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The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944

(The Pacific War Trilogy #2)

Ian W. Toll (Goodreads Author)

4.58 · Rating details · 2,879 ratings · 294 reviews

The devastation of Pearl Harbor and the American victory at Midway were prelude to a greater challenge: rolling back the vast Japanese Pacific empire, island by island.

This masterful history encompasses the heart of the Pacific War—the period between mid-1942 and mid-1944—when parallel Allied counteroffensives north and south of the equator washed over Japan's far-flung is ...more

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Paperback, 688 pages

Published September 6th 2016 by W. W. Norton Company (first published September 21st 2015)

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May 24, 2016 Matt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ii-pacific, world-war-ii, maritime-history

“On October 29, [1943, Carl] Moore and the Fifth Fleet staff worked late into the night to complete the final product. The Galvanic operations plan ran to 324 pages and weighed three pounds. A platoon of marines was rounded up to perform the careful work of mimeographing, collating, and binding 300 copes. At 5:00 a.m., they were finished. Couriers began distributing copies to commands and ships throughout the Navy Yard. Copies were boarded on planes to be flown to New Zealand, Noumea, Efate, Fun ...more

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Jun 22, 2016 Lizzy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: military, nonfiction, ww2, history, read-2016, pacific, war, stars-5

The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944 is the second book in Ian W. Toll's trilogy covering the War in the Pacific. The first book Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942, covered the initial phase of war - Pearl Harbor to Midway, besides the prelude to the war. This book reviews the bulk of the Pacific campaign after Midway, during which Japan's position deteriorated from their peak ascendancy, with America reeling. The author covers the time from the beginnin ...more

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Mar 14, 2016 Sweetwilliam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone interested in history and anyone living in the United States.

Recommended to Sweetwilliam by: Marvin Bourelle

I read this book a few weeks ago while on vacation. I was accused of being anti-social because all I wanted to do was sit on the beach or by the pool and finish this book. Yes, I’m a little anti-social but the truth is I couldn’t put it down.

This is Part II of Ian Toll’s Pacific trilogy. Part II covers Guadalcanal to Guam. I enjoyed it more than Part I (The Pacific Crucible), because Part II covers the war instead of delving into page after page of background information about the decision make I read this book a few weeks ago while on vacation. I was accused of being anti-social because all I wanted to do was sit on the beach or by the pool and finish this book. Yes, I’m a little anti-social but the truth is I couldn’t put it down.

This is Part II of Ian Toll’s Pacific trilogy. Part II covers Guadalcanal to Guam. I enjoyed it more than Part I (The Pacific Crucible), because Part II covers the war instead of delving into page after page of background information about the decision makers from both sides such as Yamamoto, King, Nimitz, Roosevelt etc. Details about Yamamoto’s love for his geisha were taken care of in Part I. Part II is mostly action packed.

Even though I consider myself an avid reader of Military History and a student of the Pacific, I found that there was still much to be learned from Ian Toll about the war. For example, I realize that the situation was desperate on Guadalcanal. However, I did not realize that Admiral Ghormley had given permission to Vandergrift to surrender the 1st Marine Division if necessary. Ghormley was sacked in favor of Halsey not a moment too soon. I really enjoyed the chapters on Guadalcanal but I would strongly encourage reading Hornfischer’s Neptune’s inferno as a supplement to the naval battles. Toll covers a few of the naval engagements very well but for others he merely scratches the surface. Likewise, if you would like to read a supplement for the air campaign than I would recommend Lundstrom’s the First Team Part II, the Guadalcanal Campaign. Also, Frank’s classic is a must read for a comprehensive book on the battle. But still, Toll does a solid job without devouting an entire book to that battle.

After Guadalcanal, the Japanese high command and the Imperial family had hoped for a single miraculous victory so that the United States would agree to negotiate. They thought maybe they could hold onto the monarchy and some of their territory? What became clear to me was that after Guadalcanal the Japanese did not have a razor thin chance of successfully defending any of their territory. In my mind, the Japanese high command and Hirohito were responsible for the needless sacrifice of millions of Japanese in a lost cause.

Toll charges Emperor Hirohito as being complicit and culpable for his support of this bloody war. Toll said that after the war the emperor tried to pretend that he was just a figure head or a puppet. The emperor was in on the strategic decision making. Also, after the early victories, when Japan was still drunk with success, the emperor would appear sitting on his white horse in front of the imperial gates so the Japanese people could cheer for him. He loved it.

The other new piece of information for me was that the British seemed to be selfishly urging the U.S. to slow down their progress in the Pacific because they were not ready to participate. The British wanted to be involved so that they could be seen out front and alongside the Americans while reclaiming their empire. After the success at Guadalcanal the defeat Germany first plan seemed to be compromised a bit to the chagrin of the British. The British were urging caution to slow the US down and not because they thought that caution should be heeded or resources were needed for the European theatre but because the British weren’t ready to reclaim their empire. My thinking was first the British Empire cowardly surrendered Singapore without firing a shot and now this? What a disgrace.

At times the chapters read like vignettes. This is Toll’s style of writing and I happen to like it very much. For example there is a very interesting chapter about the submarine war (for more information about the sub war read Clay Blair’s Silent Victory) there are chapters about life on the West Coast, another about Australia, Washington D.C., and Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was considered one of the worst duty stations. Some of the populated towns of Australia like Brisbane were the best. The latter was because of the “Shelia’s” that were throwing themselves at the Americans. Toll gives you a feel for all of these things and there still is plenty of pages dedicated to Tarawa, Kwajalein, Saipan, the Marianas Turkey Shoot, the raid on Truck, and Guam, all tied together like only a few authors can. I rank Toll right up there with Atkinson, Hornfischer, Foote, Kegan, Catton, Sides, and Sears.

