Rating: 
Summary: TELLS IT LIKE IT IS
Review: A great book, hard to put it down, inportant to publish this type of history while the men who were there are still around.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting account of the campaign for Guadalcanal
Review: A day by day account of the battle to wrest Guadalcanal from the Japanese. The view points of both military commands are taken into consideration. Both sides slowly come to the realization that a definitive battle has developed. Full of suspense and hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: TELLS IT LIKE IT IS
Review: A great book, hard to put it down, inportant to publish this type of history while the men who were there are still around.
Rating:
Summary: virtual reality
Review: A superb work. One lives with and through the unutterable pathos and grief and the ultimate taking of this island over a 6 month period of apocalyptic proportions. I read about men like Sgt John Basilone and Sgt Major Vouza (a native of Guadalcanal) and know that their stories have been replicated many times over through the current day. Mr. Vouza raised the American flag in front of his living spaces long after the war ended, and if I remember correctly, until he died of old age, a true hero to the Allied cause and his homeland. Sgt John Basilone created an aura of an unbeatable American front on Bloody Ridge by manning more than one machine gun and placing himself in extreme harm's way, contributing to the illusion that the defensive lines were solidly manned by many marines- a fiction which seems to this reader to have won the day (night) in that particular pivotal battle on land. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Sadly, he did not survive the war, dying as a result of enemy action on Iwo Jima. One reads of the Battle of Savo Island, a critical phase of the Guadalcanal landing which occurred on the night following the Marine landing.This was a very one sided IJN victory which sank or disabled 6 of the Allied Forces cruisers and which resulted in an unanticipated early departure of the US carier escort and unloading of only a portion of the supplies. One reads about Pistol Pete, dugout Sunday, the Tokyo Express, washing machine Charlie, malaria, swamps, and Elephant grass.This is written with grateful thanks to those brave men, and to all the brave women and men who have followed. They are truly the linchpin of our freedom.
Rating: 
Summary: very readable but too much statistical
Review: a very complete and organized study on the guadalcanal campaign. But despite an enourmous effort by the author to put out the actions on guadalcanal, this book lacks a more consistent and deep development on the human caracters carring on this massive war effort. Reader also get little detail on the geographical caracteristics of the island. A little more on human aspects and a little less on statistical data would put this book on top mark.
Rating:
Summary: The Turning Point of the Pacific War
Review: After the Americans defeated the Japanese at the battle of Midway, an offensive was planned for the Solomon Islands. The primary target was the island of Guadalcanal. In this book, Mr. Frank describes the landings and the capture of Henderson Field in vivid detail. I was also impressed with his descriptions of the fateful battle of Savo Island, where the Allies lost 4 heavy cruisers to an inferior Japanese force. Admiral Fletcher's decision to remove the carriers is discussed, along with the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, where the 5 Sullivan brothers died on the U.S.S. Juneau. Perhaps the most interesting part of this book to me was how Mr. Frank not only provides the American viewpoint of the battle, but also the Japanese viewpoint. It was interesting to read about how aircraft and casualty claims were greatly exaggerated by both sides. I also felt that the final chapter was interesting in the way that everything was summarized for the reader. I have been reading books about the Pacific war since I was in the 4th grade, and this is the most comprehensive account of the entire Guadalcanal campaign that I have come across. This book is a must read for any World War II reader.
Rating:
Summary: Integration of the Land, Air and Sea Elements of Gaudalcanal
Review: An outstanding, comprehensive account of the Guadalcanal campaign. Mr. Frank effectively integrates the Land, Air and Naval elements of the campaign, giving credit and blame for success and failure where it is due. He is also good at pointing out how one Admiral's fortune could easily have been his shame had events deviated even slightly. The book is a must for Naval Historians and for Naval Surface Warfare Officers to understand our heritage and how the blue water and brown water navies are tied much closer than we imagine.
Rating:
Summary: An All-Encompassing Account of America's First Offensive
Review: Author Richard Frank has written the most authoritative account of the battle for Guadalcanal to date. From the opening landings in August, 1942 to the final Japanese withdrawl in February, 1943, every skirmish, banzai charge, and naval engagement is covered in this excellent volume. Frank's writing style is engrossing and easy to follow so the reader will not get bogged down along the way. This is a large book at over 700 pages, but it reads like a novel. I was immediately drawn in from the beginning, and Frank held my attention throughout the book. Every aspect of the battle is touched upon at some point in the book. From the capture of Henderson Field to the great Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the reader is taken on a journey of survival against an enemy which fought with barbaric ferocity. The Japanese came to call Guadalcanal "The Island of Death" due to their huge losses in both men (from starvation and battle) and equipment. Rarely does a book come along that so thoroughly covers a topic as this one. I highly recommend this excellent work. If you've never read anything about the battle of Guadalcanal, you'll be an expert after reading this book. I also recommend Frank's other fine book entitled "Downfall", which deals with the invasion of Japan and the atomic bombs.
