In another article on this site, these words were quoted from the captured dispatches of a Japanese general writing to his superiors:
- from Amazon:
"[The Yank] is a wizard at handling machinery and he can build airfields, roads and advance bases with uncanny speed."
- he was, of course, referring to the famous Construction Battalions (Seabees) of the U.S. Navy. This article will tell you all about them. Frank Vicovari, veteran ambulance driver, was en route to North Africa on a neutral passenger ship called Zam Zam. He was traveling with numerous other men who would serve under his command; there were 21 top of the line ambulances in the hold that would be put to use by Free French forces when they landed. Zam Zam also carried some 200 American missionaries off to spread the good news south of the equator. This article is Vicovari's account of his life onboard a Nazi raiding vessel after it sank Zam Zam in the South Atlantic. He eloquently describes how efficiently the crew fired upon other non-combatant vessels and, on one occasion, machine-gunned lifeboats. From the 4th through the 8th of May, 1942, the Japanese and American fleets exchanged blows in their first major engagement. The Americans won, but not by much; the most important battle would take place four weeks later at Midway. But the Yanks were happy with the way it turned out nonetheless:
"It was a victory all right - but it was not as decisive as it sounded, to a jubilant America. For in the north in the mandated islands the main Japanese Fleet still stood ready for action at any moment - a fleet as yet largely unscathed, a fleet that has always come back for more, a fleet that does not like the taste of defeat."
Read about the Battle of Leyte Gulf...
Written months after the battle, this is the Yank report on the naval engagement that was "the turning point in the war":
"The Jap had failed to get a foothold on Australia. Strategists reasoned that he would now strike east, at an outpost of the North American continent. Alaska became the No. 1 alert; bombers were flown to Midway; carriers came north and Admiral Nimitz pushed patrols far out toward the Bonins and Wake islands... A navy patrol found the enemy first, in the early hours of June 3 [1942]... Reconnaissance showed a Jap force of about 80 ships approaching Midway."
- the contest that followed proved to be the first truly decisive battle in the Pacific war.
Click here to read more about Midway.
Assorted well-campaigned swab-jockeys lounge-about and discuss their various experiences on both oceans.
Click here to read the observations of a general who fought both the Germans and Japanese. | 
