The Sen-Toku Raid: 6

John McKinna, writing as John Mannock, captures the reader with a fast-paced yarn, but it is interlaced with many facts about the Japanese techniques and strategies in their attempts to thwart Marine landings in the Pacific. As a former USMC NCO, I appreciated his well-crafted word picture of those desperate times. In general, John does an excellent job of character development, but I felt he outdid himself in this novel, and here is an example: By reason of seniority, the attacking party was lead by British Major Harold Horwitch, a sometimes overbearing officer but nonetheless, a skilled veteran of many campaigns. On page 353, Horwich muses about two men in his attacking force......"Foster and Mulgrew were both irredeemable, convict-class vulgarians, like all Australians, but Horwitch admitted to himself that they knew their business when it came to jungle fighting." I laughed out loud. Mannock had captured the mustache-twisting, oppressively proper Brit officer who still in all, correctly evaluated two excellent Aussie war-fighters. First class wordsmithing in my opinion. Overall, a great read.

The Sen-Toku Raid is a fine followup to last year's superb Iron Coffin by the same author. Once again I enjoyed first-class storytelling and characters along with really interesting factual history, this time about the Japanese in the Pacific. Mannock writes in a detailed but highly readable style, alternating in-depth historical explanations with fast-moving and surprising action. Some of this stuff really makes you think. An intelligent read for intelligent people, highly recommended.

This book begins with the U.S, Navy's Underwater Demolition Team preparing for the Phillipines invasion by the American forces.They recon enemy positions,find and pinpoint Japanese machine gun nests,and clear the beaches and waterways of mines. When the invasion begins the backbone of the Japanese forces are broken.Because the tide of battle is against them the forces of Japan decide to launch a desperation attack on the mainland United States.They will use a Sen-Toku submarine.This submarine is built to carry kamikaze fighter planes,and manned Kaiten torpedoes. A group of Allied soldiers are shot down and crash land on an island.After moving to an adjoining island they discover this plot.It becomes their duty to destroy this submarine base and stop this suicide invasion of Washington D.C.Quite a battle erupts between these Allied soldiers and the Japanese soldiers on this island. This is a very good book that you will enjoy reading. There is a surprise twist in this plot that makes this story even better.This is a book that you will remember.

I really enjoyed this novel. It's full of little-known history and great soldier of fortune-type characters. The battle segments, which include UDT beach-clearings at Leyte, dogfights with Zeroes and P-38s and Beaufighters over the Pacific, commando-style infiltrations of a hidden Japanese sub base, and highly realistic descriptions of close jungle warfare, are superb. I'm not surprised to find out that the author was once an infantryman. You'd have to have firsthand experience of the confusion of combat to be able to portray it this well. I enjoyed the exploration of the kamikaze ethic, and the culmination in the skies over Washington D.C. A first-rate World War Two novel. A+++!

Really enjoyed this story. John Mannock's second World War Two novel is a topnotch followup to his previous Iron Coffin, which is how I got introduced to him. I like the inclusion of historical characters in cameos, like MacArthur and Roosevelt and the famous Japanese admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack. But Mannock's expert creation and handling of interesting original characters is what really elevates this novel above the rest of the thriller pack. The conclusion--Japanese kamikazes over Washington, D.C.--is worth the price of admission alone. But it was no more interesting than how the author got them there in the first place! A second excellent war novel from this master storyteller.