The Battle of the Komandorski Islands, March 1943

by John A. Lorelli

A clean, unmarked and unclipped copy.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1984

Reviews

[Manray9]

The Battle of the Komandorski Islands is overlooked in most histories of the naval war in the Pacific. When it garners any attention it is usually as one of the last pure surface ship gunnery duels in naval history with neither aircraft nor submarines supporting either side. The battle resulted from an encounter by a small U.S. force of two cruisers and four destroyers with an Imperial Japanese force of four cruisers and four destroyers in the frigid waters between Alaska and the USSR on 26 March 1943. The Japanese were attempting to resupply their outposts in the Aleutians. The engagement resulted in serious damage to both task forces with the Americans taking the worst of it. Pure luck, however, resulted in the Japanese commander deciding to withdraw for fear of U.S. air attack. The battle ended Japanese attempts to resupply their land forces in the Aleutians.

Mr. Lorelli tells the story well using a combination of personal recollections and official records. The maps, photos, and appendices provide valuable augmentation to the narrative. Any reader with an interest in World War II naval operations will find Lorelli’s The Battle of the Komandorski Islands a worthwhile book.

[Mike]

This is a very well researched book about a little-known battle between American and Japanese naval ships in WWII. The book details the lives of some of the participants prior to the battle and explains the outcome. The description of the battle itself is minute by minute. Other accounts I have read of this battle are completely muddled. This book was well enough done so that I was left wondering what the outcome was going to be for the individuals and ships described.

The slim book is not light reading for those looking for a Patrick O'Brien tale. It also leaves a few points not completely explained. These include insight into the mind of Admiral Hosogaya when he turned this fleet from the Americans instead of finishing off the USS Salt Lake City and raising havoc with the American destroyers. Likewise, the book does not appear to delve into the reasons that Admiral McMorris had for not engaging the Japanese more heavily with the USS Richmond. Reasons are given for both these instances but are not thoroughly discussed. All and all this a great book for a historian.

[Mike]

A well written, and extremely well researched book on a relatively unknown sea battle in one of the least documented theaters of WWII: The Aleutian Islands Campaign. A good mix of historical data and personal accounts by survivors.

[Peter Aronson]

A short, readable, but reasonably complete description of one of the few classic pure surface actions of WW 2. Fought off the Russian Komandorski Islands between a Japanese force escorting supply ships to Japanese held islands in the Aleutian chain and a American patrol force half its size. It wasn't an important place strategically, and battle didn't effect the outcome of the war noticeably, but the it was important enough to the men who fought in it.

The book has a good narrative style, and a reasonable amount of detail. It could possibly been improved with more details about what has going on the Japanese side -- the book does little of that.

[Bonnie Ustaszewski]

In March 1943, 6 Naval ships met 8 Japanese ships and the battle of the Komandorski Islands took place. The battle itself only lasted 4 hours, but this book narrates what happened leading up to the battle, the actual battle and a bit of the post-battle. It utilizes official records and interviews with the survivors to recount what the military men on those ships experienced during this harrowing time. I found the writing to be a bit dry, since it is a narrative and not presented as a story, but the history of the battle was quite interesting.

[Andrew]

Awesome story, but it reads like a history book from jr high.