Book Review: Across the Dark Islands: The War in the Pacific

Across the Dark Islands is a memoir of Floyd W. Radike's WWII experiences which began as a platoon commander reinforcing Guadalcanal and ended in administrative duties in the Philippines on VP day followed by a short time occupying Japan. The story he tells is an interesting contrast to those told by members of elite Army units such as the paratroopers in Band of Brothers. Radike was not a member of such an elite unit, he was a member of a pre-war National Guard unit used to fill out a Regular Army division.

Radike himself was an outsider in the regiment having been reassigned after attending infantry school. Most of the officers in the regiment had spent years together in the National Guard and the result, according to Radike, was not the most efficient system of selecting combat commanders. Radike describes a unit with few quality officers that suffered from either incompetent National Guard leaders or overly ambitious Regular Army officers at different times in its history. It would be easy to dismiss these criticisms as the whining of a troublemaker, but Radike went on to achieve the rank of Brigadier General in the National Guard following the war, so you have to assume that he wasn't just a square peg in the Army organization.

Despite being utilized in mostly lower-risk assignments on Guadalcanal, Radike's regiment still suffered over 80% casualties due to disease and the environment. Many of the older National Guard soldiers simply couldn't take the heat and had to be sent home. Even though they weren't used as a spearhead in the fighting, Radike's company still saw its share of combat casualties before the Japanese were finally evicted from the island.

After the defeat of the Japanese on Guadalcanal Radike spent time in various duties on the island before being sent with the regiment to New Georgia where they were involved in more fighting that cost Radike his company CO and best friend in the regiment. After New Georgia the regiment was pulled out for rebuilding and sent to New Zealand and later New Caledonia before beign sent back into action in the Philippines.

Radike's unit participated in the fighting on the main island on Luzon, including the fight against the Japanese 2nd Armored Division which provides a short look at some of the armored warfare that went on in the Pacific theatre. Eventually Radike was transferred to the rear echelon after being wounded and the rest of the book covers his experiences there and in occupied Japan.

As a memoir, the book does not provide a good overview of the entire war or the specific importance of the campaigns Radike participated in to the Pacific Theatre. For that reason I recommend it to the intermediate student of the war who already has a general knowledge of the overall conflict and can better see how Radike's experiences fit into that picture.

The book does provide a good look at the experience of a nationalized National Guard unit in the Pacific Theatre and many of the problems that such a unit faced both from the enemy and its own organization.

From a gamer's perspective there's not a lot here in the way of organization detail or specifics that can be used to build scenarios. The maps are few and general and don't serve to show the location of the specific incidents Radike was involved in. They are also merely geographical in nature and do not show any military movements. There is some interesting information on the fight with the 2nd Armored Division which could probably be used to generate some interesting scenarios.

The book only contains two pictures. One on the front cover which has no caption or attribution that I could find and one of the author in his uniform following his commissioning ceremony. As a memoir, it contains no bibliography. It also lacks an index. Fortunately, there is a serviceable table of contents and the book is not overly long. I had little trouble finding things again in order to write this review.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the experience of the average GI in the Pacific. Not the Medal of Honor winner or the guy who helped raise the flag on Iwo Jimo, but the average Joe who formed the bulk of the troops fighting in the Pacific.