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Osprey
Japanese Pacific Island Defences
Gordon L. Rottman & Ian Palmer
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The first in a new Fortress series and a book that clearly upholds the increasingly scholarly standards set by all Ospreys over the last three or four years. For the wargamer or the modeller - albeit the former should be of a tactical, attritional bent - this book is a goldmine, with dozens of photographs, diagrams and colour illustrations of Japanese bunkers, pillboxes, foxholes, casemates as well as of entire cave systems and defence networks.
Most of the striking colour illustrations are computer-generated, a method especially suited to representing the more elaborate systems. The text abounds with detail on the tactical problems associated with attacking such fearsome defences, allowing the interested wargamer to refine his rules on such matters as camouflage, flamethrowers, armoured bulldozers, bangalore torpedoes and grenade lobbing.
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This is not to disparage the book in the least for this is an important slice of military history, highlighting the crucial importance of fortifications in the Pacific war. for many people the key images of this theatre are of carrier task forces and Japanese suicide attacks, be they banzai or kamikaze, whereas the real war on the ground, which caused most of the casualties, was fought against concrete and timber, coral and sandbags.
With
chapters on the evolution of Japanese doctrine, the actual building and layout
of the island defences, the tactical principles involved for defender and
attacker, three case studies, and a downbeat conclusion on the essential
futility of the Japanese island strategy, this book offers an important insight
into the reality of 'island hopping' and the grim, if temporary,
cost-effectiveness of these island fortresses.
(John
Ellis)
Paperback; 64 pages; ISBN: 1841764280
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