This week on History Happy Hour: When people think of fighting in the Pacific, they often think of the epic battles involving the Navy and the Marines. But it was the Army that did most of the fighting and dying in the war against Japan.

Chris and Rick welcome acclaimed historian John McManus to dig into this three volume series on The U.S. Army the Pacific in World War II. Volume One, Fire and Fortitude, covers the first two years of the war, where the Army had to slowly learn how to come to grips with the Japanese.

John McManus is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of U.S. military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. As one of the nation’s leading military historians, and the author of fifteen well received books on the topic, he is in frequent demand as a speaker and expert commentator. In addition to dozens of local and national radio programs, he has appeared on Cnn.com, Fox News, C-Span, the Military Channel, the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, Netflix, the Smithsonian Network, the History Channel and PBS, among others.