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Rating: 
Summary: A Useful Summary of the Marine Corps Epic
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Useful Summary of the Marine Corps Epic
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Misnamed but Good Read
Review: 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.
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