History of US Naval Operations in WWII 5: Struggle for Guadalcanal 8/42-2/43 by Samuel Eliot Morison

History of US Naval Operations in WWII 5: Struggle for Guadalcanal 8/42-2/43 Reviews

• 
  Jon

  This is a series written immediately after the war.
  On the bookshelves of most vets in the 1950's and 60's.
  Well written but technical,too close to the war to get a perspective on events.
• 
  Lee

  This book contains much information I hadn't seen in all the others I had read. It took longer than I expected to read, but I still think I need to read the others in the series.
• 
  Scott

  Very readable nautical history; the title in hand is part of a multivolume work by a respected author. Read the series published by the original publishers, Atlantic Little, Brown, not Castle Books or other publishers, as the reprints leave out charts that were in the original editions. Charts are important on a vast featureless ocean. Morison was a sailor, so he is not shy of calling a bonehead maneuver or order boneheaded.
• 
  James Crawford

  Part of the History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. As usual, I'll just point out some of the highlights of this fascinating book.
  
  On August 8, 1942, Americans learned that their troops had invaded Guadalcanal. During the next four months, the area was the scene of six major naval engagements and over fifty ship-to-ship and air-sea fights.
  
  When the Japanese took over the Melanesian area, they paid the natives in “occupation shillings.”
  
  The Marines on Guadalcanal had a number of tasks they had to do. They had to fight off Japanese counterattacks. They had to supply the garrison, and they had to complete the airfield.
  
  Tojo underestimated the number of U.S. troops on Guadalcanal. He thought there were some 2,000, but there were actually 17,000.
  
  In referring to the Marines killing Japanese in a certain area, the book says “...the Marines had sent almost a thousand Songs of Heaven to the wrong address.”
  
  The book also talks a lot about the “Tokyo Express.”
  
  The book talks a little about how the various Pacific commands (U.S.) didn't necessarily really get along with each other very well.
  
  There's a reference made to a speech by one of the Japanese generals that said the battle would be one “...in which the rise or fall of the Japanese Empire will be decided.” I wonder if anyone has actually made a list of all the times that the Japanese leaders aid that. It seems to me that almost every single battle from Guadalcanal or even earlier was described as that type of battle; when the Japanese would lose, then it was the next battle that was described that way, and so on. There were some military leaders that, at least in my opinion, had a major problem in understanding and accepting reality.
  
  Reference is made to Halsey's sign: “Kill Japs, Kill Japs, Kill More Japs!”
  
  The book is very, very detailed about all the various phases of the Guadalcanal campaign which was actually pretty complicated.