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Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942-1945 |  | Author: Barrett Tillman
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
Buy New: $12.39
as of 7/30/2010 23:41 MDT details
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Seller: thebookgrove
Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 14004
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1416584404
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5449730952
EAN: 9781416584407
ASIN: 1416584404
Publication Date: March 2, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
WHIRLWIND is the first book to tell the complete, awe-inspiring story of the Allied air war against Japan—the most important strategic bombing campaign inhistory. From the audacious Doolittle raid in 1942 to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, award-winning historian Barrett Tillman recounts the saga from the perspectives of American and British aircrews who flew unprecedented missions overthousands of miles of ocean, as well as of the generalsand admirals who commanded them.Whether describing the experiences of bomber crews based in China or the Marianas, fighter pilotson Iwo Jima, or carrier aviators at sea, Tillman provides vivid details of the lives of the fliers and their support personnel. Whirlwind takes readers into the cockpits and gun turrets of the mighty B-29 Superfortress, the largest bomber built up to that time. Tillman dramatically re-creates the sweep of wartime emotions that crews endured on fifteen-hour missions, grappling with the extreme tedium of cramped spaces and with adrenaline spikes in flak-studded skies, knowing that a bailout would put them at the mercy of a merciless enemy or an unforgiving sea. A major character is the controversial and brilliant General Curtis LeMay, who rewrote strategic bombing tactics. His command’s fire-bombing missions incinerated fully half of Tokyo and many other cities, crippling Japan’s industry while still failing to force surrender. Whirlwind examines the immense logistics and construction efforts necessary to support Superfortresses in Asia and the Mariana Islands, as well as the tireless efforts of engineers to build huge air bases from scratch.It also describes the unheralded missions that American bomber crews flew from the Aleutian Islands to Japan’s northernmost Kuril Islands. Never has the Japanese side of the story been so thoroughly examined. If Washington, D.C., represented a “second front” in Army-Navy rivalry, the situation in Tokyo approached a full-contact sport. Tillman’s description of Japan’s willfully inadequate approach to civil defense is eye-opening. Similarly, he examines the mind-set in Tokyo’s war cabinet, which ignored the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, requiring the emperor’s personal intervention to avert a ghastly Allied invasion. Tillman shows how, despite the Allies’ ultimate success, mistakes and shortsighted policies made victory more costly in lives and effort. He faults the lack of a unified command for allowing the Army Air Forces and the Navy to pursue parochial goals at the expense of the larger mission, and he questions the premature commitment of the enormously sophisticated B-29 to the most primitive theater in India and China. Whirlwind is one of the last histories of World War II written with the contribution of men who fought in it.With unexcelled macro- and microperspectives, Whirlwind is destined to become a standard reference on the war, on multiservice operations, and on the human capacity for individual heroism and national folly.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
 A good, readable summary of the air attacks against the Japan home islands July 17, 2010
J. Petraska (New Boston, MI United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Don't be fooled by the cover - this book is not solely about the B-29 bomber offensive. Instead, it's a book that addresses the air war against the Japanese home islands and the surrounding coastal waters in all its forms, including naval air strikes. While comprehensive in scope, it is not particularly deep or detailed. Mr. Tillman keeps the prose very readable, even for the casual historian. Mr. Tillman also raises questions about the value of different air activities, such as the naval air strikes against the remains of the Japanese fleet. And of course, he also addresses the issues surrounding the atomic bombs. Overall, I found this book very light, readable, informative, and sometimes insightful. Highly recommended.
 An excellent work July 7, 2010
PKill100
"Whirlwind" is an excellent book which connects the Army Air Force and USN air campaigns against Japan proper. While not as detailed from a technical and doctrinal point of view such as Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully, it provides a comprehensive view of the campaign. Mr. Tillman writes clearly and effectively and to the point. "Whirlwind" complements Sir Max Hastings' work on the fall of Japan titled Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 (Vintage).
