The Second World War (1)

David Horner is the professor of Australian defence history at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Canberra. A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, who served as an infantry platoon commander in South Vietnam, Colonel Horner is the author of over twenty books on military history and defence, including High Command (1982) and Blamey: The Commander-in-Chief (1998).

It was a great war of battles such as those in the Coral Sea, at Midway and at Leyte. This book explores the many facets of this complicated conflict, which reshaped the face of Asia and splintered forever European invincibility as a colonial power.

The war in the Pacific began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and ended with the atomic bombs on Hirsoshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which led to the surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. It was a war of great naval battles, such as those in the Coral Sea, at Medway, and at Leyte and of grim jungle battles, at Guadalcanal, New Guinea and Burma. This book explores the many facets of this complicated conflict, which reshaped the face of Asia and splintered forever European invincibility as a colonial power.