Author: Bert Kinzey
Illustrated by Rock Roszak
Published Detail & Scale
Price around $12.99USD
Our thanks to Detail & Scale for supplying our review download. Get this excellent title here at Detail & Scale
About the Book
Here’s some good information from the publishers:
In 2010, Detail & Scale published the original Attack on Pearl Harbor: Japan Awakens a Sleeping Giant at the request of the USS ARIZONA Memorial Foundation, now a part of Pacific Historic Parks. The goal was to produce a reasonably priced book that covered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in as much detail as possible while limiting the book to a size that could be sold at less than $20 in the Pearl Harbor Museum bookstore. That book proved to be very popular and is now out of print. In researching that book, a significant amount of materials were collected that could not be included because of the limitations of the printing process…until now.
The 75th Anniversary Digital Edition of Attack on Pearl Harbor: Japan Awakens a Sleeping Giant is the most detailed and profusely illustrated book on the Japanese attack ever published. With over 440 photographs, 12 maps and 58 illustrations created specifically for this publication, it stands as the singularly distinctive book on the Day of Infamy.
Book Features
Features of the 75th Anniversary Digital Edition of Attack on Pearl Harbor: Japan Awakens a Sleeping Giant include:
- A new “Why Pearl Harbor?” chapter which summarizes the political events of the previous decade which convinced many Japanese leaders that they had to go to war with the United States, and examines why the Japanese chose Pearl Harbor as the location to launch their dramatic initial blow against the United States Navy in the Pacific
- The Japanese attack plan is covered from its inception, including the challenges planners had to overcome to make the attack feasible
- A detailed look at the Japanese forces that participated in the attack, from the six aircraft carriers, the supporting ships that made up the strike force, from battleships and cruisers down to submarines and oilers
- Coverage of the Japanese aircraft that participated in the attack, including dozens of full color profiles of the fighters and bombers that carried out the attack, with an in-depth look a the weapons they carried
- A comprehensive listing of all the named ships assigned to the U. S. Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941, both those at Pearl Harbor and those assigned elsewhere in the theater
- An organizational breakdown of the two attack waves that comprised the strike force, including units, unit leaders and targets assigned
- The most detailed accounting of the air attack every published, with over 200 pages with almost 200 photos and 10 maps, including how the Americans fought back against the attack with everything they had, with detailed accounts of the response of almost every ship present in Pearl Harbor that day
- A chapter on U. S. aircraft that were in the air that day and the exploits of the pilots who flew them
- A comprehensive look at every ship listed on the U. S. Navy report of damaged ships, with photographs showing how all but three were returned to active fleet service
- A look at Japanese losses and the tactical mistakes they made during the attack
- A summary of the wrath of the “Awakened Giant” showing that almost every Japanese ship that participated in the attack had been destroyed or damaged beyond repair less than four years later
- A look at Pearl Harbor today, including photographs of the ARIZONA Memorial
What do we think?
Clearly this title is very different to the more usual comprehensive and thorough guides to specific aircraft types – take a look at Detail & Scale’s page here in SMN for our reviews of those. They really are quite excellent in every respect.
This new and updated version this time of the publisher’s title first released in 2010 is even more detailed as you can see above. If you have any interest at all in this subject – any why wouldn’t you? I recommend buying the download and start reading – it will keep you absorbed for hours – I know, believe me!
Highly recommended
Geoff Coughlin