The Pacific War Encyclopedia

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable and Worthwhile--Buy it!
Review: Highly enjoyable encyclopedia on WWII in the Pacific. Lots of unusual and interesting information about the Pacific War. Presented in encyclopedia format similar to the Oxford Companion on WWII. Contains entries covering battles, geography, logistics and military hardware. You'll find interesting tidbits on things like typical magazine loads for various classes of A/C carriers, discussions on aircrew training and tactics and economic factors. This book covers a lot of ground and highlights some of the areas that are overlooked by other books. The only thing I was disappointed with was the brevity of some of the entries. I would have preferred a thicker volume with more intensive coverage (and a consequently higher $). This book is a good value and worthwile for anyone with an interest in history and especially WWII.

Rating:
Summary: let the buyer beware
Review: It's hard to know what to say about this book, other than that it is jam-packed with thousands of fascinating bits of data that are hard to find anywhere else ... and many of them are factual.

I have encountered numerous errors in this encyclopedia. The Japanese battleship _Mutsu_ did _not_ blow up in Hong Kong harbor, but in Hiroshima Bay. The American cruiser _Juneau_ did _not_ sink in Iron Bottom Sound, but well to the south of Guadalcanal. I could go on, but you get the picture.

And yet I find myself reading and re-reading this book. The writing style is highly entertaining, and I know nowhere else where you can find so much obscure information about out-of-the-way places in the Pacific or commanders all but forgotten to history. The summaries of important topics, such as antiaircraft weaponry, the kamikazes, or Japanese military doctrine are what just you want in an encyclopedia of this nature. I just wish I could trust it more.

There are some topics left out that I wish were better covered. There is almost no discussion of armor characteristics of warships, either of the armor itself, how it is layed out around the ship, or of the armor-piercing projectiles designed to defeat it. The ship descriptions boil detailed description of armament down to a vague numerical rating whose basis is inadequately explained. The descriptions of small arms describe weight and range in loving detail but omit rate of fire or weight and muzzle velocity of projectile.

I like the book enough that I'm glad I bought it, and I think I would recommend it to others -- when the revised edition comes out.