Playing for Time War on an Asiatic Fleet Destroyer By Lodwick H. Alford (301 pages) Reviewer:  Bernie Ditter Overall Rating: Three Stars--Recommended. A solid effort The author, a retired Captain, introduces his readers to largely forgotten, and in some instances unknown, activities immediately preceeding and for three months following Pearl Harbor. The author's naval career started years before 1941 and offers the reader a perspective on the run up to the war, including a unique assessment of the politics of the time. What sets this book apart from others that have as their p;rime source personal diaries and ship's logs is the author's ability to write. This is a difficult book to put down. Partly because the material is new, as most histories of the Pacific during WWII deal with battles that are won by the allies and not about retreats and losses, but mainly because the author presents the materials in so readable a form. To begin we are introduced to a period preceding the war and experience with the crew the adjustment, overnight, from peacetime to a wartime existence. We are introduced to a fleet of tired, worn out ships who are put in harms way against a superior enemy but who are expected to survive. We are informed along the way of the decisions made by those in command that contribute to the failures and to the inevitable dissolution of the Asiatic Fleet. Perhaps a bias on the part of the author will be off putting to some. Perhaps the situation that gives rise to the subject of the book will compensate. This is a book that all who are interested in the war in the Pacific will enjoy and most will be enlightened by. Availability:  Playing for Time by Lodwick Alford (Book) in History