Rating: 
Summary: More than Military History
Review: Read the preceding editorial and reader spotlight reviews for story details about heroism and sacrifice richly explained in this book. I rate the book 4.5 stars. (...)Those graphics (about a dozen in all, the better ones towards the end of the file) make the story much easier to follow and are expected in this day of technological presentation. I found the graphics after I read the book and wham the whole picture clarified. If you read the book, download and print the graphics. For certain this is a compelling story about the heroic defense by Marines, soldiers, sailors, and contract and foreign workers. It's a military inspiration. But, if you read the story carefully, there are also crystal clear leadership and management lessons for government, education, and business as well. Rather than buy a colleague or relative the latest book on how to succeed in business or whatever, try this book as a gift. There are real lessons in here. Pages 337 to 339, as an example, contain a dilemma faced by the Japanese Admiral commanding captured Wake Island at war's end. What to do with 98 civilian prisoners of war when he had not enough food to feed his own sick troops? You won't like his solution; the discussion of alternatives might wake up students mostly asleep at their desks. Place those alternatives in the context that author Bill Sloan alone provides - most Japanese soldiers were not evil, many saved American lives. There are also Japanese heroes in this book. You can't help but consider the Geneva Conventions as applied in the Wake Island situation with those in Iraq today. You'll also appreciate the role of the Swiss Red Cross. Years ago I read the first two books about this subject, in my opinion, Sloan's book is the best.
Rating: 
Summary: A Compelling and Worthwhile Read
Review: The "desert island" fantasy is a common enough parlor game in America --- imagining who you would want to be stranded with, what books or movies you would bring, and figuring out how you might survive if you were lost and alone on a coral beach out in the endless blue waters of the Pacific. What most of us would consider a fantasy was a stark reality for a few hundred Americans --- some Navy, some Marines, and some civilian contractors --- who were trapped on Wake Island in the days after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.Wake Island was meant to be an advance base against possible Japanese aggression in the Pacific, but the attack on Pearl Harbor left the small Wake Island garrison isolated behind enemy lines. The island, a way station for Pan American's fleet of Pacific clippers, had a minimal number of defenders, a small squadron of aircraft, and not much else. The supply line back to Hawaii was cut; there could be no hope of food, fresh water, ammunition or reinforcements until the Navy, battered by the surprise attack, could put together a relief squadron out of spare parts. No sooner had word of the attack on Pearl Harbor spread across the three islands at Wake than the Japanese struck, first with bombers and then with a naval task force bent on an amphibious assault of the island. The brave defenders managed to beat back the Japanese ships with the few remaining airplanes on the island and some well-timed artillery strikes, but a second wave of the Emperor's soldiers was on its way, racing against a rescue fleet dispatched from Hawaii. To tell more about the valiant defense of Wake Island here in this review would spoil things, which I am constitutionally opposed to doing. Besides, there's no need to do that here. GIVEN UP FOR DEAD is so phenomenally well-written, so lucid in its prose, so clear in the way that it lifts the "fog of war" that hangs over the mysteries of combat, that you'll want to read the whole thing all at once; you won't be able to put it down, even though you know the ending. Sloan's stated purpose in writing the book is to restore the heroes of Wake Island --- there really isn't another word --- to the American pantheon, to ensure that the defense of the island is mentioned in the same breath with the Alamo and Thermopylae and other gallant, doomed last stands. It is a goal that he more than accomplishes. It is amazing that any of the American forces were able to survive Wake Island; that so many of them survived both the invasion and the subsequent horrors of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp is nothing short of miraculous. Sloan documents every day of the siege, supplementing the official account with detailed interviews of the few remaining survivors. His commitment to accuracy and his teasing out the details of the conflict makes GIVEN UP FOR DEAD a compelling, worthwhile read. --- Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds
Rating:
Summary: The Alamo of the Pacific
Review: The heroic defenders of Wake Island have often been compared to the band of soldiers who defended the Alamo , and in this fine book, author Bill Sloan describes the battle for Wake Island from early on December 8 until the Marines finally and grudgingly surrendered to the overwhelming Japanese forces on December 23, 1941.
