Local author honored by military writer group

Since Bruce Gamble released “Fortress Rabaul: The Battle for the Southwest Pacific, January 1942-April 1943” in May, the Lynn Haven author has been in demand as a speaker and honored with the Adm. Arthur W. Radford Award for his work chronicling World War II in the Pacific.

His latest honor came July 31, when the Military Writers Society of America announced that Gamble had earned a Gold Medal in the history category for “Fortress Rabaul,” his fourth book.

“It’s sort of like a peer thing,” Gamble said Tuesday of the MWSA honor.

The Pennsylvania-based group also honored Panama City Beach resident Deborah Tainsh with a gold medal in the anthology category for her book “Surviving the Folded Flag.”

Gamble will receive the MWSA award at the group’s annual conference in Pittsburgh this fall.

He said that “Fortress Rabaul,” released May 15, had sold out its first edition before the end of June.

The book’s second printing is en route to publisher Zenith Press’ warehouse, Gamble said.

His book focuses on the Japanese invasion of the area and that country’s transformation of Rabaul into a major fortification and staging base for its Imperial Navy, thousands of soldiers, several hundred aircraft and four airfields, as Japan prepared for a number of Southwest Pacific offensives during World War II.

Nestled on the northern end of the island New Britain (located in the then-Australian territory of New Guinea), Rabaul became a Japanese stronghold in the Southwest Pacific after the Axis country invaded and overran an outmanned military garrison there in 1942.

Gamble’s book traces some of the port city’s history, and concludes with the death of famed Japanese Adm. Isokuru Yamamoto in 1943.

Since speaking to The News Herald in May, Gamble has traveled around the country for speaking engagements.

The author received the Radford Award during the annual symposium sponsored by the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation in Pensacola.

Other summer events for Gamble have included appearances at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans; the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas; and the National Air & Space Museum facilities in Washington, D.C. and Chantilly, Va.

Gamble also appeared at Chicago’s Pritzker Military Library in July for an interview recorded for later broadcast on the city’s WYCC-TV/Channel 20 PBS station.

A detailed review of “Fortress Rabaul” by military historian Richard B. Frank will appear in the September issue of World War II magazine.

Gamble said Frank is a well-known historian who’s written a definitive book about the Battle of Guadalcanal and, as an author, commands the attention of reviewers from the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

“When I saw that he was the one who did the review, I was like ‘holy cow, this is good,’ ” Gamble said.

He said a separate release of “Fortress Rabaul” will take place in Australia during September, with distribution and publicity being handled by Capricorn Link.