An engaging story of aerial combat June 14, 2010
Dave Schranck (Anaheim Ca)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mr Tillman, the prolific author, specializes in planes, aerial combat and the Pacific War. In "Whirlwind", the new deadly B-29 takes center stage in helping the US defeat the Japanese in the last year of the war. The B-29 was specifically developed with that aim in mind. It had to fly farther, higher and have a larger load capacity than any current bomber. The B-17 which had been the workhorse in Europe couldn't handle the great distances that were required in the vast Pacific theater. Mustangs are also included in this story as being the best fighters in the war. The B-29s and Mustangs were two great innovations that were created during the war that truly gave the Allies an advantage. The Japanese with few modest exceptions were still using the same planes at the end of the war as they started the war. The story is also about the rise and recognition of US air power among the other services. The USAAF thought and deserved a separate and equal service from the Army and Navy and this story is also about their efforts to bring this about.
The author describes the 2.5 billion B-29 development program, the extended testing / debugging program that would take the lives of a number of key people and with the plane being so much larger than anything currently in use with innovations not seen before, a new training / service program was also required.
After most of the bugs were cleared up, the bomber made it debut trial flying out of China but didn't have an auspicious beginning but eventually the bomber became reliable. As the Marianas and Iwo Jima were captured, the plane became indispensable in a mammoth bombing campaign to subdue the home islands of Japan.
Though this story covers some of 5th Fleet's adventures and the Dolittle run, the predominate theme is the B-29 bombing campaign to force Japan to surrender before Operation Olympic had to launch.
The author has a very engaging style, which reminds me of Eric Hammel, and includes in his story the experiences of many pilots and crew during flying missions. These experiences were collected from survivor interviews and were meant to inform the public and to give tribute to those warriors. Other key people will include Arnold, Spaatz, Tibbets, Hansell and of course the indispensable Curtis LeMay. Before LeMay took over the B-29 Bombing Campaign had not achieved stellar results as hoped. LeMay came in and turned the campaign around, raising standards and morale, improving training and maintenance and changing bombing tactics. The bombing coverage culminates with the dropping of the two atomic weapons in early August 1945. On the navy side, Mitscher, McCain, Nimitz and others are discussed in how the navy was instrumental in working indirectly with the USAAF in destroying Japanese resistance and spheres of influence in the Pacific. It worked the other way as well. Advanced aerial bombing would often soften up invasion sights. So often the Navy and Air Force didn't always agree but one's success often helped the other service as well.
Besides describing the harrowing experience of a bombing run with AA fire coming up at you and Japanese fighters trying to knock you out of sky by fire or suicide run, the exciting descriptions of dog fights are also included.
More than once does the author describe the importance of capturing Guam, Tinian, Siapan, Iwo Jima for their air fields and how the closer to Japan we got, the more effective the B-29 runs were.
In the last chapter the author talks about the morality of fire bombing Tokyo, carpet bombing or using atomic power to vanquish the Japan and sees such actions as regrettable but necessary against the Japanese implacable attitude. The author also discusses the theory that was prevalent in both theaters that aerial bombing alone could win the war and disagrees with that premise. Bombing alone, causing massive destruction and killing many civilians didn't bring Germany or Japan to their knees, even after years of bombing.
While this story is American driven, the author includes periodically the thoughts and expectations of the Japanese in stopping the American advance.
The author provides Notes and Index and also includes a Table of Japanese aircraft with Allied Code names which was very helpful.
This was a very interesting and informative story that most people who are interested in either WWII or aerial combat will appreciate and is highly recommended.
A vivid story perfect for any military history collection June 12, 2010
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
WHIRLWIND: THE AIR WAR AGAINST JAPAN 1942-1945 tells for the first time the entire story of the Allied bombardment of Japan, using the words of pilots, flight crews, mechanics, generals and veterans to tell both sides of the experience. His assessment of experiences, strategy, tactics and moral issues provides a vivid story perfect for any military history collection.
Superb popular history of the air war against Japan June 3, 2010
Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
In a mere 271 pages, Barrett Tillman manages to convey the nature and actuality of the air war against Japan from 1942 through 1945.