The first bombs began to fall on Wake just five hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Eight of the twelve aircraft from Marine fighter squadron VMF-211 were destroyed on the ground and the airfield was left pot-holed, but the Marines' spirit was never broken. A few days later, the Japanese tried an amphibious landing, but the Marines, led by Major James Devereux, succeeded in replusling the invasion attempt. Wake had three twin batteries of five inch naval guns, and these batteries succeeded in sinking two Japanese destroyers and heavily damaging a light cruiser and several other ships.
For the next two weeks, the brave Marines endured daily bombing raids by the Japanese, but the Marine anti-aircraft gunners managed to put up a tremendous volume of flak and succeeded in downing several Japanese planes. However, on the 22nd and 23rd of December, the Japanese, supported by two aircraft carrier groups detached from the returning Pearl Harbor strike force, managed to successfully land troops on Wake. For the next few days, the Japanese faced the wrath of the greatly outnumbered Marines and civillian workers. Japanese casualties were horrendous, while the greatly outnumbered Americans fought with bravery and gallantry right up until the controversial surrender order was given.
Many of the Marines on Wake thought the order must have been a mistake. The Japanese were being pushed back into the sea at many points, but the overly conservative Commander Winfield Cunningham thought that there was no way to stop the advancing Japanese. Many men contimplated mutiny and vowed to continue fighting the Japanese, but, in the end, the valiant Wake defenders surrendered to the Japanese after having inflicted many more casualties on the enemy than they suffered. These heroic defenders were now condemned to finish the war as prisoners of the Japanese.
I've read dozens of books about the Pacific war, and this is one of the best I've read. Bill Sloan has done an amazing job in bringing the heroic struggle for Wake to life. The book reads like a novel, and I definitely felt like I came to know each Marine mentioned in the book. Sloan tells it all; from the American's decision to turn Wake into a military base in the late 1930's, the attack by the Japanese, the aborted rescue mission by an American task force in which many American airmen came dangerously close to mutiny, and to the final surrender. I give this book my absolute highest recommendation. From the day the Japanese landed until the surrender, the Marines fought with gritty determination against vastly superior forces, yet they didn't waiver in the face of battle. This battle solidified the meaning of being a Marine. Semper Fi.
Rating:
Summary: Don't wait for the movie
Review: This is military history as it should be written -- a riveting account of an extraordinary struggle that grips the reader through page after page. Those who have never been in combat are inclined to question, "What would I have done?" Bill Sloan puts the reader in the middle of the action, shoulder to shoulder with the outgunned and out-manned defenders of tiny Wake Island in World War II. This is the definitive story of how some men rise to heroism against overwhelming odds -- and others do not. In 1941, Wake Island was the eastern-most U.S. base in the Pacific and literally the gateway to San Francisco. Just five days after Pear Harbor, the Japanese attacked this small spit of sand and rock manned by a handful of Marines, sailors and civilian construction workers. For 16 days they held out against a massive invasion force -- twice repelling Japanese landing attempts before finally being overwhelmed by superior firepower and manpower. Sloan not only stays true to the history of the battle, but, through extensive interviews with survivors, provides insight into the character and personalities of the desperate men who fought there. If ever a book was destined for the silver screen, this is it. But do not wait for the film version. No movie will be able to capture the gut-wrenching drama that flows through the pages of this book. What are we going to do now that Ambrose is gone? Who will replace him? After reading "Given Up For Dead," may I suggest Bill Sloan.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping Account
Review: Wake Island and its airbases in the Pacific were the immediate targets following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Just five hours after their surprise assault on U. S. territories, the enemy moved to eliminate nearby airbases at Wake and Wilkes atolls.
Author Bill Sloan describes enemy bombing and its destruction to both civilian and military personnel. He employs individual accounts of the Marine defense against China-hardened Jap forces. The battles are well fought despite the fact the Imperial Navy has ringed the island, but resourceful Marines and civilian volunteers mount returning fire offshore and onshore to deter the Japanese navy and ground fighters.
There were 1,700 civilians and military on the island. About one out of four perished. The enemy suffered 4,500 casualties. U.S. commanders wanted to give up. In the end, they had to, but the Marines remained effective in the skirmishes and early in the fighting one communique slipped through which read they should, "Send us more Japs." Newspapers and President Roosevelt praised their valiant defense.
Sloan's fitting follow-up stories on U.S. fighting men and their afterlives were often as gripping as the main account of the small Marine garrison that met the Japanese Empire head-on in the opening struggles of World War II.
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