Grab Your Edition Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account Of The Landmark Battle Conceptualized By Richard B. Frank Disseminated As Volume

is a wonderful volume by Richard B, Frank. I became a big fan of his writing after reading Downfall: The End of The Imperial Japanese Empire, This book is as well researched if not more with a comprehensive account of all the skirmishes and battles associated with Guadalcanal during World War II.
The preface points out that this book is unique in that it covers land, air, and sea together, and that it includes the Japanese side.
These are all interwoven expertly, Things could drag with the difficulties of this simultaneous storytelling, but Frank keeps the writing crisp, precise, and engaging.


I especially like that Frank takes a very neutralobserver stance, where it is more of a present the facts and comment fairly, rather than take a stance and explain what happened through that lens.
Frank is fair to both the American and Japanese sides, in my opinion, He points out the cruelty each side dealt out without trying to say that it was okay or that they were equally at fault.


The book goes chronologically from the beginning of Guadalcanal all the way to when Operation Ke removed the Japanese garrison from the island.
The book has comprehensive notes explaining where all the data came from and how Frank used it, The scholarly effort in this book is astounding, That the writing doesn't suffer with all of this information is a testament to Frank's writing skills, Frank gives straightforward reviews of facts, and then follows up with cogent reviews of what the commanders knew at the time and what other possible courses of actions there could be without indulging in hindsight is/bias.


I had no reason to read this book other than that I like Frank's writing elsewhere, and I was not disappointed.
I learned a lot about WWII from this book, even though its focus is on Guadalcanal, The Pacific War has a lot of depth to it, and if you'd like to see another side of it explained expertly, this is a perfect book for you.
The epitome of a campaign study, Meticulously researched, thoughtful, detailed yet accessible to a general audience, I want to give it a two because it was a chore to read, however, due to the exhaustive research and the detail it is a.
"Definitive" is an understatement. Tom Clancy said of Frank's book that it will surely become the standard history of the U, S. Navy's most important campaign, After having read it, I tend to agree with him, although I'd be tempted to add that is was perhaps one of America's armed forces most important campaign ever, arguably the true turning point of the Pacific war.


I definitely recommend this book to anyone wishing to acquire an articulate, well researched view of the campaign.
Frank digs deep into American and Japanese sources to detail his study, He provides a remarkable , captivating pace for such a heavy, complex subject considering Frank presents ground, naval and air operations.


The only slight downside is about maps, While the Guadalcanal's maps are clear and well done, they are too few, and don't convey quite rightly the terrain or the evolution of situations.
This, however, is a very common shortcoming found in military history books and perhaps the tools to properly display this crucial information are only just being used.
In this regard, Frank's book is quite above the average, I would thus suggest anyone embarking on this read should keep a good map of both Guadalcanal and the Solomons close at hand.
"Definitive Account" is an accurate description of thispage book about the seesaw battle that lasted six months, was fought both on land, sea and air, and made both American and the Japanese leaders alternately depressed and overjoyed.
Mr. Frank, who was a platoon leader with thest Airborne in Vietnam and knows his military tactics, has gotten access to Japanese documents with the aid of a translator.
Filled with details and eminently readable, It haspages of notes and appendices, An amazing piece of scholarship on what was America's first counterthrust against the Empire of Japan, Exhaustively researched, Mr. Frank's account of the conflict in latehighlighted the hubris of the IJN and IJA as they first dismissed, then underestimated and finally reacted too late.
Great read for aficionados of the Pacific War, Frank wrote the Definitive account of the battle,
What many contemporary readers don't realize is that
the campaign included some of the largest ship to ship battles in history.
Unbelievable heroism. I gave this to my uncle who was a participant and he recalled watching the ship battles at night off the coast in iron bottom sound.
This book is one of the best executed history books ever written, This book contains tons of detail, If you are into detail this is the book for you, But, for me, the book almost devolves into minutiae, I checked this book out of the library for three weeks, then renewed it for another three weeks, The reason I checked it out is that I am researching Guadalcanal to try and gain a better understanding of what it was like for my father who fought on Guadalcanal as an enlisted man with theth ID.
The book gave me some detail and if you want to know how the battle unfolded this is an excellent book.
But, it is almost too detailed and too clinical, At times it is so bogged down that you need to retrace your steps and backup to find out when the action is taking place.
If you are looking for something that will give you a real feel for what it was like to have fought there book leaves you wanting more.
While it singles out individual acts of heroism, it leaves me wanting to know more, Additionally, the index does not always take you where you need to go and there is no centralized bibliography.
Finally, I have no way of knowing if some documents like "Operations of theth Infantry Division on Guadalcanal"Decand compiled by under the direction of MGen Collins were consulted or even available for the author.
Finally, the role of Japanese Americans and intelligence is underplayed, It may be that the author did not have access, The story of Americans of Japanese Ancestry in the Military Intelligence Service MISwho served on Guadalcanal needs to be told.
However, if you want to know thatshells from/mm howitzers were expended on certain Japanese positions in a½ hours, this is the book for you.
"Brilliant an enormous work based on the most meticulous research, "LA Times Book