By 44, the US Navy’s Brown Shoe officers (the aviators) have wrestled away control of the carriers from the Black Shoe officers (surface navy/Big Gun Club). The Hellcat is introduced and it is a better plane in every respect to the Zero. The lessons of Tarawa were learned and applied to future battles…for example, at Kwajalein it is estimated that half of the Japanese combatants were killed be the pre-invasion bombardment. The problems with the USN torpedoes are fixed. Also, there will be no more timid US carrier demonstrations because there were always 9 or 10 carriers in theater. Any further resistance by the Japanese was just plain murder. While the resources of the Americans were increasing exponentially, Toll claims that the oxen used to pull new Zeros 20 miles to the nearest airport or shipping point were dropping dead from exhaustion and causing a bottleneck in the plant! That is how bad it was for the Japanese at this point and yet they fought on. Hirohito most rightfully should have been hanged for urging his military to hold out.

Lastly, I would like to just say a few words about Medal of Honor winner, Marine Lieutenant William D. Hawkins of Texas who was killed on Tarawa. Toll gives Lt. Hawkins his due. Hawkins single handedly knocked out several pill boxes and machine gun nests on Tarawa and he refused to be evacuated for his wounds. Instead, he commandeered a half track, gathered the remnants of his platoon and charged into the teeth of several more pill boxes and machine gun nests. Hawkins road that halftrack like a chariot using the .50 caliber machine gun as his lance. He "jousted" with several other machine guns before his luck finally ran out. The Marines of the 2nd division who witnessed that heroic act will never forget the image of Hawkins riding that halftrack to glory. Thanks to Toll, neither will the readers of this book.

The reason I read books like this in part, is to learn about men from the greatest generation that gave their last full measure of devotion for their brothers in arms. Their actions guaranteed basic rights like free speech and the right to bear arms. When you get to heaven, remember to thank Lieutenant Hawkins for his service.

I can’t wait for the third installment. Does anyone know when it will be released? Read the book. ...more

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Nov 18, 2018 HBalikov rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a big book, well indexed and documented so that you can find any special topic that piques your interest and go on from Toll's more general recounting to more detailed material. The graphics ranging from battle maps to photos are well-chosen and very helpful.

Truth be told, I cannot recall whether I read my GR friend, Matt's, review of this book before I obtained it. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I took a look at it as I was struggling with what I should write and the problem wa ...more

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Feb 22, 2015 Nooilforpacifists rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: naval-history

Not as good as the first book in the trilogy, but well worth reading. Much of it felt like repeating old ground…uh…ocean. Still, a magnificently written history that reads like a novel. I look forward to the final installment.

But I had some beefs with Toll's narrative.

On the "did Fletcher pull the carriers out of Guadalcanal early" issue ("one of the livelier controversies of the Pacific War"), Toll makes a waive at a fair hearing, and repeats Samuel Elliot Morison's damning post-war discovery o ...more

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May 06, 2015 happy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history-world-war-ii

In this second volume of a proposed trilogy of the World War Two in the Pacific, Mr. Toll gives the reader a well-researched, and for the most part well written look at the middle two years of the war. The author covers the time from the beginning of the planning for the invasion of Guadalcanal in July of 1942 through to the fall of the Tojo Government after the U.S. take the Mariana Islands in the summer of 1944.

Mr. Toll looks at all aspects of the war – the naval war, the air war and the isla In this second volume of a proposed trilogy of the World War Two in the Pacific, Mr. Toll gives the reader a well-researched, and for the most part well written look at the middle two years of the war. The author covers the time from the beginning of the planning for the invasion of Guadalcanal in July of 1942 through to the fall of the Tojo Government after the U.S. take the Mariana Islands in the summer of 1944.

Mr. Toll looks at all aspects of the war – the naval war, the air war and the island assaults by the Marines, assisted by Army forces. He also looks at the affect the war had on the home fronts, esp Japan. In telling the story of the war, the author brings to life many of the men who had to make and carry out the decisions made at the highest level.

In telling the story of the various commanders, Mr. Toll does a good job of comparing and contrasting their talents and abilities. This is especially true of Ghormley and Halsey at Guadalcanal. He also does a good job of telling the tensions between Spruance and his carrier commanders later in the war during the Mariana Islands campaign. To say the carrier commanders chafed at being told to support the people on taking islands and not go out searching for the Japanese carriers is an understatement.

In covering the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Mr. Toll looks at Adm Marc Mitscher’s famous decision to “Turn on the Lights” so his returning strike aircraft could find their way home. He makes a point of saying that this decision was not made on the spur of the moment and was well thought out, and at the time was not particularly controversial or thought to be very dangerous to the ships involved.

In addition to explaining the various battles that occurred and the strategy behind them, Mr. Toll contrasts the American and Japanese way of war. One of the ways he does this in explaining how the two Navies recruited and trained Naval Aviators. At the start of the war the Japanese were unquestionably the best naval aviators in the world. However due to the selectivity of their system, they did not have enough replacement pilots and were unable to quickly revamp their system to train more as the combat losses piled up during the Solomon Island campaign. The Americans on the other hand were able to rapidly expand their pilot acquisition programs and by 1944 totally out matched their Japanese counterparts.

The author also looks at how Japan managed the war on the home front. In looking at Japans industry he cites several examples of poor resource management. Probably the best is the Mitsubishi aircraft plant in Nagoya. The plant was not near an airfield and completed aircraft had to towed more than twenty miles by ox team to be accepted by the Navy. Mr. Toll also looks at how the civilian population was given war news and how they learned to read between the lines as the war dragged on.

