Pacific War
    About this Web Site

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    This web site started as a tribute to Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, a hometown boy. The site then expanded into "Little known facts" and "Attacks on the US mainland". It was then recognized that later generations might not understand the conditions of 1941-42. Most media presentations about WW2 are concerned with the victorious end of the war. Conditions were far different at the beginning. There was horse cavalry, biplanes, bolt action Springfield rifles, and sea search that depended upon a seaman's eye. The staples of war movies - Corsairs, PPI radar, proximity shells, and Essex class aircraft carriers simply did not exist in 1942.

        The task now is to create an internet site explaining significant parts of WW2; initial emphasis is on the Navy in the Pacific during the first year, 1942. The approach selected is to be a fast flowing description, to develop little known topics, and to provide detailed reference. Concerning accuracy - multiple sources on any topic differ. The international dateline and the local viewpoint of the author concerning time of day are often a problem. I have found places were corrections where made twice on the same date:time, doubling the offset.   An example of conflicting information concerns which cruiser, destroyers, and oil tankers accompanied the Pearl Harbor strike force. See Which Japanese Ships Attacked Pearl Harbor? where names and even the number of ships differ among sources. Your web author just does his best to weed through the sources to report the best estimate.

    Sources : The following books are the most depended upon and are within reach at the computer and used to confirm my memory. These books provide information of the sort useful to the web pages. I am occasionally both satisfied and embarrassed to find that others - in the hardcopy age - have done a magnificent job of addressing topics that I have more recently started as necessary to fill-in my own, and possibly your, understanding of World War Two in the Pacific. If you live close to a military historical museum, see if they have a library and join; I wish one were close to me.

      Most Used for References
    • The Pacific War 1941-1945 by John Costello
    • History of United States Naval Operations in World War II by Samuel Morison. 15 vol.   Most used - 3, 4, 5.
    • The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy - Masanori Ito
    • Victory at Sea by James Dunningan and Albert Nofi
    • And I Was There by Edwin Layton
    • Time-Life History of WWII
    • Atlas of the Second World War by HarperCollins
    • Encyclopedia Britannica
    • Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, editor David Donald.
    • Fighting Ships of WWII - Jane's
      Most Used web sites
    • Official Navy Chronology
    • Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
    • Hyperwar - USN in WW II
      Other relevant books on the shelves:
    • The complete listing the books has been moved to its own page.
    Citation : This is frequently sought by students.
    A sufficent web site citation is the page title from the top of the web page, followed by the page address, which appears at the bottom. On many pages there are two titles, which on paper would be joined with a colon. Example:
      The End of the Great War : How the end of World War I led to World War II
      http://www.ww2pacific.com/ww1end.html
    If you need a longer form, then, if this were a book, the title would probably be: "World War II, Pacific: the early years". Lets shorten that to "World War II Pacific".
      Bauer, James. "How the end of World War I led to World War II", World War II Pacific.
      Viewed 15April2007 at http://www.ww2pacific.com/ww1end.html
    A longer discussion including formal citiation procedures is here.
        Note the references acquired since starting this webpage, books; very little here is without some authority's documentation, I only claim to put it in a form that I wish was available when reading every book about WW2 I could find starting 60 years ago. I served at SuBase, New London, and aboard USS Parle (DE 708), Little Creek.

        There is an implied copyright on all creative work to which I give away no commercial rights. Facts cannot be copyrighted. Many paragraphs herein are condensations and compilations of the better book chapters from multiple sources and for which I claim "fair use and significant contribution" in reorganizing the facts. The selection of topics, their tone, and editorial content are totally my responsibility.
        I reserve the right to publish email ; I think the examples of Savo Island update and radioman from Graf Spee are tastefully done. Reader queries can spark new pages: I-26.

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    About this page: about - About this web site: initiation, goal, and sources.
    Last updated on Feb 17, 2003 - split out books.
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