ON TO WESTWARD

No war correspondent writing today does better combat reporting than Robert Sherrod. Witness his achievement in Tarawa. Possibly it is because the news has changed the focus of our interest -- possibly because he does better vignettes than extended reporting, whatever the reason, On To Westward does not hold one's concentrated attention as did its predecessor. There are high points of interest -- the description of the intensity of combat on Iwo Jima, some of the personality sketches (and some of the frank criticism) of leaders in the Central Pacific area are excellent. The overall is highly personal, based on his own experiences in covering amphibious landings, but he has succeeded in giving a vigorous closeup of the Japanese antagonists, and some of the good reasons why we should not discount their capacity for revivified strength directed to another war. His story -- from Saipan to Okinawa -- ends when the Okinawa campaign had passed its beachhead victory and the bitter battle was about to begin.