Fighter Squadron at Guadalcanal [Hardcover]

Max Brand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

A stirring account of the 212th Marine fighter squadron's operations at Guadalcanal.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 231 pages
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557500886
• ISBN-13: 978-1557500885
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,094,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Historical Treasure from a past generation, July 11, 2001

By 

B O'Leary (Iwakuni, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighter Squadron at Guadalcanal (Hardcover)

This book is a snap shot in time from the mouths of the Marines who made the history of Guadalcanal. The author compiled the story of the legendary 212th Marine Fighter Squadron by interviewing members of the squadron on leave in California. Because many of the pilots, and the author himself, returned to fight and die in combat their accounts of battle are true history undilluted by editors and contemporary cultural bias. This is a great story of triumph over adversity. Of Marines cutting an airstrip out of the jungle while fighting off mosquitos, monsoons, malaria and the Japanese. Don't expect War and Peace; the author cuts right to the point and tells the story in a journalistic "war correspondent" style. But as a Marine, that's how I think the boys on Guadalcanal would have wanted their stories told. Semper Fi.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't expect everything, but you can't find better!, July 7, 2004

By 

Bob Marshall, Jr. (Woodside, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighter Squadron at Guadalcanal (Paperback)

Max Brand's daughter, Jane Faust, did the community a favor by publishing her father's manuscript some 50+ years after it was written. This is as close to the bone and to the source of history the as you can get, not clouded by the 20-20 hindsight of 'historians'. This account describes the perilous work to establish a foothold for bases in the South Pacific in the days soon following the attack on Pearl Harbor. This was imperative for the U.S. and its allies to establish bases to keep the Japanese from taking the entire Pacific area, including Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. This exact and precise description is how VMF 212 Fighter Squadron's C.O. Joe Bauer recruited and trained his pilots to the standard of those who followed including Boyington (VMF 214), Blackburn (VF 17), and Morrell (VMF 216).

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read for Aviators, December 23, 2000

By 

kevin g reece (lemoore, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighter Squadron at Guadalcanal (Hardcover)

An excellent source of inspiration for Marine Aviators. I was touched by the courage of those brave men and any reader who thinks that the book was merely war driven propaganda knows very little about US Marines. The resolve and selflessness of the men of the Cactus Air Force parrallelled that of the Spartans at Thermopylae.