“A PITIFUL, UNHOLY MESS” is a superb, detailed combat narrative of that debacle on theO’ahu’s main airports. Since these bases comprised Hawaii’s defenses, the Japanese needed toneutralize them, especially Wheeler to prevent our boys, even with outdated aircraft, frominterfering with their attacks on the Pacific Fleet still at anchor. Of course, the losses, humanand material, were far less than those suffered by the fleet, although the aerial surprise attackscaused chaos, destruction, and mayhem that proved both disastrous and wrenching.Author-historians Wenger, Cressman, and Di Virgilio, each an exceptional writer guaranteedto be heard from in the decades ahead, focus on descriptions of actions in the air and on theground at the deepest tactical level, from both the U.S. and Japanese perspectives. No PacificWar book this reviewer is aware of has studied such perspectives simultaneously before,especially when the combatants were an ocean apart. Such a complex synthesis is possible onlyby the dogged pursuit of EVERY source of American of documents, reminiscences, interviews,and collections of rare personality photos. Similarly, the authors sought out Japanese accountsand photography of the attack, many of which appear here in print for the first time. Theserious buff will appreciate that much of information from the reports of the Japanese airgroups are from the aircraft carrier Shokaku which have never been used before. On a personalnote, “Hey, guys, this still-hopeful-wanna-be writer, non-fiction and fiction, has the greatestrespect for your team effort – usually a trio winds up fist cuffing. Really, yours is a model, anexemplary masterpiece of tackling an obvious complex subject, Hawaii’s three main militaryairfields all at once bombarded, and, 83 years later, provide knowledge and new insightshitherto unavailable.” Loyal readers, please excuse the sudden blunt show of emotion. Yet,Wenger, Cressman, and Di Virgilio should be singled out for what they are all about to us.“RISE OF THE WAR MACHINES – The Birth of Precision Bombing in World War II”, by RaymondO’Mara. Naval Institute Press: History of Military Aviation Series, 2022, 6” x 9”, 338 pages, hc;$49.95, Holiday price, $24.98. Visit, www.usni.org, the eBook edition is also available.Another brilliant study – examining the rise of autonomy in air warfare from the inception ofpowerful flight through the first phase of the Combined Bomber Offensive in World War II.Author O’Mara builds a conceptual model of humans, machines, and doctrine thatdemonstrates a distinctly new way of waging warfare in human-machine teams. Specifically, hepresents how the U.S. Army’s quest to control the complex technological and doctrinal systemnecessary to execute the strategic bombing mission led to the development of automation inwarfare.O’Mara, a retired Air Force colonel who flew the F-15 in operations and operational testassignments, further explores how the process of sharing both physical and cognitive control ofthe precision-bombing system established distinct human-machine teams with complexhuman-to-human and human-to-machine social relationships. He presents the precision-bombing system as markedly socio-technical, constructed of interdependent, specially trainedroles; purpose-built automated machines; and the high-altitude, daylight bombing doctrine, all
of which mutually shaped each other’s creation and use.
