| Since its first printing in 1969, The Thousand-Mile War has been claimed as one of the great accounts of World War II, Brian Garfield brought his skills as an author of narrative fiction to the history of the Aleutian campaign, putting together careful research and powerful storytelling to produce this compelling account of the battles of the United States and Japan on the bitter rim of the North Pacific. The narrative follows the fifteen-month course of the campaign chronologically, tracing the events that eventually combined to dash Japanese hopes of a quick victory while a surprised America was still reeling from the disaster at Pearl Harbor. The war in the Aleutians was fought in some of the worst climatic conditions on earth for men, ships, and airplanes. The sea was rough, the islands craggy and unwelcoming, and enemy number one was always the weather -- the savage wind, rain, and fog of the Aleutian chain. Now, half a century after the war ended, more of the fog has been lifted. For the original edition of The Thousand-Mile War, author Garfield studied the documentary record available on both sides of the Pacific and fleshed out the statistics and formal accounts with personal stories garnered from interviews, letters, and diaries of the participants. With this Classic Reprint edition, he has incorporated many illustrations, including photographs once classified, as well as new information provided by the men who fought in and survived the war in the Aleutians. His aim to replace the so-called "Forgotten War" with a clear view of the big picture of Alaska's island war is now even more well realized.
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