British amateur historian Derrick Wright has written a thorough summary of the US Marine Corps landing on Tarawa Atoll in November 1943. The subtitle, "the turning of the tide" is not appropriate however, since the tide of victory had already turned against the Japanese a year earlier at Midway and Guadalcanal.

The author covers the battle in succinct but thorough day-by-day detail, from the marine landing to the conquest of the island three days later. There are three appendices covering US and Japanese orders of battle and USMC casualties. The three-D maps are good, but propably should have been zoomed in a bit more, since the area of fighting was quite small.

There are no major flaws in the book, which does cover well-travelled ground after all, but there are several areas that could have been given better elaboration. First, since this was the first major opposed landing for the US Marine Corps in the Second World War, a bit more space should have been given to amphibious doctrine. Was the landing conducted in accord with existing doctrine and how was doctrine modified? Second, the US Army landings on Makin should have been given a map and a little more detail.

Otherwise, this is another useful, if not ground-breaking, Osprey Campaign summary. The photographs are quite good also.

Tarawa 1943: The Turning of the Tide is a well written, but short history of the invasion of the island. It is misnamed, since the author himself correctly describes Midway as the turning point. But that aside, this is a good book.

In fact Tarawa is a perfect battle for the Osprey series since the battle was basically fought over a three day period. The book does an excellent job describing not only the troop movements but the human toll that the invasion caused. One is continually reminded that the conquest of Tarawa was paid for in too much human blood.

This is a good read. Excellent maps are an added bonus.

Iwo Jima 1945 is an attractive, but ultimately flawed, addition to the Osprey Campaign Series. While British author Derrick Wright succeeds in capturing the pathos of this dramatic battle, he skips too lightly over the factual basis. The book certainly provides a useful and detailed summary of the five-week long battle on Iwo Jima, but there are far too many omissions for even a short campaign history such as this.

In the first chapter on the origins of the campaign, Wright fails to note that although Iwo Jima had been under Japanese control since the late 19th Century that the first airfield on the island was not constructed until 1943. As late as February 1944, the island was virtually undefended, with only 1,500 naval personnel stationed there. In this section, Wright makes critical omissions in failing to note the first major American air strikes on the island in June 1944, followed by intermittent naval bombardments and B-24 attacks in November-December 1944. The Japanese Army only started a major effort to reinforce and fortify the island in July 1944 and the underground cave network was only about 15% completed when the invasion began. US submarines were partly successful in interdicting the flow of Japanese reinforcements to the island, with 1,500 Japanese troops lost enroute. All these facts are very pertinent to the pre-invasion phase, but go unmentioned by Wright.

The second chapter, on opposing commanders, covers the US commanders effectively, but mentions only Lieutenant General Kuribayashi on the Japanese side. Wright takes time to tell the reader about Kuribayashi's height and "pot belly," but not the more relevant facts about his recent service in China in 1940-1943. Kuribayashi was a cavalry officer, not a samurai (which was a state of mind by 1945, not a branch of service). The third chapter, on opposing forces, is so short at only four paragraphs as to seem obnoxious. Wright offers only generic comments about the opposing forces, with no detail about tactical organization, doctrine, equipment or strengths and weaknesses. The US 3rd and 4th Marine Divisions were veteran units but the 5th was an untried division. While noting that the total Japanese garrison was 21,000, Wright fails to break this down properly; 15,500 were army and 5,500 were navy. Information is widely available about this garrison but unmentioned in this account. For example, the fact that the Japanese had 120 guns larger than 75mm with 100,000 rounds, 130 howitzers, 60 anti-tank guns and 27 tanks is rather important in assessing the defense. The Japanese garrison had plenty of food but were chronically short of water. Nor does the order of battle information provided in the appendices clear this up; the appendices fail to even list any American tank, artillery, engineer or aviation units that supported the invasion.

The heart of this volume is the day-by-day summary, which Wright pulls off fairly well. The artwork battlescenes that accompany the text are excellent. However, the lack of sufficient 2-D maps makes it particularly difficult to track the first week of the battle. A good sketch or diagram of a typical Japanese defensive position (readily available from sketches made by US Seabees) would have been worthwhile in the campaign summary. Also, Wright makes the three-day naval preliminary bombardment seem like the only effort to suppress the defenders, which it was not.

Finally, the aftermath section fails to address casualties. While Wright gives US casualties at interim points of the battle, he fails to mention the final total: over 6,800 dead and 18,000 wounded. The fact that 212 Japanese were captured out of 21,000 troops is also omitted. Finally, it was on April 7, 1945 that P-51 fighters flew from Iwo Jima to provide the first escort for B-29s to raid Japan. Wright missed that fact, too. In sum, the plethora of omitted data greatly reduces the value and reliability of this account.

Iwo Jima 1945: The Marines Raise the Flag on Mount Suribachi (Campaign, 81)by Derek Wright is written in typical Ospery fashion. What makes it different from most of the other books in the series is the ablity of the author in very few pages to capture the heroism, death and wanton destruction that accompanied the battle to take control of the tiny island. Wright does a magnificant job helping the reader understand the mind set of the Marines and the Japanese and each of their desires to destroy the other at almost any cost or price.

From the aftermath section, it is obvious that the author sought to use Iwo Jima as a test of what would have happened if an invasion of the Japanese homeland has occured. If Wright is even half correct in his assumptions, then the invasion would have been devestating. Wright then seems to conclude that the expected devestation justifies the use of the atomic bomb. A conclusion shared by the Iwo Jima veterans.

The sequence of the battle is laid out in a day by day account. As is typical of the Osprey series, there are certainly parts of the battle that are left out or shortchanged. However, given the page limitations that is to be expected.

This is an fine short history and a worthwhile read.