The battle at Guadalcanalwhich began eight months to the day after Pearl Harbormarked the first American offensive of World War II.
It was a brutal sixmonth campaign that cost the lives of some,Americans and over,Japanese,

This volume, ten years in the writing, recounts the full story of the critical campaign for Guadalcanal and is based on firsttime translations of official Japanese Defense Agency accounts and recently declassified U.
S. radio intelligence, Guadalcanal recreates the battleon land, at sea, and in the airas 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: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle
By Richard B, Frank
Even though publishedyears ago, Richard B, Franks account of the battle for Guadalcanal is worth the effort to read,
Arrogance by commanding

officers brings defeat as often as not, And the arrogance of both the Japanese and American leaders nearly cost each side this battle, In the end, Japanese overconfidence probably tipped the scales against them early in the warat a time when they might possibly have brought the Americans to the peace table to negotiate a favorable truce.

After their stunning success at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese ran wild in the Pacific, just as Admiral Yamamoto predicted.
Setbacks at Coral Sea and Midway didnt damper their plans to cut off Australia from her distant American ally.
Thus, the Japanese moved east along the Solomon Islands to set up an airfield on the large island of Guadalcanal.

Japanese arrogance compelled them to believe that they would prevail regardless and believe that the American Navy couldnt and wouldnt fight over such an insignificant island and finally, that Japan would crush the Americans if they did appear.

Once the US discovered an enemy airfield under construction, a base that threatened the tenuous link between the West Coast and Australia, the US threw together an underprepared force of Marines and hastily launched an invasion that would change the war completely.

The Americans for their part didnt believe Asians could actually outmatch US equipment and leadership, They refused to believe their enemy had any military skill, but rather they had relied on luck and a sleepy Sunday morning to pull off their Pearl Harbor attack.
Such blindness cost the Allies four heavy cruisers in a night battle only days after the Marines landed on Guadalcanal, three American and one Australian.
Their loss left the beaches undefended and cut off,
Engaged with fighting elsewhere, the Japanese believed they could crush these weakling interlopers on a shoestring, The Americans had no choice this battle had to be fought on a shoestring, The campaign lasted nearly six months, Both naval forces lost so heavily that the waters off Guadalcanal earned the nickname “Iron Bottom Sound, ” The US Navy alone lostvessels,
As Frank points out, this is the only campaign in the entire war in which the Japanese and Americans actually fought with parity.
From Augustuntil February, battles raged in the jungles on the island, on the surrounding seas, and in the air above.
By the middle of, after the island was secure, the USs industrial might began to provide newer ships, airplanes, and legions of wellequipped and welltrained men.
What losses the US suffered early in the war were bountifully replaced, The Japanese could not produce such abundance,
Franks thoroughly researched history is well worth reading, especially for those who wish to know the whole story of the arduous seesaw battle that is etched deeply in the consciousness of the US military.

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