Challenge For The Pacific: the Bloody Six-month Battle Of Guadalcanal - Softcover

Leckie, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306809117 ISBN 13: 9780306809118

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 1999

Synopsis

In August 1942, after suffering a series of humiliating defeats, inflicted by a nation not much bigger than California, the Allies seized the initiative in their first offensive of the Pacific War. Nicknamed "Operation Shoestring," this unprecedented joint-services campaign involved both ground fighting, air combat, and naval clashes, including two carrier battles. For six months Allied and Japanese forces fought night and day in a ferocious struggle for possession of a tiny ramshackle airfield in the middle of the malarial, pest-ridden jungle of a little-known island called Guadalcanal. Robert Leckie, a decorated machine-gunner and scout with the First Marine Division, fought on Guadalcanal. His own experiences as well as those of other combatants—both Allied and Japanese—add immeasurably to the impact of this sweeping narrative. Leckie describes how the exceptional tenacity and courage of ordinary men transformed a campaign of uncertain outcome into one of the most decisive Allied victories of the war, a military triumph that, against formidable odds, decimated Japan's navy and air force, forever shattering her grand strategy and the myth of Japanese invincibility.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Leckie's many books include Conflict: The History of the Korean War, 1950–1953,Okinawa, George Washington's War, From Sea to Shining Sea, None Died in Vain and Delivered from Evil . He lives in Andover, New Jersey.

Review:

"Leckie describes this outstanding American combined operation from an intensely personal yet well-documented angle". -- Daily Telegraph

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0306809117
• ISBN 13: 9780306809118
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384