Wake Island, the Heroic Gallant Fight

by Duane P. Schultz

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031285451X
• ISBN13: 9780312854515
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 247 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Good First Step

This is not a bad little book on the topic. It does not have the detail of a Stephen Ambrose book, but the author does keep the story moving and before you know it you have completed the book. This book provides the reader an enjoyable way to read about a battle that most have heard of but few know the details of. There were a number of good personal stories of the "average Joe" slugging it out. This is a good first step to learning about the combat experience in the Pacific. You will not regret this purchase.

The Alamo revisited

This is an outstanding account of the battle for Wake Island at the outbreak of WWII. Duane Schultz offers a well researched and very readable history of this battle, which while an American defeat was also one of its earliest victories. While the Island was eventually surrendered to the Japanese, the price they had to pay for it was very steep. The American public needed good news at the start of the war, and for sixteen days the Wake Island defenders gave it to them. Also covered here are other topics of interest including; Japanese war crimes (100 civilian construction workers were executed by the paranoid Japanese), and the controversy of who was in ultimate command of Wake Island (Cmdr W. S. Cunningham was the senior officer on Wake Island but was completely left out of all accounts of the battle, including award citations). This is a great book and one I highly recommend.

The Heroic Gallant Fight

Duane Schultz's "Wake Island," is an excellent account of the lost cause that bought American forces in the Pacific a little breathing space in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Like the battle of the Alamo, the fate of the American defenders of Wake Island became a rallying cry during subsequent encounters. This is not an epic work, checking in at just over 200 pages. But it is exciting and well written military history in the fine tradition of Stephen Ambrose and Cornelius Ryan. It is also an excellent tribute to the brave Americans who fought vallantly against hopeless odds to stem the tide of the enemy in the Pacific.