The main problem I had was that sometimes the narrative doesn’t flow well. Mr. Toll will change subjects with not much of a segway. This was especially noticeable on his chapter on the U.S. Navy’s submarine campaign.

To sum up my feelings, this is not quite as good as the first book in the trilogy, but an excellent overview of the middle two years of the War in the Pacific never the less. However it does suffer a bit from a choppy narrative. A solid 4 star rating.
...more

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Sep 16, 2020 Stefania Dzhanamova rated it it was amazing

Shelves: wwii

Ian W. Toll's The Conquering Tide picks up where Pacific Crucible left off and provides a gripping history of the central Pacific campaign.

In the decades before the raid on Pearl Harbor, the USA operated responses to Japan's agression in a series of "Orange" plans, which proposed a rapid counterattack westward across the central Pacific via the Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, and Mariana Islands to the Philippines.

After the disaster of Pearl Harbor, the magnitude of the undertaking became even mor ...more

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May 04, 2020 Porter Broyles rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-asia, america-1940-1945-world-war-ii, genre-history-naval, five-star-reviews

Ian Toll is one of my favorite Naval History authors. I've now read three of his book and they are all 5 star books.

This is the second book in a three part series on the Pacific Theater during World War 2. It starts off shortly after the Battle of Midway and ends shortly after the conquering of Saipan. In essence the meat of the Pacific Campaign.

I forget whom Toll is quoting, but anybody who served in the Pacific after 1944 experienced a different scenario than those who served there before han Ian Toll is one of my favorite Naval History authors. I've now read three of his book and they are all 5 star books.

This is the second book in a three part series on the Pacific Theater during World War 2. It starts off shortly after the Battle of Midway and ends shortly after the conquering of Saipan. In essence the meat of the Pacific Campaign.

I forget whom Toll is quoting, but anybody who served in the Pacific after 1944 experienced a different scenario than those who served there before hand. Between 1942 and 44, the Pacific was a meat grinder. The United States bore the brunt of the responsibility for containing Japan.

While Japan had been hurt at Midway and started fighting a defensive battle, the final results were not assured. There were several key battles that could have shifted the balance of power back to Japan.

One of those battles was the Battle of Savo Island.

The United States had started a major military campaign in Guadal Canal. This campaign would last for months and would establish Admiral King's strategy in the Pacific.

In the early days of the battle, a Japanese Admiral Mikawa lead a small fleet of 8 ships in a night time raid of the waters around Savo Island. The US had over 23 ships (including 6 heavy cruisers) in the area. Mikawa's ships slipped past the America patrol boats and surprised the American Fleet. As the Japanese had surprise and better night tactics, the Japanese inflicted heavy damages on the Americans. 4 of the 6 heavy cruisers were lost in one of the biggest battles of surface ships in the Pacific. The Japanese fleet escaped with minor damages.

What the Japanese didn't realize is that had they pressed the attack, then they could have sunk or destroyed a number landing ships that were heavily loaded with supplies. These supplies and ships arguably made the difference at Guadal Canal. Mikawa chose to withdraw because he feared the US Carrier Planes would be able to pursue and destroy his fleet. What Mikawa didn't know is that the US Carrier force was out of position and could not engage.

Had Mikawa destroyed the transports, King's strategy may have never been developed and a different approach might be been used.

There were other battles, but Guadal Canal was of particular interest to me. In part, because of General Alexander M Patch's involvement. I went to Alexander M Patch American High School, so when I see his name I pay attention. ...more

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Sep 21, 2015 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Island fighters, flyboys, brownshoe naval officers, shattered jewels

Shelves: audiobook, military-history, war, history, nautical, world-war-2, 1940s, non-fiction, japan

The Conquering Tide is the second book in Ian Toll's epic non-fiction series covering the entire War in the Pacific. The first book Pacific Crucible, covered 1941 and 1942 - Pearl Harbor to Midway, plus the prelude to the war. This book covers the bulk of the Pacific campaign after Midway, during which Japan's position deteriorated from their peak ascendancy, with America reeling, the Dutch East Indies under Japanese control, and Commonwealth nations from India to Australia threatened by invasio The Conquering Tide is the second book in Ian Toll's epic non-fiction series covering the entire War in the Pacific. The first book Pacific Crucible, covered 1941 and 1942 - Pearl Harbor to Midway, plus the prelude to the war. This book covers the bulk of the Pacific campaign after Midway, during which Japan's position deteriorated from their peak ascendancy, with America reeling, the Dutch East Indies under Japanese control, and Commonwealth nations from India to Australia threatened by invasion, to the dire straights the Japanese inevitably found themselves in only a couple of years later, with attrition and America's vastly superior industrial might combining with frankly stupid and outmoded attitudes among the Japanese high command to bring about a defeat that Admiral Yamamoto foresaw from the beginning.

The Conquering Tide ends in 1944, leaving Toll's third volume to cover the end of the war, the planning for an invasion of Japan that never happened, the atomic bombs, and the aftermath.

This is one of those big multi-volume epics that may be daunting to someone who's not a historian, but I encourage anyone with any interest in World War II, and the Pacific War in particular, to tackle Ian Toll's entire series, of which only the first two books are out yet and this is the second. The first book had me preordering the second as soon as I finished it, and now I eagerly await the third. Large as they are, these books don't read like dense historical textbooks. They are energetic and detailed accounts of the men who fought the war on both sides, with the most attention given to the commanders, of course, but also describing battles in detail, from eyewitness accounts and after-action reports, so the reader gets a grand view of the entire campaign, but also zooms in to the torpedo-bombing of individual ships, and the wartime lives of Americans and Japanese.