He begins with a concise history of the development of air bombardment strategy in the time between the adoption of the airplane as a military weapon and the 1930s. A small group of American visionaries determined that wars of the future would be decided by massive fleets of well-armed bombers flying to the enemy homeland and destroying its manufacturing capacity and the will of its people to resist. From this group would emerge some of the leaders of the American air war in World War II. But the most important man was Hap Arnold, an Army Air Corps general who understood the political dimensions of the long-standing argument between traditional Army generals and the upstarts in the Air Corps. Coupled with this was inter-service rivalry between the Army and Navy. Hap Arnold and other Army Air Corps generals wanted an independent Air Force. They knew they had at least three battles to win: against the enemies in the next war looming over the horizon and against the Navy and Army traditionalists.
The Army Air Corps quickly became the Army Air Forces, still very much a part of the U.S. Army. In the mid-1930s the Congress started appropriating more money to the Army for the purchase of new fighters and bombers. Tillman tells this story in some detail and he tells it well in an amazingly few pages.
The Pacific Theatre was the secondary theatre for the United States, even though it was where the Japanese aerial attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war on December 7, 1941.
Tillman then tells the story of the Doolittle raid on Tokyo on April 18, 1942. Again Tillman speeds through the dramatic episode concisely, but while still capturing all the major and many minor details. Tillman is an excellent writer and his style is conducive, on appropriate occasion, to raising a goose bump or two as he takes the reader into the tension of a combat mission.
Tillman has assumed a heavy burden. He wants to tell the story of the U.S. Army Air Forces, which carried the major share of the air offensive against Japan, the Naval carrier aviation forces which ultimately played a not insignificant part in the campaign and provide substantial insight into the Japanese defenses, consisting of their Army and Naval air forces and supporting military and civilian units.
Amazingly, Tillman does it and does it well in less than 300 pages.
The stars of the show are the Boeing B-29 Superfortrress bomber and General Curtis LeMay and most of the book is devoted to them and their activities.
Tillman traces the courageous decision of Hap Arnold to develop the B-29 which was the "super bomber" of its day. The development of this airplane cost more than the development of the atomic bombs of the same period. Arnold saw the B-29 as the means to prove that bombers alone could penetrate the enemy heartland and bomb it into submission.
After the Doolittle raid in 1942, not much really happened for 15 months in terms of bombing Japan. The beginning was a horrendously expensive and difficult bombing campaign of B-29s launched from bases in China. As islands closer to Japan were seized, B-29 raids against Japan were launched from newly acquired bases. The raids were expensive in terms of planes and crew, with losses of more than 5% of the attacking planes not uncommon.
Enter Curtis LeMay. LeMay had revolutionized the art of strategic bombing over Germany with the 8th Air Force. He was named commander of the Air Force units trying without any significant success to bomb Japan into submission. LeMay is one of the least heralded heroes of World War II. In the 1960s, the left-wing unfairly smeared him as a murderer and barbarian.
But LeMay was the primary force in changing bombing strategies in the Pacific Theatre.
He had the guns and armor stripped out the B-29s, packed them with incendiary bombs, cut their attack altitudes by two-thirds or more and had the big bombers adopt new bombing run patterns.
A huge chunk of Tokyo was burned out in a single night with many other Japanese cities being literally destroyed one after another.
Tillman tells this story with anecdotal narrative from the participants, excerpts from the official records and fill-in-the-blanks explanations which are often necessary. For example, Tillman takes the time to explain how the Navy expended a great deal of munitions and not a few airplanes and lives on bombing Japanese warships which no longer posed any threat to the Americans.
As noted, this is a popular history and while Tillman provides a fairly extensive notes section, there is none of the ponderousness of an academic work. In fact, this is a rip-snorting history and, as I said, Tillman has a knack for putting you in the cockpit of a bomber droning tediously onward over the ocean toward Japan and then evoking the terror of being attacked by fighters and anti-aircraft guns, hoping to emerge alive just a few minutes later.
Tillman pulls it off. That he could do it in fewer than 300 pages amazes me. The avid history buff will find little new here, but for those not intimately familiar with the history of the Pacific air campaign, this book has practically everything you need to know. It's a great book and a welcome addition to the histories of World War II, particularly on the Pacific Theatre.
Jerry
Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
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