Done at last! This really is a fascinating book for reasons on which I'll elaborate in my review, but it can definitely exhaust one's interest in the subject.

Also. whomever owned it before me was a smoker. I found a bit of cigarette ash between two of the pages.

My copy of the new John Maynard Keynes biography arrived today, and it's increased my determination to finish this book. I'm up to their description of the bombing campaign against Japan, and it's enriching immensely my understanding of the war. But after 600 pages I'm ready to move on.

I wasn't able to finish this in time to return it to my office, but I'm still skimming the parts that are less interesting. This kicked in with the chapters on the invasion of Luzon, which seemed to degenerate into endless descriptions of which planes dropped what types of bombs on Japanese troops. I have no doubt as to its utility, but it's not detail that I'm terribly interested in right now.

Since I've decided to keep this book (and I may acquire the other volumes), I'm allowing myself the luxury of skimming the parts I'm not as interested in right now. I'm in a bit of a self-imposed time crunch with the book, as I'm getting access to my office the day after tomorrow (!) and I'd like to finish with the book so I can add it back to my shelves there.

Who would have thought that a chapter on MATTERHORN logistics would be so fascinating? This is why I like reading official histories, as they cover all sorts of matters that publishers of more commercially-oriented works would have edited out.

And reading it just left me amazed that anyone ever thought that an operation that required flying fuel over the world's highest mountain chain was ever a good idea. It may very well have been the most American thing the United States did in that war.