Rolling Thunder against the Rising Sun: The Combat History of U.S. Army Tank Battalions in the Pacific in WWII

This book is a compilation of stories concerning small unit armor actions against the forces of the Japanese Empire during WWII. Pretty good...if you are into war stories. Precious little analysis and evaluation; nevertheless, a work about a subject often given no attention.

This book is amazing, full of combat records about the US Tanks and crews in the Pacific theater, from Philippines to Okinawa, the amount of little know data (for example the problems with the stuart's 37mm gun in Philippines), and the deep of the research are very welcomed.


"Rolling Thunder against the Sun" it's the perfect companion for the Oscar Gilbert's "Marines armor in the Pacific" and Bryan Perret's "Tanks tracks to Rangoon", now the question is ¿when somebody publish a similar book in size, deep and price :) about the japanese point of view of armor in the WWII?...

At the end of the book Mr. Salecker notes that what the public thinks it knows about the Pacific war is usually limited in comparison to the war in the ETO, and what little awareness there is usually involves the Marines. Guilty as charged! Taking absolutely nothing away from the Marines, I was almost totally unaware of the scale and scope of armored operations in the Pacific that are recounted in this book. If you like military history, and especially if you are a "tread head" like me, then you will really enjoy this book. It is a great read, and it passes what I consider to be the real acid test for any book. It made me want to go out and read and learn more on the subject.

I also build WW II model tanks, and this book is an endless source of information, ideas, inspiration, and photos for future armor modeling projects.

Gene Eric Salecker, the author of Fortress Against The Sun: The B-17 Flying Fortress In The Pacific, has now written "Rolling Thunder: Against the Rising Sun: The Combat History of the U.S. Army Tank Battalions in the Pacific in World War II."

Mr. Salecker's book is a crisp, well-paced narrative of battlefield actions. It avoids the voyeurism that books about fighting the Samurai easily fall into. With the bigger picture of the Pacific War rather limited in his book, Mr. Salecker has done a fine job of producing a micro-history of U.S. Army armored operations in the Pacific campaign. The author is a reliable, informed and entertaining navigator -- he tells a lot of good stories, and tells them well.

As his historic survey makes clear, U.S. Army tanks struggled against the environment almost as much as the Japanese. Tanks lost their tracks burrowing along dense, mine infested jungle paths -- sank into deep underwater shell holes in coral reefs -- got hung up on coconut stumps -- flipped over climbing muddy dirt trails.

Early in the war, fighting for Luzon, Bataan, and New Guinea, the M5 Stuart light tank was effective at wiping out machine gun nests and blasting snipers out of palm trees with canister shot. The M5 was fairly vulnerable to all types of the Japanese antitank guns. More of the armor losses, however, involved untimely mechanical breakdowns, blown tracks, getting hopelessly stuck, and roll-overs. If disabled tanks could not be towed away, crews had to destroy them.

The M3 Lee medium tank and the M4 Sherman medium tank proved to be nearly immune to lighter artillery. Japanese infantry resorted to close assault tactics with magnetic mines, grenades, satchel charges, and Molotov cocktails. Tankers had to provide covering fire for each other as Japanese soldiers attempted to scramble aboard.

Land mines continued to disable tanks throughout the entire Pacific campaign. Encounters with Japanese tanks were very few, and they were always quickly dispatched.

On coral atolls, like Makin, Biak and Kwajalein, the Japanese enjoyed wide fields of defensive fire from pillboxes, bunkers, and camouflaged entrenchments. Faced with fanatical resistance, infantry could make little progress against them without armored support. Tank losses were mostly from floundering in coastal waters, getting deeply stuck, and untimely mechanical breakdowns. The value of flame-throwing tanks was soon recognized.

The Japanese became more knowledgeable on how to destroy tanks as the Pacific campaign progressed. To be sure, the author's respect for the Japanese soldier is apparent. On Saipan, Guam, Peleliu, and Okinawa, the Japanese fought from a interlocked system of caves, tunnels, and spider holes. U.S. Army infantry teams could make no headway against this resistance without major assistance from artillery and armor. Here the 37mm M5 Stuart was ineffective -- the greater firepower of the 75mm M4 Sherman, 76mm M10 tank destroyers, 105mm assault guns, and 150mm artillery were necessary to blast the Japanese out.

Needing to reach remote battlefields, tankers relied on bulldozers to cut trails into the rugged back country. The narrow mountain trails were often guarded by Japanese anti-tank guns, heavy artillery, and machine guns installed in caves. Japanese artillery first drove off accompanying infantry teams, then suicide troops hiding nearby in spider holes would attack stalled tanks.

We learn, for example, that once a tank is disabled, the crew was easily killed trying to abandon their tank. And as Mr. Salecker points out, many men died attempting to tow away disabled American tanks.

As the Japanese were pushed back into smaller areas, they would launch frantic hordes of infantry to overwhelm their besiegers. This often resulted in large groups of Japanese being cornered and annihilated in short order by tankers firing canister and machine guns backed up by covering infantry teams.

"The American's answer to the enemy's strong and integrated defenses was the tank-infantry team, including the newly developed armored flamethrower, and supported by artillery," declares Mr. Salecker. The author shows the almost supernatural bond between these tankers and the infantry.

The author writes in one passage, "Guns and howitzers battered Japanese cave openings, dugout, and pillboxes, forcing enemy gunners back into tunnels for protection and decreasing their fields of fire. Taking advantage of the resulting 'dead spaces,' infantry and tanks crept up on the most vulnerable point, the tanks attacked the position point-blank with cannon, machine guns, and flame, while the infantry prevented Japanese 'close-quarters attack troops' carrying explosives from closing in on the tank." There are some fascinating details to be found among these battle action vignettes.

Mr. Salecker curiously refrains from analyzing Japanese weapons and tactics, preferring to focus on those of the U.S. Army. The author successfully shows the step-by-step development of ground tactics that most likely would be needed to conquer the Japanese home islands. "At the time of the Japanese surrender, there were fourteen independent tank battalions in the Pacific theater of operations."

"Rolling Thunder" has 60 excellent photographs and 25 good maps. There is much to recommend this new work. This book provides a good contrast to armored operations in North Africa and Western Europe. The best moments in the book are the fascinating cameos of buttoned up tankers fighting the fanatical Japanese.

Mr. Salecker has done a major service to the history of US Army armor by providing us with a complete history of the Army tank units involved in the Pacific campaigns from 1941 thru victory in 1945. This is an area that has been ignored by other publications that cover the history of American tank units. Here we see the desperate battles by under-trained tank crews in the fall of the Phillipines, the use of tanks in the jungles of New Guinea, the landing of tanks on island invasions, the large use of tanks in the recapture of the Phillipines and the final actions on Okinawa. The author looks at the machines used, but the real focus of the book is on the units and the men who actually fought in the tanks. Many veterans contributed stories about combat in places where heat, insects and disease were as deadly as the determined enemy. Well written and easy reading. This volume belongs on the shelf of anybody interested in the Pacific campaigns or the history of American armored units.