Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: December 24, 2020 at 12:03:25 PM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Truxal on Rems, 'South Pacific Cauldron: > World War II's Great Forgotten Battlegrounds' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Alan Rems. South Pacific Cauldron: World War II's Great Forgotten > Battlegrounds. Washington, DC Naval Institute Press, 2014. 312 pp. > $38.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-61251-471-0; $21.95 (paper), ISBN > 978-1-61251-944-9. > > Reviewed by Luke Truxal (Columbia State Community College) > Published on H-War (December, 2020) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > Alan Rems takes on an ambitious project by attempting to provide an > overview of the entire South Pacific campaign. Rems contends in his > preface that the South Pacific is a largely forgotten theater. He > argues that historians have focused on different aspects of the > fighting in this theater but have yet to provide a complete overview > of the subject. Rems's goal is to bring to light the brutal fighting > that occurred in the South Pacific. Overall, Rems provides a good > introduction for casual readers of military history, but the > structural problems of the book will hinder its use among > professional historians. > > Readers new to the fighting in the South Pacific will enjoy Rems's > work, which provides an excellent, detailed overview. The coverage of > the fighting at the tactical and operational level is well done. At > the end of each chapter he provides a brief analysis of the > individual campaign, which is quite useful for those unfamiliar with > the subject matter. His writing is easy to follow for both > professionals in the field and those outside of academia. > > Rems does an excellent job of showing the inexperience of the > American forces early in the fighting in the South Pacific. For > example, he argues that in the New Georgia campaign American > commanders and soldiers gained valuable experience. In fact the 43rd > Division had been assigned the task of seizing Munda alone, with the > equally inexperienced 37th Division in reserve. This led to a slow, > costly offensive that forced the Americans to introduce the veteran > 25th Division, which had been in reserve, into the battle. The author > argues that throwing two new divisions straight into the offensive > had been both costly and slowed the advance as the men adapted to > jungle warfare. The author also points out that several of the > commanders gained valuable experience in the fighting. Rems argues > that "[Admiral William F.] Halsey grew as a commander" as a result of > the early fighting (p. 59). He also points out that Jospeh Lawton > Collins gained valuable experience in amphibious operations that > served him well when the US Army transferred him to the European > theater. > > Rems brings to light the Australian contributions to the > counteroffensives in New Guinea throughout the book. This is a > strength of the book. Much of the story of the Australian > contributions to the fighting in the Pacific has been overlooked in > favor of accounts of other campaigns and battles in the Pacific which > are more American-centric. The Australians, as Rems shows, were left > with the unfortunate task of mopping up isolated pockets of Japanese > forces. This decision was not well received by the Australian > government, which wanted its troops engaged in more prestigious > battles in the Philippines. Yet, as the author points out, these > battles were as crucial to the war effort as McArthur's Philippines > campaign. > > While this book is a good starting point for those interested in the > South Pacific, there are several places where historians will have > some problems. The first area of concern has to do with the critique > of the commander of the Australian land forces, General Sir Thomas > Blamey. While some of the author's criticisms of Blamey are on point, > he undermines them by excessively attacking his leadership and > character later in the text. For example, the author is correct to > criticize Blamey for his frequent conflicts with leadership inside > the Australian military. Rems shows Blamey as willing not only to > relieve Major General Sydney Powell, who commanded the New Guinea > Force, but also to block his appointment to a position at the British > War Office (p. 180). This is an excellent evaluation of Blamey's > flaws as a commander. Yet valid criticisms of Blamey are damaged when > the author proceeds to dedicate an entire chapter (26), to > criticizing the entire career of Blamey, from the interwar period to > his decision to reignite fighting in the South Pacific against the > Japanese forces encircled by the Allies. Rems's work might have > benefited from tempering these attacks on Blamey and sticking to > those more relevant to the South Pacific campaign. > > There are structural problems with the book that need to be > addressed. Rems does not include a proper introduction to his > material. There is no historiography to lay out the previous > publications and arguments devoted to this particular theater. As a > result, readers are forced to rely on his preface to identify the > purpose of the book. At one point in the preface, he mentions that > there are numerous books written on the South Pacific, but fails to > cite any (p. xiv). Likewise, there is no conclusion to the book; it > abruptly ends with the Japanese surrender to the Australians at > Bougainville on September 6, 1945. Readers and historians need to get > some summary and analysis of what they have just read. Another > problem with the structure is the organization of the material. The > book's 242 pages are divided into 29 chapters. Almost as soon as most > readers start a particular chapter, they are flung into a new one. > This breaks up Rems's narrative over the course of the book. > Condensing the chapters would have helped the narrative. Finally, the > author does not make an argument other than emphasizing the > importance of the fighting in the South Pacific. > > With regard to archival material, only two collections of papers are > cited, those of Collins and Thomas Holcomb. Collins did not spend a > lot of time in the South Pacific and transferred to the European > theater in 1943. Holcomb remained as commandant of the Marine Corps > until he retired at the end of 1943. With such few archival sources, > Rems becomes overly reliant on official histories to make his case. > This becomes glaringly obvious when all of chapter 27's notes come > from the same source, Gavin Long's _Australia in the War of > 1939-1945, Series 1(Army), Volume VII, The Final Campaigns _(1963). > Rems's work would have been greatly enhanced by research at > additional major archives such as the National Archives, the Library > of Congress, and the Australian War Memorial, to name a few. This, > too, hurts the quality of the book. > > In conclusion, Rems provides a decent overview of the South Pacific > that will be useful for those unfamiliar with the subject, but its > contributions to the historiography of the field are undermined by > the structural problems of the book. Historians will want to build > upon Rems's work and take a more in-depth look at the fighting in the > South Pacific. There is still a lot to uncover about the forgotten > fighting in the South Pacific. > > Citation: Luke Truxal. Review of Rems, Alan, _South Pacific Cauldron: > World War II's Great Forgotten Battlegrounds_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. > December, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=42089 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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