Rating:
Summary: An All-Encompassing Account of America's First Offensive
Review: Author Richard Frank has written the most authoritative account of the battle for Guadalcanal to date. From the opening landings in August, 1942 to the final Japanese withdrawl in February, 1943, every skirmish, banzai charge, and naval engagement is covered in this excellent volume. Frank's writing style is engrossing and easy to follow so the reader will not get bogged down along the way. This is a large book at over 700 pages, but it reads like a novel. I was immediately drawn in from the beginning, and Frank held my attention throughout the book. Every aspect of the battle is touched upon at some point in the book. From the capture of Henderson Field to the great Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the reader is taken on a journey of survival against an enemy which fought with barbaric ferocity. The Japanese came to call Guadalcanal "The Island of Death" due to their huge losses in both men (from starvation and battle) and equipment. Rarely does a book come along that so thoroughly covers a topic as this one. I highly recommend this excellent work. If you've never read anything about the battle of Guadalcanal, you'll be an expert after reading this book. I also recommend Frank's other fine book entitled "Downfall", which deals with the invasion of Japan and the atomic bombs.
Rating:
Summary: Definitive and a Landmark
Review: Before going on a 6 month tour of the South Pacific Islands I was determined to get a good chronological understanding of every battle that happened there during WWII. Guadalcanal had always been a little difficult for me to get a good geographical grip upon: the island is large, but actual battle areas were rather small; the battle continued over 6 months before the Japanese broke and was characterised by a spasmodic nature; actions were rarely large unit and the fighting was largely not against well dug-in Japanese positions, but rather characterised by long marches and concentrations against the US perimeter, and by the US against Japanese troop concentrations, and --- no understanding of the land battle is possible without understanding the sea battles.
Frank is wonderful on all counts and can really write well. At a time when both sides were reaching out to each other to do battle right at the end of their supply lines, with little depth, it was the Japanese training and perseverance that really ruled the day on the sea. On land, although Japanese soldiers were perhaps the finest fighting infantry in war (General Slim's words, not mine). They tended to be blinded by their presumed superiority and racial arrogance. They were roughly handled by the marines at first and this punishment was followed up by the later army actions to clear the North-west part of the island.
What really dominated the land battle was success at sea -- and the Americans were very lucky indeed in the opening months that the Japanese never pressed their advantage once they had initial successes at sea. If they had of the result of the battle would have been an allied defeat. Few people remember that, in these waters, were fought the only real sustained large scale engagements of surfaces ships, battleships and cruisers -- minus carriers -- during WWII. Ironbottom sound got its name from all the (mainly US) ships sunk. But out of this the general US Navy complacency gave way to a grudging appreciation that the Japanese --- with or without radar -- were a force not to be taken lightly. Over the next few months Americans took their licks, then gave as good as they got, and eventually were able to hold their own in ship-on-ship engagements (particularly destroyer actions at night), which was quite and achievement for the Americans given their relative inexperience.
Unfortunately all this took much longer than should have been the case and the grunts on shore could have been paying the final bill but for the fact that the Japanese limited their attacks to shelling the airfield (as Frank describes), usually ineffectively, but enough to scare the hell out anyone on the receiving end of the Japanese 18 inch rifles.
Japanese land tactics are also well described. The landings and slaughter of the Ichiki and Kawaguchi units are there in detail. And well they should be since, unless you know what Kawaguchi-san was actually trying to do by concentrating his troops after a punishing march through the jungle... it can be very difficult to keep track of the action.
The relief convoys are also well described and the final successful withdrawal of the Japanese is a nail biter.
It is too bad that this battle ground today remains mired in a bitter civil conflict or it would be more accessible to those who wish to see the numerous remains of this battle (and there are a lot to see on land, and by scuba or snorkel at sea).
Hands down the best book on the "canal" as US forces called it, or "Ga-jima" as the Japanese called it. A good testament to the courage of both sides in what were for the US early days of WWII.
|
