Southwest Passage: The Yanks in the Pacific

by John Lardner, Alex Belth

Overview

At a time when few Americans had visited Australia, journalist John Lardner sailed down under with the U.S. armed forces as one of the first American war correspondents in the Pacific theater. With his excellent sense of humor and gift for narrative, Lardner penned vignettes of MacArthur’s arrival and his reception in Melbourne and a flight with the daring Dutch flier Capt. Hans Smits. More frequently, Lardner wrote about the ordinary day and the average person. Traveling throughout the country, in Southwest Passage Lardner offers a glimpse of Australia in the 1940s and generates warmth and admiration for World War II fighters in the Pacific, whether Australian, New Zealander, aboriginal, or American.

For generations of readers who have learned about World War II with the benefit of hindsight, Lardner’s tone, style, and selected topics give more than just entertaining anecdotes about the military in the Pacific; they are a view into the culture and society of midcentury America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803253292
Publisher:	Nebraska Paperback
Publication date:	12/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	314
File size:	615 KB

About the Author

John Lardner (1913–60), the eldest son of legendary American humorist Ring Lardner, was a frequent and much-honored contributor to the New Yorker, True, and Sport magazines and wrote three books. His work has been collected by editor John Schulian in The John Lardner Reader: A Press Box Legend’s Classic Sportswriting (Nebraska, 2010). Alex Belth is the author of Stepping Up: The Story of All-Star Curt Flood and His Fight for Baseball Players’ Rights.

Table of Contents

I The Unready 11

II Westward (Censored) Ho! 17

III Convoy 22

IV All Ashore 37

V The Shirtsleeve Baedeker 44

VI The Last Bastion 60

VII MacArthur and MacArthuriana 72

VIII Road Company 82

IX Darwin 89

X Japs, Mostly Dead 105

XI The Planes We Fight With 112

XII Dakota in the Red Dust 122

XIII As the Dutchman Flies 133

XIV City Life 144

XV Log of the FIRECRACKER 158

XVI Port of Bombs and Butterflies 170

XVII Between Zeros 189

XVIII Seven Deadly Young Men 202

XIX Coral Sea 211

XX Diggers at Work 224

XXI Behind the Lines 241

XXII The Tasman Bumps 259

XXIII Homeward: the Odd Pace 275

Notes 291

Glossary 298

Editorial Reviews

“When a good sports reporter goes from Jacobs’ Alley into the biggest fight in the world, he has a good background for sizing up the people and places involved. John Lardner was one of the first correspondents to go to the Pacific theatre with the U.S. armed forces, and his account . . . gives readers a speaking acquaintance with their allies down under.”—Nancy Wilder, Far Eastern Survey

Far Eastern Survey

“John Lardner, inheriting his father’s large gift for narrative as well as his sense of humor, has vividly related his impressions of Australia from the point of view of an American war correspondent. . . . Will enlighten and amuse readers who want details about the troops fighting ‘down under.’”—Pacific Affairs

Pacific Affairs

“Mr. Lardner has the happy faculty of taking the war seriously without taking himself seriously. He does not go in for military master-minding or chest-thumping hysterics. He is content to be pleasantly entertaining.”—New York Times

New York Times

"For generations of readers who have learned about World War II with the benefit of hindsight, Lardner's tone, style, and selected topics give more than just entertaining anecdotes about the military in the Pacific; they are a view into the culture and society of midcentury America."—Bob Edmonds, McCormick Messenger

McCormick Messenger - Bob Edmonds