Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Given Up for Dead : America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island by Bill Sloan ISBN: 0-553-80302-6 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: When heroism mattered they delivered
Comment: If you've elected to read Given Up for Dead: America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island then you're in for a treat. It has been a long time since anything like it has appeared on the shelves in American bookstores.
Within hours of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese strike at Wake Island. Thinly defended by a few companies of Marines and a very small Marine Air Squadron VMF-211, Wake Island was in the process of being fortified. Beside the small military detachment, there was large numbers of civilian construction crews on the Island that were sent to Wake to build various bunkers, hospitals, and barracks. PanAm also has a facility on Wake to service it's clippers that stop periodically on there way to the orient and back again. It is this small population of Americans that must face the Japanese assault that has not met defeat yet.
Bill Sloan is a master storyteller. In Given Up for Dead he tells the story in a way that will stir your admiration for the defenders, both military and civilian. He uses standard sources but also mixes in information from the few survivors that are still alive. Primary sources, especially eye witness accounts, form the backbone of this book.
Ultimately the American Marines are forced to surrender, but not until they give the Japanese a preview of what's in store for them in the subsequent months. It was the Marines at Wake Island that stopped the Japanese for the first time. It was also the Marines of Wake Island that sank the first Japanese naval vessel of WWII.
This is a pivotal book both in the history of the Marine Corps and the history of WWII. If you're a history buff then you'll want this book on your own bookshelf.
Rating: 5
Summary: Superb
Comment: Given Up for Dead is popular history at its best: powerful, moving narrative; accurate and well-researched. A reviewer notes Sloan's hard words for Cunningham--but I think they are well deserved. Cunningham was a weak commander: incapable of leading by example. In battle we need leaders who "can sweat, get mad, and think at the same time." That was Devereux. And I have read Urwin's book, which is comprehensive, but dry and uninspired.
Rating: 2
Summary: Navy smeared again?
Comment: "Given Up for Dead" by Bill Sloan is a pretty good on detail from personal interviews of some of the heroes, both military and civilian, but the heart of the book takes Major James Devereux (Marine Detachment Commander) point of view on all aspects of the defence of Wake Island and makes the Island Commander, Winfield Scott Cunningham, out as a frightened child hiding in his bunker in the rear. Sloan quotes liberally from Devereux book "The Story of Wake Island." Devereux himself said his book, "The Story of Wake Island", was a romance novel and was never intended as historical fact. Sloan went out of his way to attack Cunningham personally and even called his mental condition into question. His comments concerning Cunningham are almost a word for word take off of an article by Peter Andrews in the July 1987 issue of 'American Heritage'. There was no 'rear' on Wake Island and every one deserves high praise for their courage and determination. Smearing the Navy Commander with falsehoods is only hurtful, not substantiated fact. The fact's of Cunningham's life proves that he was highly qualified to be Island Commander. He had intimate knowledge of the use, accuracy and limitations of the 3-inch and 5-inch batteries. His duties in destroyers, cruisers, and battleships included duty as battery officer, fire control officer and senior aviator in charge of observation, all of which made him thoroughly familiar with the very 5-inch guns which defended the shore line. He was a squadron commander on the USS YORKTOWN, which used the predecessor of the F4F-3 Wildcats. He had the courage and experience, from his World War I vicory medal, his service around the world including service as part of the Fourth China Patrol Force patroling the river delta from Hong Kong to Canton, China during yet another civil war, to command of three reserve aviation squadrons as Commander of the United States Naval Reserve Base in Oakland, California. This is not the experience of a novice, this is the experience of a leader. For a better, more balanced book, read 'Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island' by Gregory Urwin, published by University of Nebraska Press, 1997 or read the Navy Commanders book, 'Wake Island Command', 1961, Little, Brown & Co.
 |
Title: Pacific Alamo: The Battle for Wake Island by John Wukovits ISBN: 0451208730 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley ISBN: 0316105848 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: The Burma Road : The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II by Donovan Webster ISBN: 0374117403 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 13 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
 |
Title: The March Up : Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division by Ray L. Smith, Bing West ISBN: 055380376X Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: The Last Ridge: The Epic Story of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division and the Assault on Hitler's Europe by Mckay Jenkins ISBN: 037550771X Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
