The battle for Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands, an important turning point of the war in the Pacific, is now recognized as one of the most vital campaigns in all our history.
Richard Tregaskis, a war correspondent for International News Service during World War II, was with the marines when they landed on the Japanese-held island of Guadalcanal in the summer of 1942. For seven crucial weeks he ate, slept, and sweated with our front-line units. He also kept a diary, in which he described the island's occupation by our forces and their magnificent defense of that seven-mile strip against innumerable attacks by superior air, land and sea forces. This remarkable diary was originally published in 1943, and has since become a classic of World War II reporting.
For this shorter, Landmark edition Mr. Tregaskis has written several new chapters to tell how the battle for Guadalcanal fitted into the history of the war in the Pacific. Thus the reader will gain an understanding of why the battle for Guadalcanal ranks in importance with Valley Forge and Gettysburg.
From the book
This book offers an eyewitness account of the U.S. Marines' struggle to regain control of Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands from the Japanese—crucial battles during World War II, the war that continues to fascinate us all, and to military history in general. Unlike some of those on Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942, Richard Tregaskis volunteered to be there. An on-location news correspondent (at the time, one of only two on Guadalcanal), he lived alongside the soldiers: sleeping on the ground—only to be awoken by air raids—eating the sometimes meager rations, and braving some of the most dangerous battlefields of World War II. He more than once narrowly escaped the enemy's fire, and so we have this incisive and exciting inside account of the groundbreaking initial landing of U.S. troops on Guadalcanal.
This title is one of a handful of Landmarks that are basically abridged versions of larger works. Follow a squad of Marines through the bloody assaults on the Solomon Islands during the opening stages of the war in the South Pacific.
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