The Pacific

This readable account promised much & only delivered about 60% of what it promised. I wonder why Robert Leckie was left out of this volume & I can't help but think that he was seen as "not being brave enough" by the author. The author, unlike his father, who is the most obvious comparison, seems bogged down in Unit numbers & positions making this at times a difficult proposition to follow in order to work out orders of battle & where units are. Not a bad effort but if you want something that is more limited in time period covered but broader in scope then i think I would recommend Max Hastings book on the pacific war over this

I don't like the literary treatment of this book. It purports to be a non-fictional account of five participants in the Pacific Theater during World War II. When the writing comes from primary sources about actual events, it reads much as many compelling accounts, but with the interesting point of view of individual participants facing the tactical challenges of island and jungle warfare. For long passages, particularly about Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, there is extensive unsubstantiated supposition about his activities and feelings about the Marines, line duty, liberty, bond tours, etc. that are unnecessary and pointless. The book would be more entertaining if the writer stuck to the facts as recorded, rather than making stuff up, show more and cut about 200 pages. Still, Mr. Ambrose has done a lot of work, and I think the book has value as a complement to the HBO series. show less

This is an amazing story & the story of the battle in the Pacific never seems to get the amount of attention in US history as the D-Day invasion of the continent of Europe, perhaps because so many Americans can trace their ancestry to Europe. The book really makes you understand and appreciate what these guys did and what they went through, in hellish conditions. I do think the author could have found a better way to present the story, rather than the huge chapters, with scenes & characters changing every few pages. I found the book very difficult reading and had to force myself to finish it.

I started to read this book with Steven Amborse's 'Band Of Brothers' in mind. And maybe that was a mistake because 'The Pacific' is not - in my humble opinion - on par with 'Band Of Brothers'. The storyline in it is not as clear and 'linear' as in the latter.
But - on the other hand - Steven Ambrose was a storyteller par excellence and hard to match by anyone.

Weaving the stories of 4 to 5 men Ambrose tells a story about the Pacific battles of World War II. We get to see the various aspects of these men, the battles and conditions they faced and how war changed these men forever.

This is an amazing history of the Marine Corps' march across the Pacific during World War 2, and a story (in much less detail) that all former and current Marinesknow. The history of these battles is familiar to Marines, but the detail that Hugh Ambrose brings to the table is amazing. The story of the heroism of John Basilone is also known to all Marines, but the "back story" of his time in the Corps adds much to his record. At a time when America was sorely in need of heroes, John Basilone was a credit to the nation and to his Corps. Thank you, Hugh Ambrose, for the effort it took to bring this history to us.

It probably works great as a TV mini-series but as an audio book I just couldn't get into it. Lots of snippets about life but there were so many characters - and skipped around - it was more like being a fly on the wall just watching vignettes of soldiers, without much depth.