Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific Paperback – July 1, 1997

Super book and I was happy to find! Excellent shipping !

The superb account rendered so graphically in this book educates a new generation of readers as to the horrific practical realities involved in the Allied island-hopping strategy employed by the Allies in waging the Pacific campaign during World War Two. Indeed, while the specific individual battles often involved far fewer ground troops and were much smaller in scale than what occurred in the European theater of the war, the ferocity of the opposition and the relative number of casualties were staggering. Thus Eric Bergerud's gripping recounting of the incredible details involved with the war in the South Pacific in "Touched With Fire: The Land War In The South Pacific" reminds us of the terrible costs associated with that campaign.This was truly a campaign requiring a total re-education of the American military involved. Starting with the disastrous lessons of the quite different realities of jungle warfare first experienced on Guadalcanal, the Allied command had to learn to adapt to the extremely tenacious, ingenious, and almost indefatigable efforts of the island's Japanese defenders, who could subsist on a little water and rice and move through the jungles with much great ease and skill than could we. No one was prepared for the sustained levels of ferocity with which the Japanese fought, usually to the death, over these small atolls that they had to recognize they could not hold onto forever. Yet they fought on.The book recounts the many ways in which the war in the Pacific was different from that waged in Europe, and is organized around several themes such as terrain, climate, diseases such as dysentery, etc. in illustrating how the very different negative circumstances surrounding the island hopping strategy affected and constrained our ability (as well as those of the Japanese) to fight effectively in such an environment. Of course, as the author maintains, the Allies learned very quickly; they needed to in order to survive. As so well described in Ronald Spector's "Eagle Against The Sun", the Japanese were incredibly ingenious in devising ways to use topography, indigenous materials, and a willingness to "`rough-it" to build virtually impregnable walls of resistance to the oncoming invaders.This is a very well written, passionately argued, and absolutely entertaining book to read. The author has done a remarkable job in documenting and substantiating his notions and theories, and I found myself surprised at how well some of his more provocative and controversial ideas are supported by the data he employs. This is an eminently worthwhile book, a wonderful addition to the growing library of titles exploring the realities of the war in the Pacific, and one I would recommend to anyone interested in learning more about the gritty details of the Allied `island to island' war against the Japanese. Enjoy!

This book is what I consider a "Universal Problem Solver" for its subject, which is how land forces fought World War II in the South Pacific.The battles for Guadalcanal, New Guinea, and the Solomons have justly passed into legend in the United States and Australia (and New Zealand to a smaller extent) as a turning point of World War II. They were among the harshest battlefield settings of a war that was noted for ghastly scenes of battle -- thick, disease-infested jungles where large bodies of armed men could easily get lost and run into headhunting cannibals.A Japanese general died in a river flood. Hordes of Japanese troops were felled by the deadly combination of the miserable terrain and their inability to supply their men with food and medicine. On Guadalcanal, the American Marines were abandoned soon after they landed, and had to survive on captured Japanese rations for weeks -- even putting the lone Japanese bulldozer to work to finish Henderson Field. The dozer's operator slept by the vehicle with his rifle -- nobody was allowed near him or it.The book is divided into sections: how the battles were fought, the social roots and technological tools of the combatants, how they operated tactically, and how the men thought, felt, and endured their battles. Everything from medical care to machine-guns are covered, with interesting notes about how US Marines created fake Japanese "war flags" to sell to gullible US Sailors that they believed had let them down.A good chunk of the book is how the cultures of the various armies affected how they fought the South Pacific War, which was critical. One point that Professor Bergerud makes is that the US Army had become obsessed with and mastered large-scale logistics -- if Hitler asked American generals to prepare a plan for the invasion of Russia, the answer would have been mind-numbing but critical essays on high-viscosity motor oil and anti-freeze instead of crackling Prussian Generalstab arrows on a map, leading to Leningrad and Moscow. The Americans understood that an army had to be supplied to win.Touched With Fire is a masterly and detailed work, focusing like a laser on the land crucible of the Pacific war. This will tell you nearly everything you will want or need to know about that war, who fought it, how, and why. Highly recommended.

This is a detailed war book. Loved itSomeone borrowed the book for a bit. Comment was essentially there were no characters, which I took to mean no character development. No real plot I guess.I felt like I learned a lot about a part of WWII I had not read much about.

This is generally a well written historical analyses of the combat environment in the South Pacific during WW2. Those looking for detailed descriptions of every battle will be disappointed as it gives only a brief overview of the numerous battles and campaigns. Instead it describes in some detail how such elements as the terrain, weather, ane even diseases influenced the battlefield environment. The evolution of combat tactics and weaponry is also presented in an interesting manner. The author does a convincing job in describing the horrid conditions faced by soldiers of BOTH sides in the South Pacific campaign. I found the book especially thought provoking in that it may cause one who has never been in a war to wonder how THEY would have conducted themselves in such a wretched environment. Thus, the book is rarely booring.My one complaint is the author too often fills the pages with lengthy quotes from combat veterans who, with all due respect, usually say the same thing over and over again i.e. WAR IS HELL. Thus the book could have probably got it's point across with 100 fewer pages.

This book is about every battle in the South Pacific during WW2 and also about no battle.If you only are able to read one book on the war in the South Pacific then Eric Bergerud's Touched with Fire is the one.It details the Terrain, the climate, the armies (American, Australian & Japanese), the weapons, the tactics, the medical aid, the morale and so on.Heavily illustrated with passages from soldiers who were there it explains why this war was different to all of the other WW2 battles or campaigns.IT IS A MUST

Good well written book with lots of detail regarding the nitty gritty of that conflict. Good first hand testimony detailed. Much I was not aware of.

Superb analysis of WWII combat in the Pacific Theatre. A must read for anyone interested in that conflict.

Great book!