In his new WWII history “Island Infernos,” John McManus tells a story everyone knows happened but almost no one knows much about: how the U.S. Army contributed mightily, if imperfectly, to victory in the Pacific War.
Too often overshadowed at the time by the Marine Corps and too often neglected in history books since, the Army’s role in the Pacific is the subject of a massive McManus trilogy. “Island Infernos” is the second volume, covering the year 1944. The equally engrossing “Fire and Fortitude” preceded it in 2019. A third volume summing up the war will follow.
McManus introduces the Army in the Pacific as “nearly 700,000 soldiers … spread across nearly a third of the globe’s surface, answerable to no single commander; a dispersion of geography and command unprecedented before or since in history.” By mid-1945, this force would grow to 1.8 million soldiers and accomplish battlefield success also unprecedented in military history. In the single year that this volume covers, the drama plays out in such far-flung places as Kwajalein, Manus Island, Bougainville, Burma, Angaur, Leyte. It’s a massive story that McManus tells adroitly and compellingly. One chapter on the China-Burma-India Theater, and Merrill’s Marauder’s in particular, is one of the most informative and succinct explanations this reviewer has encountered of this complicated area of the war.
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Combat is his primary subject, but McManus does not glorify war. The reader cannot escape the gritty realism of the scenes he describes. McManus does not shy away from such topics as evacuation of the horrifically wounded; thirst and exhaustion’s toll on soldiers battling the tropics as much as the enemy; or rotting corpses’ stench in the jungle heat. He finds men who are heroes, but he also finds ones who are broken by combat stress (a phenomenon not as well understood in 1944 as today). The author overall impresses on the reader the army’s effectiveness from enlisted men to the top brass, but he doesn’t avoid stringent criticism where he warrants it necessary.
McManus finds much fault in the rivalry between the Marine Corps and the Army, usually at the command level (the author contends that at the lower ranks, the soldier and the Marine shared a mutual respect and admiration). An unfounded lack of confidence in army personnel among some Marine Corp generals, and in some Army commanders toward Marines, impeded several operations including the invasion of Saipan. Later, at Peleliu, “American senior leaders at the division level demonstrated little strategic, or for that matter, tactical vision.” McManus also takes on the common historical assumption that the army’s combat effectiveness was lackluster compared to the Marines, concluding that both were similar in tactics and performance.
McManus pulls no punches in his analysis. He frequently finds cause to criticize no less than Douglas MacArthur himself, for his almost narcissistic ego that didn’t always separate personal ambitions from greater strategic goals. MacArthur’s vanity could suck the air out of the room, as it were, preventing other highly talented generals from receiving the credit or promotions they richly deserved. McManus seeks to correct this injustice in “Island Infernos” by highlighting the impressive careers of unsung commanders such as Robert Eichelberger, Oscar Griswold, and (perhaps to a lesser degree) Walter Krueger.
Speaking of such top commanders, McManus frequently makes use of a fascinating, but largely heretofore untapped source: their letters home to their wives. Free from the wartime censorship that plagued the enlisted man, generals and colonels could and often did bare their souls to their wives, expressing their innermost thoughts. McManus’ cogent use of these sources provides an intriguing inside look at the theater’s top brass.
“Island Infernos” tells a single coherent story, but can only tell it in the form of several separate subjects. Chapters are separated geographically and topically, so each major action of 1944 receives due attention but other subjects are not ignored. As in his previous volume, McManus takes time to follow the story of soldiers who were POWs of the Japanese; suffering tremendously but forced to do little more than wait for the victory others would win for them. His descriptions of their plight rend the heart even eight decades later.
Other important themes emerge: the nature of the Japanese opposition to American advances (McManus quotes many Japanese sources), the importance of logistics and, briefly, African-Americans’ experiences in the segregated Army of 1944. There is probably no way for a single volume to cover any of these topics exhaustively, but “Island Infernos” provides a solid introduction to these and many other issues.
When the third volume of this trilogy is completed, our knowledge of the Pacific War will be greatly expanded, and future historians will have a well-researched reference which will be not only as comprehensive as possible, but also wonderfully comprehensible.
John McManus will speak at 11 a.m. Monday at the National D-Day Memorial, in Bedford, and is scheduled to sign books afterward.
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