The first book included a great deal of political background - what led Japan to its fateful (and catastrophic) decision to go to war with the U.S., and how the entire country went from rising modern nation to nationalist imperial power forswearing all the civilized principles they had previously subscribed to. Everyone knows, or should know, about Japanese atrocities committed during the war, a subject Toll refers to only in passing for the most part, but what was also mentioned in the first volume was that up until World War II, and during the Sino-Russian war in particular, the Japanese scrupulously adhered to international rules of war, and were known for treating their POWs with the utmost respect. So what happened?

There's less about Anglo-American politics in this book, the relationship between FDR and Churchill being largely covered in the first, but as the situation on the Japanese homefront becomes more dire, Toll describes how it affected the Japanese population. By nature accustomed to trusting and obeying their leaders, the Japanese people nonetheless were neither stupid nor passive sheep, and while the military dictatorship strictly controlled the press and allowed only stories of glorious victories, then "strategic withdrawals," then "luring the enemy closer in order to destroy them once and for all" to be broadcast, the civilian population eventually realized that the war was not going well. (The authorities also couldn't cover up all the bodies coming home, and while returning sailors, soldiers, and airmen were expected to keep their mouths shut, word got out.) As Japanese propaganda became increasingly detached from reality, it only undermined trust, especially as deprivations became more severe and civilians were told to eat less and work more, even while it was common knowledge that the army ran the black market and high-ranking officers were still enjoying fine dining and geishas.

But that's only part of the book - most of it is about the military campaign, and while there is still plenty of ship-to-ship and air combat action, in '42 to '44 we enter the bloody island-hopping phase of the war, and American Marines and Japanese Imperial soldiers die by the thousands on tiny atolls none of them could name or locate on a map. Their living conditions are terrible, the climate and native flora and fauna makes life miserable, and the fighting is horrific.

You can also see here the seeds of the eventual decision to use atomic bombs on Japan being planted. This is a debate that will probably never be settled (though I look forward to how Toll addresses it in the third book), but one of the primary justifications of the use of atomic weapons is the purported belief that Japan would never have surrendered otherwise, and that an invasion would have been even more horrifically costly, to both sides. After reading accounts of how Japanese soldiers threw themselves at the Americans in suicidal "Banzai" charges, how over and over again they chose to die rather than surrender (Japanese sailors whose ships had sunk would typically refuse rescue from American ships), how they had to be dug out of caves and bunkers the hard way, with bombs and flamethrowers, how they would booby-trap bodies or even call to American medics and then pull the pin on a grenade, and how even Japanese civilians threw themselves off cliffs after the battle of Saipan, mothers holding onto their babies, and were praised for their dedication and patriotism - it is easy to see how the U.S. came to that conclusion.

Japan never had a chance of winning the war - its fate was sealed on the morning of December 7, 1941. But one can imagine, in an alternate history, how they might have had a chance to end the war differently, perhaps with the negotiated peace that was their original plan. This volume and the one preceding it traces how and when things went wrong for Japan, leading to their inevitable utter capitulation. Several key battles, had they gone slightly differently, had luck favored one side a little more, or had commanders not made a few understandable errors, would have significantly altered the course of the war, at least in the short term. Japan was always fighting an enemy that simply had the power to replace ships and planes and men at a rate far greater than they could ever match, with American's production growing and her military technology ever improving even as Japan's resources dwindled, but with better intelligence, and better decisions, and better use of their forces, Japan would have been an even more difficult adversary to defeat than they were. The fighting spirit of the Japanese soldier was impressive, but over the course of the war they went from being despised, untrained savages held in contempt, in the beginning, to feared jungle ninjas with supernatural powers, until eventually the Americans realized they were just men, like themselves, capable of great bravery and fortitude but also capable of being demoralized, starved, and exhausted. In the end, it was the Japanese high command that did in the IJN and the IJA - with bad decision after bad decision (starting with attacking the U.S. in the first place, of course), like maintaining a cumbersome inter-service separation, and refusing to rotate their best pilots away from the front to let them recover, and telling overworked and underfed civilians to do calisthenics to keep up their spirits.

All of this is detailed in this book. There is no portrayal of Japan as monolithically evil or the U.S. as unambiguously the "good guys," just an account of what set these powers against each other and how they went at it.

ETA: Third book finally released! ...more

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Nov 14, 2019 Sean Chick rated it liked it

I really enjoyed Pacific Crucible despite a few flaws, and sadly those flaws were magnified in The Conquering Tide. Here, the Japanese perspective makes up maybe 20% of the book, and as such Toll makes a lot of errors in discussing Japanese doctrine and details. Less so with the Americans, which makes it clear where his interests lie. Worse yet is the tendency to diminish events. In a 600 page book that covers the war from July 1942 to June 1944, the events of 1943 happen in around...20 pages. Y ...more

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Oct 10, 2015 David Eppenstein rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, american-history

A thorough and absorbing history of WWII in the Pacific and Now I look forward to the third addition to this trilogy. I thought the author's first book was good but this one is even better. I was especially grateful for the relatively equal treatment given to both sides of this conflict as well as the political forces and personalities that affected the directions this war took. There is much more in this book than what happened on the battlefield though there is plenty of that. Appropriate atte ...more

