive role in the conflict. Indeed, GIs did most of the war’s heavy lifting on the ground by conducting more amphibious assaults and prosecuting more operations than the Marines. By the end of the war there were 1.77 million U.S. Army troops in the Pacific and Asia, compared to the USMC’s 484,000. The Pacific was as much the Army’s war as the fighting in the European theater. The U.S. Army deployed twenty combat divisions to fight in the Pacific, including famous ones such as the 1st Cavalry Division and the 25th “Tropic Lightning” Division. Most were infantry, and included Regular, National Guard and draftee divisions. The divisions were deployed and maneuvered by theater, field army, and corps commanders around the Pacific’s geostrategic chessboard to battle and defeat the Japanese. The Army may have wanted its divisions to be interchangeable and uniform, but this proved impossible. Their quality and performance depended upon their resources, the geography and terrain on which they fought, experience, leadership, and organizational culture. Historians, though, have made little effort to examine their records in a systematic way before now. In addition, almost all of the Army’s divisions, some after admittedly rocky starts, became units capable of winning their engagements. Indeed, not a single Army division fighting the Japanese during the American counteroffensive across the Pacific was completely destroyed in combat. Whatever problems these divisions faced tended to grow out of the society that produced them, not fundamental flaws in Army doctrine. This is a tribute to the Army as a whole and to the twenty divisions that the Army deployed against the Japanese. This new history uses a narrative approach to describe and analyze each division's history, characteristics, and battles during the conflict, concluding with an assessment of their battlefield records, taking into account the innumerable factors affecting their combat performance.