America's Few

Marine Aces of the South Pacific

By: Bill Yenne

Narrated by: Geoff Sugiyama

Bloomsbury presents America's Few by Bill Yenne, read by Geoff Sugiyama.

America's Few delves into the history of US Marine Corps aviation in World War II, following the feats of the Corps’ top-scoring aces in the skies over Guadalcanal.

Marine Corps aviation began in 1915, functioning as a self-contained expeditionary force. During the interwar period, the support of USMC amphibious operations became a key element of Marine aviation doctrine, and the small force gradually grew. But in December 1941 came the rude awakening. Within hours of Pearl Harbor, heroic Marine aviators were battling the Japanese over Wake Island.

In the South Pacific, the aviators of the US Marine Corps came out of the shadows to establish themselves as an air force second to none. In the summer of 1942, when Allied airpower was cobbled together into a single unified entity – nicknamed 'the Cactus Air Force’ – Marine Aviation dominated, and a Marine, Major General Roy Geiger, was its commander.

Of the twelve Allied fighter squadrons that were part of the Cactus Air Force, eight were USMC squadrons. It was over Guadalcanal that Joe Foss emerged as a symbol of Marine aviation. As commander of VMF-121, he organized a group of fighter pilots that downed 72 enemy aircraft; Foss himself reached a score of 26. Pappy Boyington, meanwhile, had become a Marine aviator in 1935. Best known as the commander of VMF-214, he came into his own in late 1943 and eventually matched Foss’s aerial victory score.

Through the parallel stories of these two top-scoring fighter aces, as well as many other Marine aces, such as Ken Walsh (21 victories), Don Aldrich (20), John L. Smith (19), Wilbur Thomas (18.5), and Marion Carl (18.5), many of whom received the Medal of Honor, acclaimed aviation historian Bill Yenne examines the development of US Marine Corps aviation in the South Pacific.©2022 Bill Yenne (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

a very enjoyable listen, overall

aside from narrator's incessant mispronunciations and the surprise of being informed that General Wavell's first name in the intro was Percival, actually Archibald, I believe the Percival part of the name was bastardized from Arthur Percival, the GOC in Malaya campaign, which Wavell had a hand in. Pretty minor gripes, really, but unexpected given the high standard of Mr. Yenne's earlier works. Overall, very enjoyable, light reading, but historically somewhat shallow. I'm just grateful Mr. Yenne avoided the more usual modern revisionism and unfair judgement more common these days. It really was a very different era, and I'm glad author reserved his personal feelings to report history only as it was recorded, not as many would like to change it to be. Then, as now, people are as flawed as humans tend to be, and then, were allowed to go on to great deeds without someone decrying their flaws, wanting false justice to be dealt postmortem.