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Nov 29, 2015 Pam Walter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Conquering Tide is the second volume of Ian Toll's non-fiction account of WWII in the Pacific Theater. This has been an enlightening experience for me, having previously been focused on the European Theater. In my own defense, I think much more has been written on the war in Europe. Toll has a great way of seeing the war from many angles; through the eyes of the American leaders and the American people, then through the eyes of the Japanese leaders, Japanese people, as well as the Japanese p ...more

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May 06, 2020 Ozymandias rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-history, american, history, world-war-2, japanese

The last book had a major advantage in that it was covering a limited period of time with a clear beginning, clear ending, and a lot of eventful stuff in the middle. This book is a lot slower. It starts off bringing us back up to speed, works its way through Guadalcanal and the last real contested naval campaigns, all the way through the natural conclusion of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. For most of the book there is no driving narrative. It's just a gradual advance merged with a lot of deta The last book had a major advantage in that it was covering a limited period of time with a clear beginning, clear ending, and a lot of eventful stuff in the middle. This book is a lot slower. It starts off bringing us back up to speed, works its way through Guadalcanal and the last real contested naval campaigns, all the way through the natural conclusion of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. For most of the book there is no driving narrative. It's just a gradual advance merged with a lot of details about life in the navy.

The book is still mainly naval in focus but its breadth is larger. It's much more ambitious in terms of coverage. Among other things it covers the land war, leavetime in Australia, the homefront, manufacturing, the recovery of Pearl's battleships, and more. That said, while I wouldn't call the land battles underemphasized they're not nearly so clear tactically as the naval campaigns. They're important, and he emphasizes that, but they aren't his focus.

The last book was clear about Japan's strategic and tactical failings. But this one focuses on an even more debilitating problem. And it wasn't anything to do with the way they fought their battles, but with their structure. The Japanese willfully believed that every personnel problem could be solved through superior willpower and consequently burned out all their best soldiers quickly with no plan to replace them.

The pilot problem is indicative of the whole because it's so extreme. At the beginning of the war the Japanese airforce was the best in the world, but it got that way by driving out the good and keeping only the extraordinary. And after two years of war (more in Manchuria) about 99% of those elite pilots were dead. Why? Because the Japanese refused to rotate them and kept them in permanent readiness until they died. Because the admirals made no attempt to recover crashed pilots. Because a series of military disasters meant that the carriers kept dying.

And since there was such pressing need for new pilots, they couldn't even send the veterans back to train new ones. Which meant that every Japanese pilot in the last half of the war received minimal training by someone with no combat experience and was then stuffed in a cockpit to match his flimsy Zero up against American plans that were could now match it in speed and maneuverability but take a hell of a lot more damage. The result? Absolute slaughter. In the last book going up against Zeros was a nightmare experience in which few pilots survived. Now the Americans destroyed thirty Japanese aircraft for every plane lost. And most Americans shot down were recovered while noneof the Japanese were.

It wasn't a tactically stupid plan on the Japanese part. They'd pulled off similar battles before. But they'd burned their air forces to ashes and now had nobody left to replace them. It's a sensible place to end the book, but it's really necessary to understand how outmatched the Japanese were to understand the use of kamikaze just four months later. But that's for the next book...

The middle volume in any trilogy is tricky. Without a clear beginning or end the narrative gets bogged down. As a work of literature I felt that the book never achieved the same level of engagement as the first one did. And I thought that, perhaps, the final battle could have used more buildup than it received. Kinda like Midway in the last one, although I know that was a lot more planned out than this was. A little foreshadowing of what was to come could have given this book a clearer structure than it has.

But ultimately this isn't just a work of literature: it's a history book. It has to stick to the facts and, frankly, the Pacific Theater is a confusing mess. The Japanese defeat had a number of major engagements, but it was mainly a story of gradually diminishing ability to supply or replace their ships lost through attrition. And it's not easy to provide order to all these isolated campaigns. This book does the clearest job I've seen of making the tactical and strategic decisions make sense. If I enjoyed the book less than the last one, it's still among the finest ever written about that theater of operations. Highly recommended. ...more

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Nov 20, 2020 Leftbanker rated it it was amazing

Shelves: war, history, wwii

This was highly entertaining, if you can call it that when talking about such a gruesome subject. Once again, he presents a fantastic narrative of the war while taking great effort to explain things like logistics. His account of submarine warfare was absolutely fascinating.

The author goes to great lengths to dispel the myth of the Japanese fighting man, not that the bonsai spirit is in any way admirable. I really didn’t know that by 1943, the US was kicking the living shit out of the Japanese r ...more

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Mar 31, 2018 John rated it it was amazing

Although I have read a great deal about the Pacific Theater over the years, I can't remember one that I have enjoyed as much as this one. Toll's style is eminently readable and actually downright enjoyable. I feel like I know the primary figures in the theater much better than I previously did. After reading this, I realized that I didn't know as much as I thought I did about the campaigns in the Carolines and the Marianas. I will be very likely to read anything Ian Toll decides to write in the ...more

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Jan 19, 2021 Noah Goats rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I've read three of Ian Toll's books about naval warfare, and I've given all of them five stars. The Conquering Tide is the second book in his trilogy about the war in the Pacific, and it's every bit as good, if not better, than the previous book in the series. It begins with the grim days for the Marines and the Navy at Guadalcanal, where the inexperienced US Navy made lots of mistakes in several surface engagements but were able to repel the Japanese after suffering terrible losses. If Midway w ...more

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Jan 26, 2016 Rod rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: navy, history, military

Outstanding second part of the Pacific War Trilogy. Toll does an outstanding job of marshaling a vast amount of detail in a well written, logical form. Very broad scope to include the home front, the daily lives of participants (sample: Nimitz took up pistol shooting "to relieve stress").

