This week, we turn from the drive up the Solomons on Rabaul to the origins of the mighty Pacific Fleet that would ultimately take the war to Japan itself. Morison's coverage of the conflict between MacArthur and Nimitz whether the latter would have any real role in the Pacific is mercifully brief, although unfortunately, so is the rest of the chapter. With the exception of the raid on Truk (and the first appearance of Iowa), this is a chapter about amphibious warfare, and for whatever reason, the amphibious operations feel like they've been cut back more than other portions of the 14-volume series. Maybe it's just a matter of space, as operations like Tarawa were extremely complex and I think he's trying to be more focused specifically on the Navy in Two-Ocean War than he is in the full series.
Beyond that, I don't have a ton to say. The Central Pacific generally gets more attention than the southwest Pacific campaign, so I suspect most of you didn't get as much out of this one, and Morison's normal rhetoric only shows up in a few places, making me wonder if this was a chapter that had to be written hastily in the process of getting the book done. But next week, we'll get the last great carrier battle of the war, as well as one of the great and overlooked campaigns of the war. I promise I'll be a lot more verbose then.
Oh, and as a final note, the 8" guns at Tarawa were not from Singapore. They were instead from a batch bought by Japan in 1905 for use during their war with Russia.
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