Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island Book

	List of Illustrations
	List of Maps
	Preface
	Acknowledgments
	Abbreviations
	Wake Island Survivors Who Contributed to This Book
Pt. I	The Place
I	"An Epic That Should Give Every American Hope": The Birth of the Wake Island Legend	3
II	"The Most Isolated Place in the World": Wake's Geography and Climate	13
III	"Wake Island Is Stirred to Life": The Atoll's Early History, 1568-1937	21
IV	"We Plan to Use Wake as a Base": The U.S. Navy and Wake Island, 1935-1939	37
V	"Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It's Out to Wake We Go": Congress Decides Wake's Future, 1939-1940	55
Pt. II	The Defenders
VI	"Pioneer Party": The Contractors Arrive, January 1941	69
VII	"The Work Is Being Completed in an Efficient and Workmanlike Manner": The Pace of Base Construction, January-December 1941	79
VIII	"A Hard-Working Bunch": Contractor Life on Wake, January-December 1941	91
IX	"To Deny Wake to the Enemy": The Marines Arrive, August 1941	105
X	"We'll Be Back in Pearl Harbor in a Few Months": The Increasing American Military Commitment, September-October 1941	121
XI	"Time Goes Awful Fast Out Here": Marine Life on Wake, October-December 1941	137
XII	"Time Is Short": Wake Nerves for War, October-November 1941	151
XIII	"I Feel a Bit Like the Fatted Calf": Wake Gets a Fighter Squadron, 28 November-7 December 1941	167
XIV	"The Elite of All Branches of the Service": The Wake Island Marines and Their Corps	183
XV	"We Will Be Fighting ... Any Time Now": The State of Wake's Defenses, 7 December 1941	203
Pt. III	The Siege
XVI	"This Is the Real Thing": The First Alarm, 8 December 1941	225
XVII	"My God, Those Are Japanese": Wake's First Air Raid, 8 December 1941	241
XVIII	"Did They Ever Give Us a Lesson": Wake's Population Mobilizes for War, 8 December 1941	261
XIX	"Boy, This Don't Happen on Guam": Wake's Second and Third Air Raids, 9-10 December 1941	285
XX	"You'd Have Thought We'd Won the War": The First Japanese Landing Attempt, 11 December 1941	309
XXI	"Get Ready for Another Attack": The Siege Stretches Out to a Week, 11-15 December 1941	337
XXII	"It Was Watch, Watch, Watch, Day and Night": The Siege Drags On, 15-19 December 1941	367
Pt. IV	The Fall
XXIII	"We Lived and Slept on the Guns": The Garrison's Hopes Raised and Dashed, 20-21 December 1941	385
XXIV	"We're Headed for Wake": The Pacific Fleet Sails to Wake's Relief, 15-24 December 1941	407
XXV	"We Knew We Was in for It": The Japanese Close In, 21-23 December 1941	431
XXVI	"This Reminds Me of a Wild West Show": Wilkes Stands Firm, 23 December 1941	451
XXVII	"We'll Make a Stand Here": The Fight for the Main Islet, 23 December 1941	477
XXVIII	"The Island Is Being Surrendered": The Final Hours of Resistance, 23 December 1941	507
XXIX	"One of the Greatest Cases of Friendship the World Has Ever Known": A Battle for Survival, 1941-1945	531
	Epilogue: The Cunningham-Devereux Controversy	555
App. I	Organization and Defense Installations of the Wake Island Detachment, First Defense Battalion, 6 December 1941	571
App. II	The Wake Invasion Force and Its Supports, 8-11 December 1941	575
	Notes	577
	Bibliography	681
	Index	709