Some takeaways
Pre war there was considerable controversy about how submarines could legally be used against civilian targets. Indeed, this was a major reason for the entry of the US into WW I. Toll points out ...more

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Jun 05, 2020 Michael Burnam-Fink rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, war, 2020

The Conquering Tide covers the middle of the war in the Pacific, from Guadalcanal to the capture of Guam. It is, if anything, stronger than the first book in the series. Toll moves confidently around the theater, capturing battles and personalities from the highest levels of command to the ordinary sailors and marines.

Three exceptional sections elevate the book: First, an early study of the British coastwatchers in the Solomon Islands, who's radio reports of Japanese movements gave the embattle The Conquering Tide covers the middle of the war in the Pacific, from Guadalcanal to the capture of Guam. It is, if anything, stronger than the first book in the series. Toll moves confidently around the theater, capturing battles and personalities from the highest levels of command to the ordinary sailors and marines.

Three exceptional sections elevate the book: First, an early study of the British coastwatchers in the Solomon Islands, who's radio reports of Japanese movements gave the embattled Cactus Air Force the tactical edge is needed to survive. Second, the legendary first patrol of submarine commander 'Mush' Morton. American submarines sank more Japanese shipping over the course of the war than existed on December 7, 1941, strangling the Japanese Empire. And third, the epilogue, a study of the increasingly desperate censorship on the Japanese home front, as the civilians read propagandized reports of 'strategic victories' closer to the Home Islands, and prepared for the coming gotterdammerung of the strategic bombing campaign.

As Yamamoto predicted prior to Pearl Harbor, the Japanese would run wild for six months, and then the increasing power of American industry would tell. This book is the story of the building of those muscles. The Guadalcanal campaign was a desperate measure for both sides, at the very fringes of their respective logistic capabilities. The remote airfield threatened sea lanes between the United States and Australia. Marines seized the airfield in an uncontested landing, but the constant IJN night attacks meant that American resupply efforts were scanty. Similarly, American airpower meant that any IJN supply run had to be completed in one night from their distant base at Rabaul. Sharp cruiser and destroyer actions sunk many American ships in the waters of Ironbottom Sound, but Japanese troops on the island were reduced to starvation rations of 500 calories per day. The aviators at Henderson field had the defender's advantage, and months of attrition warfare finished off the professional core of naval aviators who'd attacked Pearl Harbor. Japanese air power would only pose a threat through the desperate measure of kamikaze attacks in the future. In what would be characteristic of the war, while America pilots and marines suffered and died, their commanders recognized that well-supplied troops fought better, and that pilots had a useful combat career of four weeks before combat fatigue rendered them ineffective. Japan believed that the warrior samurai spirit could triumph over any difficulty, and that victory or death were the only options. Exhausted pilots became easy prey, starving troops died in frontal attacks, and the feud-ridden Japanese command structure couldn't adapt to changing circumstances.

The second major story is the new technologies pioneered by the American navy. The Essex class fleet carrier, the F6F Hellcat fighter, and a host of landing ships upended prewar ideas of strategy. Japan had planned for a mutually reinforcing system of bases in outlying island chains. The massive 5th Fleet had the logistic capabilities to move anywhere in theater, obliterate land-based airpower, and put Marines ashore on defend beaches. Island-hopping strategy bypassed Japanese strong points, making defensive preparations moot and leaving elite troops stranded to slowly starve.

Toll's history doesn't break much new ground, and with so much to cover, it must perforce leave some details out. Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno is a similarly sized book on the naval actions around Guadalcanal alone. But for a synoptic view of the Pacific Theater, nothing comes close. ...more

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Jun 24, 2015 Peter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ii, read-in-2015

A lot of WWII histories can fit into either the John Keegan mold, where there is a focus on high level and long term strategy, or the Stephen Ambrose mold, where there is more of a focus on tactics with frequent quotes and stories of the participants at all levels of the armed forces involved. Ian Toll has managed to combine both styles in a fast paced narrative of the epic struggle in the Pacific. For example, other accounts I've read of Guadalcanal or the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands will A lot of WWII histories can fit into either the John Keegan mold, where there is a focus on high level and long term strategy, or the Stephen Ambrose mold, where there is more of a focus on tactics with frequent quotes and stories of the participants at all levels of the armed forces involved. Ian Toll has managed to combine both styles in a fast paced narrative of the epic struggle in the Pacific. For example, other accounts I've read of Guadalcanal or the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands will simply state that the carrier Enterprise was damaged during the battle but managed to continue to contribute to the Allied cause until it could reach New Caledonia to be repaired. Toll explains where exactly it was damaged, how the crew managed to temporarily patch the damage using mattresses and scrap wood, and how important it was that the Enterprise managed to continue to fight despite the damage. These are the types of details other books don't go into, which I appreciate finding out now.

Toll reviews the overall history of the middle years of the Pacific war, and also does an admirable job of describing the participants as individuals, on both the Allied and Japanese sides, from the well known leaders to marines, soldiers, and sailors. He also describes the situation from both sides of the conflict, with a great deal of insight into what was going on in the day-to-day lives of the Japanese. Late in the book, there is a chapter that details the media censorship requirements that the Japanese had to work with, which I had never read about anywhere else. My only complaint is that Toll will sometimes describe the experience of an individual, but then will not provide follow up details as to what happened to that person later in the war. For example, there is an interesting chapter on a particular submarine commander. He is presented as something of a maverick, though with an admirable success rate in sinking enemy ships. Yet, there is no conclusion to his story, no follow-up to explain what happened to him. This was only apparent to me since I had previously read about this submarine commander and I already knew that things don't go exactly well for him later in the war, but that information is not included in Toll's summary. This just made me wonder what else is left out, though of course, there's only so much a writer can fit in to a 600 page history of this wide ranging a subject!

