Wake Island Wildcat
A Marine Fighter Pilot's Epic Battle at the Beginning of World War II
William L. Ramsey, Stackpole Books, 2024, 232 pages
Book Review published on: September 18, 2025
"Well, if it's impossible it'll take a little longer, so let's get going."
On 11 December 1941, Henry T. "Hammerin' Hank" Elrod uttered these words to his wingman just before taking to the air in defense of Wake Island, when, according to his Medal of Honor citation, he "succeeded in inflicting deadly damage upon a large Japanese vessel, thereby sinking the first major warship to be destroyed by small-caliber bombs delivered from a fighter-type aircraft."
This was the Japanese destroyer Kisaragi, part of a task force charged with seizing Wake Island from the small American force garrisoned there. That force included the just-arrived detachment from VMF-211, the Marine fighter squadron of which Elrod was executive officer. Japan's initial attempt to take the island failed because of the bravery of both American military and civilian personnel who found themselves at the forefront of U.S. defenses at the outset of war in the Pacific. Over the course of fifteen days, Wake Island's defenders fought courageously against wave after wave of Japanese bombers and a follow-on amphibious assault before finally succumbing to the overwhelming odds 23 December. VMF-211's eight aircraft were destroyed, and its executive officer killed alongside many others.
For those members of VMF-211 sent to Wake Island, their participation in World War II was over only nineteen days after they had first landed. However, their heroism had a more immediate and powerful impact on American psyche that it might have if this action had taken place at different point in the war, before the tide had turned and the United States began to prove itself more than up to the task of defeating Japan. Coming as it did in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the actions of these men inspired an entire nation. Hammerin' Hank was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor because he was a representative of all the men who fought there as for his own undeniably brave and selfless actions.
Although not apparent from its title, Wake Island Wildcat: A Marine Fighter Pilot's Epic Battle at the Beginning of World War II isn't a book about the defense of Wake Island. While the author, William L. Ramsey, devotes seventy pages to the events on Wake Island, the bulk of the book is about Elrod, who was known to friends and family by his middle name, Talmage. As we learn at the beginning, Ramsey's interest in Elrod began early in life while listening to stories from his grandmother, Farrar Elrod Ramsey—Talmage's sister. The author shares a memory from his teenage years, when Farrar asked what he wanted to be. When he answered "writer," she told him to write about Talmage. Deep into his career as a professor of history, Ramsey has done just that.
Ramsey's portrait of Elrod is as intimate as it is detailed, drawing on both a deep supply of secondary documents and the memories of Elrod's relatives as primary sources. The author deftly moves between the two, taking us on a journey from Elrod's childhood to his death that leaves the reader with a sense of the person Henry Talmage Elrod was before he became Maj. Henry "Hammerin' Hank" Elrod, U.S. Marine Corps, Medal of Honor winner.
Elrod fought with his father, rode the rails as a drifter, dealt with his father's suicide, supported his mother and siblings, attended (and dropped out of) both the University of Georgia and Yale, enlisted in the Marines, married, earned a commission, washed out of flight school, graduated when given a second opportunity, and participated on Marine Corps teams in multiple sports. Ramsey's flowing narrative style is easy to read and might be mistaken for fiction were it not for his numerous citations, captured in the comprehensive bibliography at the end of the book.
In just over two hundred pages, Wake Island Wildcat manages to inform about the defense of Wake Island, reveal the character of a person who went on to win our Nation's highest honor, and entertain the reader through anecdote after anecdote from Elrod's life—some of which would be dismissed as tall tales if they weren't documented truth. Although at times the author's unfamiliarity with the military reveals itself—for example, a reference to a Marine as a "sailor"—his description of the events on Wake Island, the influence of Elrod's retired admiral father-in-law on Elrod's career and numerous other military-related vignettes are easily relatable for those with a military background. I highly recommend this book to any who served.
Book Review written by: Sean Kentch, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas