This Week on History Happy Hour: Admiral Chester Nimitz won WWII in the Pacific – commanding the Pacific Fleet from a few days after Pearl Harbor until the end of the war. A quiet man capable of being both a measured diplomat and a riverboat gambler, he planned the great victories of the Pacific and transformed the devastated and dispirited U.S. Fleet into the most powerful naval force in history.

In this encore episode Chris and Rick talk to History Happy Hour alum Craig Symonds about his book, Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay. And we reveal he powerful cocktail that helped fuel the Admiral on his way to victory!

Craig Symonds is a distinguished naval historian who taught for more than 30 years at the US Naval Academy and has most recently been the Ernest J. King Distinguished Professor of Maritime History US Naval War College. A former Navy officer, he is the author of many books on American naval history, including The Battle of Midway, and Operation Neptune: The D-Day Landings and the Allied Invasion of Europe. He has won numerous awards including the Samuel Elliot Morison Award for Naval Literature. This is his third appearance on History Happy Hour.