Overall, this is a great addition to the library of WWII and I'm looking forward to the next volume in Toll's work.
Thanks to the publisher, I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway. ...more

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Dec 19, 2015 Nick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ww2

Second installment from Mr. Ian Toll's WWII in the Pacific trilogy. Very much enjoy his writing and the all encompassing story he tells. Focusing primarily on the military actions, but also taking time to describe the leaders in some detail and the impacts of war on the home front. Looking forward to the publication of the final volume ...more

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Mar 04, 2015 Patrick Ewing rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Magnificent! Will become the standard work on the Pacific War by which all future books will be judged.

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May 18, 2016 Peter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, military

The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944 is the second in Ian Toll’s masterful Pacific War Trilogy. Pacific Crucible (reviewed) covered Pearl Harbor and its immediate aftermath in 1942 through the Battles of the Coral Sea and of Midway. This history continues from that point, starting with the action in the Solomon Islands, particularly the invasion of Guadalcanal, and proceeding through 1944.

Toll’s primary focus is on the Navy, but he certainly includes the Marine Corps—the N ...more

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Feb 22, 2021 Jarrod rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: wwii-history, military-history, naval, pacific-theatre

This is a good retelling of the middle part of the Pacific campaign of world war 2 against Japan. The first book is about the shock of Pearl Harbor, MacArthur getting pushed out of the Phillipines and redemption through Midway and the doolittle raid. This one starts off right after Midway with the US pushing west towards Australia into the Solomon islands and Guadalcanal, then North with the island hopping campaign ending with the Mariana's turkey shoot.

There are several side stories and tales a ...more

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Aug 21, 2015 Christopher rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: united-states, history, asia, military-affairs, hbc-readathon

Between July 1942 and July 1944 the United States and its allies invaded North Africa, Italy, and France in some of the most complicated campaigns of the Second World War. Yet they were surpassed in their complexity by the efforts of the Navy, the Marine Corps, and some elements of the Army to roll back the Japanese empire in the Pacific. The theater was enormous covering the largest ocean in the world and several small island chains. Because of this the military strategists and politicians can Between July 1942 and July 1944 the United States and its allies invaded North Africa, Italy, and France in some of the most complicated campaigns of the Second World War. Yet they were surpassed in their complexity by the efforts of the Navy, the Marine Corps, and some elements of the Army to roll back the Japanese empire in the Pacific. The theater was enormous covering the largest ocean in the world and several small island chains. Because of this the military strategists and politicians can be forgiven for believing that the war would last until 1947, 48, or 49. So why didn't it? Picking up where he left off in

Pacific Crucible War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 by Ian W. Toll

, Mr. Toll writes the account of these critical years when American forces began its counterattack against Japan by taking Guadalcanal, decimating the Japanese air force, and securing bases in the Marianas and New Guinea to begin sustained bombing against the home islands as well as preparations for the invasion of the Philippines. Like his previous volume, Mr. Toll does a great job of alternating between the high command and the average sailors. What we didn't get to see in his previous volume was whether or not he could enter the soldiers boots as well the sailors. And with his descriptions of the battles on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan, Mr. Toll shows that he can tell all aspects of this war quite well. Yet because of the greater length of time Mr. Toll covers in this volume, some sacrifices in the narrative had to be made, and in this case the campaigns to take back New Britain and New Guinea, Gen. MacArthur's and Adm. Halsey's commands. But what is strange to me is the inordinate amount of time on the Guadalcanal Mr. Toll spends. Out of the 14 chapters in this book, not including the introduction and epilogue, Guadalcanal covers five of them. Then the next couple of chapters focus mostly on American strategic planning after Guadalcanal, with a few breaks for carrier raids and submarine attacks in between before the Marines hit the beaches of Tarawa. Though I would've liked to have learned more about MacArthur's campaigns and less about Allied strategy, these gripes do not detract from this book too much. This is a worthy sequel and I can't wait for Mr. Toll's final volume to be published. ...more

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Dec 02, 2015 norcalgal rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf, non-fiction

When I first heard of this book, I wanted to read it mainly because I feel World War II history places an inordinate amount of focus on the European theater of war, while (if not neglecting) not respecting the Pacific theater as much as it deserves to be acknowledged and honored.

However, I must say I am disappointed in Ian Toll’s narrative of the happenings in the Pacific. Perhaps it’s because I inadvertently came into this not realizing it was part of a trilogy, but “The Conquering Tide” was a ...more

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Apr 22, 2018 Rob Kitchin rated it really liked it

The second installment in a trilogy that charts the Second World War in the Pacific, this book focuses on the period mid-1942 from the Guadalcanal campaign through to mid-1944 and the battle for Guam, and US strategy of island-hopping and bypassing, and the strategic blunders of the Japanese and their overstretched resources. Toll’s aim is to provide a grand narrative, detailing the key decisions and battles, some of the key personalities and inter-service rivalries, and the wider politics of th ...more

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May 15, 2020 Julian Douglass rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history

2 for 2 for this epic trilogy. Mr. Toll again finds a way to weave history and military history to make it flow and not sound to heavy one way or another. A little more focus on the fighting this time, and the first half is on the battle for Guadalcanal, but it is there for a reason and it is not to overbearing. Another good thing that Mr. Toll does is that he still manage to build suspense even though we already know the outcome. Cannot wait for Volume 3.

