History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II - Book Report/Review Example

8 April Book Review - Combined Fleet De d: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II 1. Introduction The book by John Prados presents a detailed account of activities in the Pacific during World War II. The book comprises of 832 pages and mainly presents intelligence operations. The author has taken into account the viewpoints of both the US and the Japanese during World War II. The author concentrates on intelligence operations by both Navies. The vastness of this field can be realized after reading the book. It covers various types of intelligence gathering techniques employed and their role in decision making. The techniques mainly cover fleet recognition, signal interception and decryption as being major part of military intelligence. The book also briefly covers industrial intelligence and analysis of production facilities by photoreconnaissance to estimate weaponry and its production capability. However, this book is only limited to naval intelligence, but techniques are explained along with personal stories and experiences of people from both sides. The book bleakly mentions politics and decision making at higher national level on both sides. The main purpose of intelligence collection was to evaluate and estimate capabilities of opposing forces and information to be made available for higher commanders to make suitable decisions. These decisions in turn may suitably organize forces to protect against enemy attacks. Other half of the information is used in offensive planning and is aimed at exploiting the weakness of an opposing force. Intelligence efforts accelerated in this era and counter intelligence measures were taken to guard against leakages of information. The book is divided into four major parts and these are discussed in detail; 2. Part I – Sailors, Spies and Strategies Elements of information warfare, in particular Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) to monitor enemy correspondence were the key to victory in World War II. In this part, methods of reading the intentions of the enemy are explained in detail. This involved intercepting encrypted communications. The naval radios of the time mainly used Ultra High Frequency (UHF) for long range and Very High Frequency (VHF) bands for communications. At the time, encryption was done by griddle or by simply using code words. The author explains the implementation of intelligence gathering by SIGINT to be considerably troublesome and required considerable efforts. This part is simply an introduction to US intelligence-gathering efforts against the Japanese and builds up momentum for part two. 3. Part II – Yamamoto’s War The part mainly covers attack on Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto was the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet and was tasked to attack the US Pacific Fleet in a pre-emptive strike. The attack is considered a complete failure for US intelligence, but the author explains the steps taken by the Japanese to avoid leakages in particular by radio communication. The Japanese fleet was not traceable and few radio direction findings were ignored just before the attack. The author explains this by radio silence theory. He mentions that the Japanese disabled their radio equipment, hence, were not traceable and did not present any opportunity for the US intelligence to give early warning of this attack. This part mainly covers the SIGINT efforts by the US and the Japanese counter intelligence methods employed by its naval fleet. 3. Part III – High Tide of the Shadow War This part concentrates on the preparation for a strike back at the Japanese forces. Intelligence collection came into action once more and this time it was to support offensive operation. However, the book concentrates mainly on the intelligence gathering and decryption of coded communication signals and does not relate the overall picture and preparations by US forces. It keeps its focus mainly on the collection of small pieces from signals, prisoners and even open sources. The author puts in individual stories who contributed towards this intelligence effort that shaped the Pacific War. These experiences make this chapter interesting to read, but lacks the description of the overall picture. The reader must know the background information on operations to understand and fill in the pieces to appreciate role of intelligence in the war. 4. Part IV – By Force of Arms This part is the description of the final blow and the defeat of the Japanese forces. The part concentrates primarily on the naval battles and ignores the operations by other arms. The author explains certain events that were missed by chance and were simple negligence in intelligence. He explains the fluidity of war and how small things can change and have huge impact on the outcome. This part is specific to navy and close encounters. It is a treat to understand and look into operations of the time. There is a very brief mention of naval air force in the chapter. 5. Conclusion The book is a very detailed account of intelligence operation in the war. The author has put in effort for collection of this material. He has explained accounts of both sides, the US and the Japanese. Interesting discussion has been done on the reasons of a surprise attack by the Japanese and the author tries to accommodate theories from other writers like Prange and Grogan. He has included in detail the reports ignored before the attack on Pearl Harbor and the counter measures taken by the Japanese to keep the element of surprise. The book takes a shift when the US forces plan retaliatory action. The author keeps the content related to intelligence and the reader cannot make an overall picture of the war. Operations and their planning by other arms are not mentioned. The reader needs background knowledge on the ground operations at the time. In simple, the picture by the author is a very detailed account of naval operations only, as if they were made independently. It does not present tactics involved. The decisions taken during the war are briefly mentioned and not analyzed. The account of individual experiences in the book keep things interesting and campaigns are presented with experience of soldiers and also ships. The book presents a unique picture of Yamamoto, which is something unique in its class of books. The most interesting part of the book is perhaps the trace of the Japanese fleet by the US after Pearl Harbor. The book demonstrates that simple mistakes in ship identification by the Japanese led its fleet to wrongly move with heavy force against a US escort carrier group. There are many examples, which depict fluid picture of the war. The naval operations are explained to the level of individuals and a treat to read. The book contains some photos and few maps and overall is a must read. Works Cited Prados, John. Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II. New York: Random House, 1995. Print Read More