tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post7090337532503817755..comments2024-03-27T15:44:43.564-08:00Comments on What Do I Know?: How The US Got Its First Japanese Zero In WW IIStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10498066938213558757noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-29648716217151809302012-12-29T08:18:10.436-09:002012-12-29T08:18:10.436-09:00"Still have lots of pages to go." Enjoy..."Still have lots of pages to go." Enjoy it - one of the better Alaska books there is.<br /><br />Many Pacific campaigns were wastes of lives and energy. There really was no need for the invasions of Attu and Kiska by the U.S. The same holds true of many of Gen. MacArthur's campaigns - western New Guinea and the Phillippines could have been left to whither, for instance. Japanese forces in southern Okinawa could have been shut off, rather than attacked in such a way it killed almost 100,000 Okinawan civilians. We left scores of Japanese garrisons isolated all over the Pacific, with no negative consequences for the overall direction of the war there.<br /><br />Hindsight.Philip Mungerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14601488767955084836noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-65779353846682348522012-12-28T19:06:14.633-09:002012-12-28T19:06:14.633-09:00Thanks Phil. I followed up your lead and anyone w...Thanks Phil. I followed up your lead and anyone who wants to know about the Zero captured in China can <a href="http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/WarPrizes.htm" rel="nofollow">check here.</a> But Garfield's book came out in 1969 and I'm guessing that the Chinese captured Zero info wasn't known until later. At least my title says the first for the US, but Garfield's does say allies. <br /><br />I've also been wondering, as I read about them, essentially throwing planes and pilots at Kiska, about the importance of this and whether this loss of life was necessary. And since Garfield makes so much of Buckner, I am naturally suspicious. I understand there's the critical sea route along the North Pacific, but the weather was so bad and the conditions so rainy and muddy that I wonder how valuable it was to try to keep. Of course, the symbolic importance of it being American soil does have some relevance here. Still have lots of pages to go.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10498066938213558757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-71500280296099290982012-12-28T11:57:17.907-09:002012-12-28T11:57:17.907-09:00I read Garfield's book when it first came out ...I read Garfield's book when it first came out in paperback, and have re-read it twice over the years. It was the first history book that interested my son enough to embrace it.<br /><br />My favorite chapter is the one on the Battle of the Pips.<br /><br />Garfield fawned way too much over Simon Bolivar Buckner, who has never been highly regarded as a thinker, tactician or strategist. Some have estimated that almost half the US casualties in Okinawa were the result of Buckner's uninspired, head-on tactics, reminiscent of WW I. <br /><br />Don't get me started on the invasion of Attu. After that fiasco (Buckner was not in direct control of the Attu invasion troops, but bore significant responsibility for the way the campaign was mishandled), Buckner never should have been promoted to form up and lead the US 10th Army.<br /><br />Contrary to popular belief, Koga's Akutan A6M was not the first captured intact by the allies. The first was located near Qian Shan on the southeastern coast of Leichou Panto, where it had landed mistakenly on a beach inside Chinese lines, on November 26, 1941.. <br /><br />It took longer for technical results from restoration of that plane to get back to aviation experts than that from the Akutan trophy.Philip Mungerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14601488767955084836noreply@blogger.com