Bloody Ridge: The Battle That Saved Guadalcanal. This item is unavailable.Bloody Ridge: The Battle That Saved Guadalcanal

September 1942: American forces landed on the island of Guadalcanal, engaging the entrenched Japanese in what would be remembered as some of the worst fighting of World War II. The key to victory lay in controlling the ridge overlooking Henderson Field, a vital airfield and the prize of the Guadalcanal campaign. This was the site of a savage, three-day clash that would test the mettle of both sides. Launching a series of vicious attacks on successive nights, a vastly superior force of battle-hardened Japanese somehow lost to a mongrel battalion of Col. "Red Mike" Edson's malnourished, sickly Marines in what became known as the Battle of Bloody Ridge. The surprising victory marked the first significant Japanese defeat in the war, saved the airfield, and gave the small, under-supplied American force time to receive supplies and reinforcements. This is the true story of that harrowing battle, when the fate of the war in the Pacific would rest with those who were tough enough to take Bloody Ridge. INCLUDES BATTLE MAPS AND HISTORICAL PHOTOS

Michael S. Smith is an active duty naval officer and a life-long student of the Guadalcanal campaign. A communications expert, Smith has served in the U.S. Navy for more than twenty years and is currently stationed in Washington State, where he lives with his wife and four sons. Bloody Ridge is his first book.