How Australia and her allies defeated the Japanese. Pearl Harbor; The Fall of Singapore; Curtin's Fight With Churchill; The Bombing Of Darwin; POW Camps; The Battle of Midway; Kokoda; Buna; Kamikaze Pilots; Hiroshima... These words alone are enough to convey the terror, courage and drama of the Pacific War, when the balance of power stood on a knife-edge and when the future of Australia was on the brink - threatened by Japanese aggression on the one hand and British deception on the other. After a conflict that took an unimaginable number of lives and ended with the unleashing of the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen, the Allies emerged victorious. Australia, however, was criticised by Churchill and his generals for showing cowardice in the face of the enemy and for not caring about the fate of other nations. The endorsement of these claims by several military historians today shows that the smear has not gone away. Until now. Peter Thompson presents, for the first time, an account of the conflict that places Australian voices and action at the heart of the struggle. Based on exclusive interviews with eyewitnesses and written with all the pace and verve you would expect of a master storyteller, Pacific Fury brings the people and the battles to life in a sensational history not to be bettered in a generation.

A brilliant history of the land battles in the Pacific theater of World War II, with stirring personal accounts of the horrifying struggle between the Japanese and Allied forces. The horrors of WWII in the South Pacific extended far beyond the detonation of atomic bombs. In this revelatory portrayal of the lives of the regular infantrymen who struggled to contain the Japanese advance, Eric Bergerud has given us a compelling and chilling record of the incredible hardships endured by these soldiers, and the heroic efforts that resulted in the reversal of the course of the war. Bergerud spent hundreds of hours interviewing the last surviving veterans of this remarkable campaign, and he has placed their personal experiences at the center of his analysis of military strategy. “Aspires to do for the ground war in the South Pacific what Keegan achieved in Six Armies in Normandy.”—Los Angeles Times

Finally convincing his parents to sign his papers at the age of seventeen, James Snellen enlisted in the Navy in 1944-the middle of World War II. A young farm boy from rural Kentucky, James was anxious to see some action! His boat crew was assigned to an Armed Personnel Destroyer, USS Cofer (APD-62). Being assigned the position of gunner, signalman, and radioman aboard a LCVP landing craft that would put assault troops ashore onto the enemy beaches in the South Pacific, he certainly saw more action than he had bargained for. His role later included sweeping for mines in between the Japanese boat docks before any other Navy ship could enter the enemy harbors. James Snellen successfully landed troops in all eight of the United States invasions in the South Pacific that led up to the surrender of the Japanese. From Balikipapan to Bora Bora, Okinawa, Japan to Fusan, Korea, he received two bronze starts and many other medals for his bravery and for doing his part. Even though I was awarded two bronze stars, the things that I did were the same things being done by countless others.' James is now the historian and coordinator representing the Cofer's association. Sixty-one years later, his remaining shipmates and families still get together yearly for a reunion to reminisce and renew old friendships.