Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal PDF

Author: Richard B. Frank

Publisher: Penguin Books

Published: 1992-01-01

Total Pages: 844

ISBN-13: 9780140165616

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“Brilliant...an enormous work based on the most meticulous research.”—LA Times Book Review The battle at Guadalcanal—which began eight months to the day after Pearl Harbor—marked the first American offensive of World War II. It was a brutal six-month campaign that cost the lives of some 7,000 Americans and over 30,000 Japanese. This volume, ten years in the writing, recounts the full story of the critical campaign for Guadalcanal and is based on first-time translations of official Japanese Defense Agency accounts and recently declassified U.S. radio intelligence, Guadalcanal recreates the battle—on land, at sea, and in the air—as never before: it examines the feelings of both American and Japanese soldiers, the strategies and conflicts of their commanders, and the strengths and weaknesses of various fighting units.

Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal PDF

Author: John Miller, Jr.

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-07-11

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 9781515027737

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In publishing the history of combat operations the Department of the Army has three objectives. The first is to provide the Army itself with an accurate and timely account of its varied activities in directing, organizing, and employing its forces for the conduct of war-an account which will be available to the service schools and to individual members of the Armed Services who wish to extend their professional reading. The second objective is to offer the thoughtful citizen material for a better understanding of the basic problems of war and the manner in which these problems were met, thus augmenting his understanding of national security. The third objective is to accord a well-earned recognition to the devoted work and grim sacrifices of those who served. "The successes of the South Pacific Force," wrote Admiral Halsey in 1944, "were not the achievements of separate services or individuals but the result of whole-hearted subordination of self-interest by all in order that one successful 'fighting team' could be created."* The history of any South Pacific campaign must deal with this "fighting team," with all United States and Allied services. The victory on Guadalcanal can be understood only by an appreciation of the contribution of each service. No one service won the battle. The most decisive engagement of the campaign was the air and naval Battle of Guadalcanal in mid-November 1942, an engagement in which neither Army nor Marine Corps ground troops took any direct part. This volume attempts to show the contribution of all services to the first victory on the long road to Tokyo.

The Pacific Campaign in World War II

The Pacific Campaign in World War II PDF

Author: William Bruce Johnson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-05-02

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 113400382X

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This is a fascinating new account of how diplomacy and politics gave way to military strategy and warfare in the Pacific. Presenting previously unpublished documents this book freshly examines the key events in the fight for the Pacific.

The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign

The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign PDF

Author: John B Lundstrom

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2005-07-01

Total Pages: 658

ISBN-13: 1612511651

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From huddled command conferences to cramped cockpits, John Lundstrom guides readers through the maelstrom of air combat at Guadalcanal in this impressively researched sequel to his earlier study. Picking up the story after Midway, the author presents a scrupulously accurate account of what happened, describing in rich detail the actual planes and pilots pitted in the ferocious battles that helped turn the tide of war. Based on correspondence with 150 American and Japanese veterans, or their families, he reveals the thoughts, pressures, and fears of the airmen and their crews as he reconstructs the battles. These are the story of the Wildcat and Zero fighters, and the Dauntless, Avenger, Betty, Kate, and Val bombers. Lavishly illustrated with drawings, maps, and photographs, this fresh look at the campaign set a standard for aviation histories when first published in 1994.

The Battle of Guadalcanal

The Battle of Guadalcanal PDF

Author: Trent Hone

Publisher:

Published: 2021-08-15

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 9781682477311

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Building upon the expertise of the authors and historians of the Naval Institute Press, the Naval History Special Editions are designed to offer studies of the key vessels, battles, and events of armed conflict. Using an image-heavy, magazine-style format, these Special Editions should appeal to scholars, enthusiasts, and general readers alike. The Guadalcanal Campaign began in August 1942 with Operation Watchtower. This first Allied offensive in the Pacific, undertaken before U.S. forces were fully prepared, thwarted an impending Japanese operation and initiated a six-month struggle to control the island and its surroundings. Desperate fighting occurred in the jungles of Guadalcanal, in the skies above it, and on--as well as below--the seas around it. Possession of the island's airfield allowed the U.S. garrison to dominate the skies during the day. At night, the Imperial Japanese Navy bombarded the airfield and brought supplies and reinforcements to the island. The U.S. Navy's attempts to stop these nocturnal incursions triggered a series of battles that were some of the most furious, confused, and chaotic in naval history. As melees erupted in bewildering darkness, concerted action proved impossible. Formations disintegrated, and ships fought individually. So many were sunk that sailors nicknamed the narrow waters off Guadalcanal "Iron Bottom Sound." Within those waters, the men of the U.S. Navy fought tenaciously. In nights filled with flares, flames, the reek of gunpowder, and blinding explosions, their "heroic actions without number" blunted Japanese reinforcement efforts. Victories at the Battle of Cape Esperance in October and the First and Second Naval Battles of Guadalcanal in November were especially crucial. Unable to keep pace with the increasing number of U.S. supplies and reinforcements, the Japanese abandoned the island. This volume recounts those battles, the heroic actions that led to victory, and the Allied triumph at Guadalcanal.

Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal PDF

Author: Eric Hammel

Publisher: Zenith Press

Published: 2007-08-15

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9780760331484

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On August 7, 1942, a scant nine months after Pearl Harbor, the Marine Corps struck back against Japan on a small island half a world away: Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands. The stakes were high. The Japanese had been running roughshod across Asia and the Pacific and even into the Indian Ocean. If the Marines failed in the Solomons, New Guinea would almost certainly fall, mortally threatening Australia. The victory of the 1st Marine Division at Guadalcanal, told here in pictures for the first time, ranks with the most heroic, dramatic, and enduring of military history. The six-month long Guadalcanal campaign was by far the longest and most complicated operation the Marines faced in the Pacific War. It began with the weapons and tactics of the Marine Corps 1918 combat in France and ended with the revised weapons and tactics that would sweep aside the Japanese defenders of numerous formidable bases all across the wide Pacific--bringing the United States armed forces to total victory in the Pacific in World War II. This book is a fitting tribute to the men who sacrificed so much in winning this first stepping stone on the path to Tokyo Bay and victory over Japan.

Bodies of Memory

Bodies of Memory PDF

Author: Yoshikuni Igarashi

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-01-09

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1400842980

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Japan and the United States became close political allies so quickly after the end of World War II, that it seemed as though the two countries had easily forgotten the war they had fought. Here Yoshikuni Igarashi offers a provocative look at how Japanese postwar society struggled to understand its war loss and the resulting national trauma, even as forces within the society sought to suppress these memories. Igarashi argues that Japan's nationhood survived the war's destruction in part through a popular culture that expressed memories of loss and devastation more readily than political discourse ever could. He shows how the desire to represent the past motivated Japan's cultural productions in the first twenty-five years of the postwar period. Japanese war experiences were often described through narrative devices that downplayed the war's disruptive effects on Japan's history. Rather than treat these narratives as obstacles to historical inquiry, Igarashi reads them along with counter-narratives that attempted to register the original impact of the war. He traces the tensions between remembering and forgetting by focusing on the body as the central site for Japan's production of the past. This approach leads to fascinating discussions of such diverse topics as the use of the atomic bomb, hygiene policies under the U.S. occupation, the monstrous body of Godzilla, the first Western professional wrestling matches in Japan, the transformation of Tokyo and the athletic body for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and the writer Yukio Mishima's dramatic suicide, while providing a fresh critical perspective on the war legacy of Japan.