Faltering Pacific: Book 8 of the Pacific Alternate Series

The year is 1943.

The Pacific War rages from the Gulf of Bengal to the Solomon Islands and from China to Hawaii. Many battles have been fought, and the Japanese Empire has reached the high tide of its conquest phase. The Allied counter-offensive is now about to begin.

The Japanese operation in the South Seas, supposed to destroy the Allied presence in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, has not reached its objective. A month into the powerful offensive, the battle's outcome remains in the balance. As the Imperial Navy and Army's supplies wanes down and their casualties mount, the Allies finally stopped their advances in the Kokoda Track and Milne Bay. A naval victory has also been achieved, and now the entire theater is ripe for MacArthur's and Admiral Spruance's counter-offensive.

The Imperial Army faces a major disaster in Burma as Indian and Chinese forces bear down on it. The Japanese units are suffering from supply and reinforcement issues, and it will take a miracle to turn the situation around before the Empire loses all of Burma.

Grand Admiral Yamamoto has moved a large chunk of the Imperial Navy to Johnson Islands, a base a little over one thousand kilometers from Hawaii, in order to avoid the relentless American bombing raids on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese can no longer support a fleet in Hawaii but still need to stay close to prevent the enemy from landing back in forces in the archipelago and retaking the islands. Losing Oahu would be a major disaster for the Japanese defensive perimeter and a major boost to American offensive capabilities in the central Pacific, unhinging everything. Yamamoto is thus resolved to face off with the getting-larger-by-the-day American fleet building up in San Diego.

This is the story of the Pacific War.