The Pacific: Hell Was an Ocean Away

Ok, first a complaint: how ANYONE could give this book less than 3 stars needs some additional education. It's one thing if this type of book is not your fav. That's understandable. But comments like, "it was written at a 6th-grade level," and "too many backstories it got confusing," well, I'll let it go at that with no further commentary. The book was extensively researched. It is a historical documentary that the author has skillfully written to resemble a novel. You find yourself interested in the characters. Yes, there is a lot of military nomenclature. Yes, it can be difficult to keep 1/1 and 1/5 and 3/5 divisions straight. If it's tough for you, think about how tough it was for 18 and 19-year-old boys under heavy enemy fire and shelling to keep straight. Every time the author switches individual stories, he has a CLEAR SEPARATION between them. He very deftly tells individual stories of men in combat and their fears, their defeats, and their victories. World War II is fast becoming a forgotten war. Every day, nearly 400 WWII vets die. Their stories would die, too, if not for skilled writers such as Mr. Ambrose. My late father-in-law was one of the men who served valiently in the Pacific. I think every American should educate themselves on their valor and sacrifice. All gave some, some gave all. Thank you, Mr. Ambrose.

I chose to read "The Pacific" because my father, who served in the Navy aboard ship, was among those who served in the Pacific theatre of operations during WW II. Hugh Ambrose captured the lives and experiences of a handful of men who fought with courage and commitment during some of the most brutal battles of the Pacific.One of the less notables elements of the war that Ambrose cites are the kamikaze attacks by Japanese pilots on US ships. My father told me about such attacks, adding that ships in which he was aboard were very nearly struck by the Japanese planes.I was especially moved by the actions of Marine Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role in the Battle of Guadalcanal. Ambrose thoughtfully describes Sgt. Gasoline and captured the essence of why he was a hero during the war.This narrative of the bravery and remarkable service of our armed services in the Pacific is well worth the effort to read.

Ambrose Bombs Attempt at WW2 Book. After watching the HBO mini series I felt it was about time to read the book. Although I was very eager to read the book, I lost interest half way through.The Pacific takes place in the harsh times of WW2. The stories downfall is based on the immense amount of description and the fact that the book is based on true accounts and gathered from peoples stories. These can make for a great book, however, Ambrose took the wrong turn and created a confusing, uninteresting story. Ambrose caught my attention within the first couple pages by including action and interesting character descriptions. As the story continued, Ambrose continued to add onto these descriptions making the story line hard to understand. I had very little knowledge of WW2 going into this book and we chose this to expand our knowledge of the war. With the author adding on more and more material without explaining it, it made it extremely hard to understand. About 100 pages into this book I was completely lost and had no idea what was going on and what everyone was doing. For example on page 13 Ambrose writes, “Just before touchdown, the Klaxon on the control tower began to screech,”(Ambrose 13). My lack of WW2 made it very hard to understand this sentence based on the word “Klaxon”. The book is written in a sense that whoever is reading it already has some understanding of WW2. Don’t get me wrong, if you have lots of knowledge about WW2 specifically the Pacific War you might understand and enjoy this novel, but without this the book will most likely be very confusing.Not only does the description make the book unforgettable, it's also the real life accounts that are depicted throughout the story. In the beginning Ambrose introduces 5 real-life people whose actions and thoughts shape the story. With the use of these 5 people, Ambrose is able to explain the hardships and what life was like during these hard times. Although this may sound like a good book, the storylines tends to jump and leave gaps in the timeline. One second you'll be in the the middle of a battle then the next second it'll jump to life in a camp. This makes the story very hard to follow leaving the reader more confused than when they started. All in all, I do not recommended reading The Pacific unless you have a wide range of knowledge about WW2. The book was very choppy and made me extremely confused throughout the whole book. Maybe the book would have been different if our knowledge for the war was much greater by learning it in school more often.

I expected this to be the novelization of the miniseries, which I love. There were quite a few differences. It was much more of a historical account, than a novelization. I have already read Leckie's book, but after reading this I want to read Sledge's book too. A couple of new characters/historical figures were introduced in this book. I found it both educational and fun to read.

I read many of the reviews before purchasing this book and found most want to relate it to the movie. As the author plainly states, this book is the work of research not used by the movie. This book should in no way be connected to the movie and stand on it's own merit. Also, I do believe the author also stated he was not a writer and this is his first book which he wrote in honor of his deceased Father.The book is very informative and I did not realize until reading this that I have never read much about Iwo Jima or Okanowa battles. Anyone who is interested in history or WWII should read this book as it should be a must read. Most WWII books you read only go the late 1943 and jump over the Pacific Theater until mid 1945, glossing over the horrors. After reading this, I am now is search of more books. Highly enjoyed reading and savoring the information provided. I agree at times, the reading seemed to jump around (as many other do) and at times you may have to review something that was previously wrote to keep the story line in mind. Even with any flaws the reader may find, this book should go on your reading list.One of the best informative books I have read in a long time. Full of new perspective and many new views not previously written.To Hugh Ambrose, I say thank you.

