Our Jungle Road To Tokyo

Our Jungle Road to Tokyo is the dazzling account of how US and Allied forces overcame incredible odds to rout invading Japanese from entrenched positions deep in the mountain jungles of Papua New Guinea. Battles take place in swamps, impassable vegetation, coconut plantations with invisible snipers buried in tree roots, hillsides riddled with pill-boxes and maze-like underground bunkers impervious to artillery and mortar. It is a detailed, autobiographical report from a leading architect of the Southwest Pacific Campaign, General Robert Eichelberger, who took his orders directly from Big Chief himself, General Douglas MacArthur. The action begins in earnest with MacArthur's chilling directive to Eichelberger regarding the recapturing of Buna, on Papua's north coast: "Take Buna, Bob, or don't come back alive."

"Take Buna, Bob, or don't come back alive." - Douglas MacArthur to Robert Eichelberger. Our Jungle Road to Tokyo is the dazzling account of how US and Allied forces overcame incredible odds to rout invading Japanese from entrenched positions deep in the mountain jungles of Papua New Guinea. Battles take place in swamps, impassable vegetation, coconut plantations with invisible snipers buried in tree roots, hillsides riddled with pill-boxes and maze-like underground bunkers impervious to artillery and mortar. *Annotated edition with footnotes. *Includes photographs of main personages, images from the Buna Campaign and more.

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"A Team for America" is the story of how the 1944 West Point football team went undefeated, captivating and inspiring the nation in the process.

This study examines armored warfare in a jungle environment. The focus is to determine if there is a role for ground mounted armored forces in jungle warfare. This study explains how armor was used in past jungle conflicts and examines current doctrine and applicability of employment of armor in the jungle. The first portion of the research focuses on discerning how armor was used in past jungle conflicts. The Pacific campaign of World War II and the Vietnam War are examined to determine the historical role of armor in a jungle environment. Early employment of armor in these two conflicts is examined to determine the criteria for use of armored forces in the jungle and examines the tactics, techniques, and procedures that were developed during these conflicts. The second portion of this study focuses on the feasibility of current employment of armor in a jungle environment. Current Army and Marine armored doctrine is examined and interviews are conducted to determine if current armored systems could and should be employed in jungle warfare. Additionally, officers from foreign countries are interviewed to determine how armored forces are employed in the jungle areas of their countries.

A military biography of the general who led the U.S. Sixth Army in the Southwest Pacific in World War II, including grueling jungle campaigns in New Britain and New Guinea, and who was subsequently chosen by General MacArthur to lead the ground invasion of both the Philippines and Japan.

James Ellman digs deep, connects the dots, and concludes that General Douglas MacArthur was decidedly not a military genius. One of America's most controversial generals, Douglas MacArthur’s rise through the U.S. Army’s ranks was meteoric. However, he did not lead large formations of men in combat until he assumed command of forces in the Philippines in 1941. When war commenced with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, MacArthur’s performance on the battlefield was a failure: he underestimated the Japanese, and his poorly trained forces were outmaneuvered and outfought by a much smaller invading force. However, in what became a repeating hallmark of his career, he successfully portrayed his actions to much of the American people as brilliant and heroic regardless of victory or defeat. After fleeing to Australia, MacArthur famously announced, “I will return,” and followed through on a quest to retake Manila regardless of its impact on Allied global strategy or its cost in American, Australian, and Filipino blood. In his subsequent role as America’s shogun in Tokyo, MacArthur was again surprised by an enemy he underestimated. The Korean War yielded his greatest victory, at Inchon, but also his greatest defeat, along the Yalu River. Unwilling to accept anything but complete victory, he openly defied President Truman: MacArthur fatally undermined chances for an early peace, planned to seed a great swath of enemy territory with radioactive cobalt, and attempted to widen a conflict which threatened to become a third world war. Raging against his subsequent firing, he only truly faded away after he was publicly criticized by a panoply of America’s greatest WWII generals. Today, MacArthur still polarizes. Many biographies agree he was a great and patriotic leader marred by a few failures. Ellman argues the opposite: MacArthur was a lackluster battlefield commander who suffered stunning defeats while undermining the command structure of our military.