Here is an interesting snippet of information. The only time an invasion was successfully repelled during World War II was the 11 December 1941 landing on Wake Island. This was accomplished by the 1st Marine Defense Battalion that was stationed on the island just weeks prior to the start of the Pacific war.

Wake Island is an atoll in the central Pacific between Midway and Guam. There is nothing really there of any interest and until post WWII, the island did not even have palm trees, something that one always pictures with Pacific atolls. What it did have was strategic importance to the Japanese and the United States. It was also a perfect refueling stop for the Pan Am clipper, and so the first real work on the island was the establishment of a base for the clipper in the mid 1930s.

It was soon realized that it would make for an excellent place to put patrol aircraft to keep an eye on the Japanese Marshall Islands, which lay several hundred miles to the south. In fact, the Japanese had been building up their Pacific island holdings for quite some time and felt that Wake needed to be part of their perimeter of defense.

So plans were made to invade the atoll. Meanwhile, the US had finally woken up to the strategic importance of the island. Civilian contractors were sent to build an airstrip and defensive positions, along with the related infrastructure required. The military sent in Army, Navy and Marine units as well, with the prime defense of the island being put in Marine hands. For air defense, squadron VMF-211 was sent with its dozen F4F-3 Wildcats just days prior to the start of hostilities. It is due to the delivery of these planes that USS Enterprise was not in port during the Pearl Harbor attack.

Now we get down to personalities. The main man that everyone points to for the defense of Midway is Marine Major Devereux. However, he was not the island commanding officer. That was Commander Cunningham, the man who made all the decisions. Devereux was second in command and thanks to wartime propaganda, all of the credit for the defense of Midway has gone to the Marines. Yet it was also Army, Navy and contractor personnel who manned the guns and fought the Japanese and died doing so. Yet it is only the Marines that are mentioned when talking about the battle to come.

Author Jim Moran does a superlative job telling the story of Midway. There were mistakes made on both sides as the Japanese initially underestimated the defense, US Admiral Pye, who took over from Kimmel, was cautious and so recalled a task force that could have made the final outcome much different when this task force was within a few hundred miles of Wake. Even though I knew the outcome, so riveting is the tale being told, that I was constantly hoping for help to arrive and for things to turn out differently.

As is the norm for a book in the Campaign series, this one starts with a preamble of events leading up to the battle, a look at the commanders of both sides and the men under their command. Then there is an inspection of the plans of both sides. The 'meat' of the volume is next with the various stages of the battle. Finally, introspection on how the battle went, what was learned from it, and how it affected future events. There is also a look at the battlefield today. All of this is superbly illustrated with period photographs and the artwork of Peter Dennis, whose work has graced literally hundreds of books over the years.

So interesting was the story of Wake, that after reading the book, I took a tour of the atoll by using Google Earth. It really is a fascinating piece of software and I've found it useful in helping to envision a number of battle sites as they are today.

If you want insight into the first major US battle of WWII, or just a fascinating read, then this is the book for you. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I'm sure you will as well.

September 2011

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