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Jun 16, 2018 Douglas rated it it was amazing

A fantastic second volume in this trilogy. I am eagerly awaiting the final book.

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Apr 28, 2018 Seth rated it it was amazing

Superb. Can't wait for the next edition. ...more

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Jan 31, 2020 Urey Patrick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: military-general, world-war-ii, history-military, navy

In this, his second of three volumes covering the war in the Pacific, Toll has created a masterpiece of historical writing. He begins with the Guadalcanal Campaign in 1942, and ends with the battle of the Philippine Sea and the coterminous amphibious campaign retaking the Marianas in mid-1944. Toll not only recounts the battles and raids and military events of the time frame, he digresses into related subject areas that add nuance and clarified understanding of what happened and why, in the mome In this, his second of three volumes covering the war in the Pacific, Toll has created a masterpiece of historical writing. He begins with the Guadalcanal Campaign in 1942, and ends with the battle of the Philippine Sea and the coterminous amphibious campaign retaking the Marianas in mid-1944. Toll not only recounts the battles and raids and military events of the time frame, he digresses into related subject areas that add nuance and clarified understanding of what happened and why, in the moment. He offers character sketches of the principal commanders (King, Nimitz, Spruance, Halsey, Arnold, MacArthur, Yamamoto, Hirohito, Ozawa, et al.) that humanize them and relate their strengths and weaknesses to the decisions and directions taken in the war. As in every war, the human factors of ego, hubris, personal experience and preconceived notions of honor and duty have unavoidable effects upon events, not to mention the sheer personality conflicts that inevitably arise and overshadow events. Japanese strategic and tactical inflexibility is starkly contrasted with the US approach, as is the often bitter, ingrained inter-service rivalry between the navy and the army - a factor shared by both sides although less so among US forces. Toll recognizes and assesses them objectively and with an understanding that enlightens the reader.

Toll narrates relevant command meetings, with assessments and notes taken at the time. He examines industrial capabilities and the design an production of critical assets such as carriers and Hellcats, Helldivers and Zeros and the resulting influence they had on the war in the time frames covered. He looks at the human experiences not just afloat and on the front lines, but in the home theater – Tokyo, Brisbane, San Francisco. The huge controversy that erupted in the US following the carnage at Tarawa and the momentous decision to release photos of dead Marines is little recognized, but covered well by Toll. It echoes into present-day public and political attitudes towards US casualty rates in conflicts.

He has a chapter devoted to the submarine campaign, which is appropriate because the submarine war was indeed a war-long campaign, not a finite battle such as Midway or Coral Sea. He explains the huge problem with US torpedoes, and the even bigger issue getting it recognized and rectified. He also contrasts the differences in logistical and industrial planning, capabilities and priorities between the US and Japan, and how badly it affected the entire Japanese war effort.

In another juxtaposition, Toll highlights and explains differences in training, recruiting and utilization of naval aviators – another critical factor that is not examined elsewhere in the context of actual battle results. Japan’s pre-War custom and practice was ill suited at best to support the high rates of loss that the war imposed, and by the time of mid-1944 Japan had few experienced pilots left and no means of providing any in any practical time frame. The result was the Marianas Turkey Shoot that ended Japanese naval aviation as a significant factor in the war. Relatedly, Toll describes the amazing limitations of the Japanese aviation industry that also imposed very real costs upon the Japanese war effort. To cite but one small, and telling, detail – the vast Mitsubishi plant producing Zero fighters was located 24 miles from the Imperial Navy base that received and accepted the fighters. There was no rail access, and the fighters could not be crated and moved by truck, so the entire production was transferred from plant to base by teams of oxen, plane by plane towed by oxen. The oxen were limited in number (30!), overworked, and underfed due to the submarine interdiction of sea borne supplies so malnourishment set in and deliveries suffered. Finally the Japanese discovered that draft horses (Percherons, no less) ate less than did oxen to perform the same labor, so they “improved” delivery capacity by switching from teams of oxen to teams of Percherons. This is but one small example of how a supposedly modern industrial nation was doomed to lose from the start… you cannot sustain a 20th Century total war with teams of oxen. Ultimately, Hitler’s Germany learned the same harsh lesson. Toll repeatedly provides such interesting, relevant and intriguing details throughout his narrative. It makes for fascinating reading.

Toll amalgamates all these disparate but inter-related topics in a clear and compelling writing style that is eminently readable and thoroughly engaging, interspersed along the time line of the central Pacific campaign - his focus. He notes MacArthur's Southwest Pacific campaign only peripherally, and only to the extent that it impinges upon or influences central Pacific planning, logistics and operations. It is a wonderful and comprehensive work. I am eagerly awaiting the third and final volume of this epic work. ...more

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About Ian W. Toll

Ian W. Toll

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Ian W. Toll, is the author of Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 and Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy, winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award and the William E. Colby Award. He lives in San Francisco and New York. ...more

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The Pacific War Trilogy (3 books)

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Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U. S. Navy

Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942

Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945

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“Colonel Shoup, who wore a mask of dust and dirt like every other marine on the island, summed up the situation that afternoon: “Well, I think we’re winning, but the bastards have got a lot of bullets left. I think we’ll clean up tomorrow.”57 He was plainly exhausted, having slept not at all the previous night. He was still bleeding through his bandage. His report to General Julian Smith would enter Marine Corps lore: “Casualties many; percentage of dead not known; combat efficiency: We are winning.” — 2 likes

“It was decided to leave her where she lay. She lies there” — 1 likes

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The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944

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