I really wanted to like this book as I am a big fan of Stephen Ambrose's work and I hoped his son Hugh Ambrose would be able to write as well. The big difference here though is that while Stephen Ambrose had a knack for telling soldiers tales he also applied his own historical analysis to the work.In "The Pacific" what we get is the story of five soldiers who served in the Pacific War and whose stories overlap enough to cover the whole course of the war. There is no attempt at analysis or discussion of the strategy and tactics but simply a re-telling of what was presumably a recorded interview with these veterans.What is particularly annoying is that part of the book relays the story of Eugene Sledge almost exactly as he wrote it himself in his war memoirs "With The Old Breed". Is there any real need to repeat that story here, as surely there were other unpublished veterans Hugh Ambrose could have talked to.Its strange therefore that the other 'character' from the television series, Robert Leckie is not included in the book. Hugh Ambrose explains that this was because his experiences were covered in his book "Helmet For My Pillow", and that he has included another similar account that covers the same period. So why repeat one and not the other?In addition to these two three other veterans add their voices to the story of the Pacific War as seen through their eyes. But that remains the problem - five peoples experiences, even if they were involved in all the major events of the war does not even begin to tell the whole story. For Stephen Ambroses book "Citizen Soldiers" he interviewed dozens of soldiers and gives a much better overall impression of what war in Europe was like for the average soldier. For the war in the Pacific this only tells you what the war was like for five individuals.As others have pointed out the style of writing is also slightly annoying. Hugh Ambrose attempts to add drama to events by writing in short snappy sentences. While his father was able to do this to great effect Hugh Ambrose over does it and you get entire chapters of tiny sentences which ruin any emotional impact the story might have had.By the end of the book you get some idea of what the Pacific War was like but I still found myself crying out for some input from the author. At no point does he even try to talk about the background to the war, the weapons, the tactics, the commanders and their strategies, the vehicles and planes, or even the differences between the different branches of service involved. If you are hoping for a history book on the Pacific War this is not it. This is more of a biography of five very brave and resilient men who fought during the war but with nothing more added to place it in context.

I have read all of Stephen Ambrose’s books and this is the first book I have read from the Hugh Ambrose library. Whilst numerous reviewers here are critical of the bullet point style of writing I quite liked it and can see why it was adapted for this book. I think it was the only way to follow four or five different personalities through a variety of different locations in different branches of the US services through the war in the Pacific. That being said I found that Ambrose junior’s style of writing did not match up to Ambrose senior. It’s not that I think that the book was poorly written, far from it, it is just that Ambrose senior is a hard act to follow.The book itself, well it was the inspiration behind the HBO series THE PACIFIC and as such highlights the brutality and horror that was characteristic of the whole campaign. The book illuminates the war service of legendary marines such as EB Sledge and John Basilone, the inhumanity of being a POW of the IJA and the air war over the Pacific. In the main however the book covers the island campaigns of the marines as they traverse the Pacific covering the intense fighting on Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The witness accounts of the dehumanising brutality displayed by both sides and the animal hatred that the marines had for their enemy reverberates throughout the whole book. In between the temporary lapses in the fighting the book describes what it is like to live under constant fear, fatigue and filth. The struggle of simply living in any of the combat zones sounds utterly debilitating.The book in reality is a series of true life accounts involving the unimaginable horror that these brave US marines faced in their amphibious campaigns from one end of the Pacific to the other and how they raised to the occasion. These battles are what transformed the marines into a world class fighting unit…and justifiably so. The book loses a star as I feel it is simply not as well written as others on the subject but it still is an enthralling multi personality portrayal about courageous American servicemen struggling to stay alive in the horrific island battles of WW2.

I bought this book largely based on the fact that Hugh Ambrose is the son of Stephen E. Ambrose, who wrote the exceptional books "Band Of Brothers", "Pegasus Bridge", "Citizen Soldiers" and the utterly brilliant "D-Day". With that level of pedigree behind it, I expected something of equal merit.I have to say that Ambrose Junior has none of the skill or ability of Ambrose Senior.By basing the book around 4 different men, all in different placements, be they bomber pilot or front line marine, the story the book weaves becomes difficult. Not necessarily to keep track of, but in the way they are all thrown together and jump from one another can be a bit bemusing.There are also whole sections of this book that are a slog to read. One section in particular springs to mind in Act Three which follows a Medal Of Honor winner arriving Stateside to take part in a War Bond Drive with movie stars - it's easily the most boring part of the book, and I found myself skipping any mention of it in Act Three.Ambrose Jnr also tries to cram too much information into one book - there are things that happen to the guys here that would be a solid basis for their own individual books, and some have done exactly that, but by compiling it all into one volume, so much is missed out and so many more interesting threads in the stories just simply aren't followed up. I found after finishing this book, I wanted to read the books of two of the men featured here, something I never felt from reading Ambrose Snr.Ambrose Snr devoted a large book to just one day in D-Day, and still you felt like you only got a brief glimpse of what happened that day. Ambrose Junior tries to do the same but for a 4 year campaign, and it just all falls apart. He's also obsessed with fact and figures ; in any give page you have 3 or 4 different battalion numbers mentioned, troop numbers (replacements and original members, enemy numbers), dates, etc when it's not the facts and figures you are reading it for, but for the experiences and stories of the men who were there.Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of those, but at the end of the book you can't help but feel short-changed that the uneven balance of war experience and technical historical tome is too much.The killer blow came near the end when the book wraps up Act Four with the surrender of Japan following one marine hearing on the radio of a "second use of a new weapon. An atomic bomb...". That's all you get in terms of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, a scant mention of one right at the end, as if they were nothing. Granted, The Pacific deals with the entire campaign, some areas in depth (Guadalcanal), some appearing like a mere footnote in a greater context (Midway), but to completely ignore the bombings utterly amazed me.I expected good things from this based on the Ambrose legacy, but I can safely say I won't be reading any more titles from Ambrose Jnr from here on in.

While Hugh Ambrose's writing skills fall somewhat short of his late father Steve's, I still found this book an interesting read. His account of the Pacific War is based on the intertwining stories of 5 characters (four Marines and one Navy pilot), from 1941 through 1945. Among the things I found most interesting in this book is the troops' widespread contempt for "Dugout Doug" MacArthur and his bungled defense of the Philippines, which culminated in his narrow escape from Corregidor in 1942. This has prompted me to look for further reading on this controversial figure.

A very well written book