Customer Reviews

Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, November 13-15, 1942

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

November 13, 1942 was the turning point of the Pacific war, yet few historians have written extensively about it. Previous writers have merely described that combat as a general melee in which it is impossible to reconstruct the tracts of individual ships. That may be true due to the loss of records, logs, and witnesses, but Hammel has done a credible job of reconstructing plausible positions for the various ships as the battle progressed.

Copyrighted in 1988, Hammel suggests in his Afterward that his reconstructions may be controversial. For example many writers agree that friendly fire from the US cruiser San Francisco hit the US cruiser Atlanta; Hammel is the first that I know of that says unequivocally that Atlanta was actually targeted. Other writers have said that Atlanta drifted into the line of fire. Interestingly enough, subsequent writers have reached the same conclusion as Hammel, or perhaps they have merely accepted Hammel's conclusion.

Most of this book concerns itself with the battle of the night of Nov 13-14. There is also material on the battles of the next two nights that assured the result.

Although this is an excellent book, I penalize it one star because it has only a single track-diagram of the first battle and there is no chronology. I especially miss the latter, because it appears that Hammel actually created a credible chronology yet did not share it. One hopes for a future release of that information.

The book I read was from the library, but I will probably buy a copy for myself.

Many books have covered the WWII struggle for Guadalcanal, and with good reason. The campaign marked the Allies' shift from defense to offense in the Pacific theater.

Though the US Navy had turned back a grave threat by sinking four Japanese carriers at Midway in June, 1942, the Americans remained on the defensive in the Pacific until the enemy began building an airstrip on an obscure island in the Solomon chain. This "unsinkable aircraft carrier" threatened to cut off re-supply of Australia.

This peril compelled the US to act. On August 7, 1942, American forces landed on Guadalcanal and took the new airstrip, which they dubbed Henderson Field. The landing was easy, but the fight for control of the island proved to be anything but. Each side, realizing the stakes and refusing to fold, alternately raised the ante.

Gaining control of the island depended on reinforcement and re-supply by sea, so control of the surrounding waters was crucial. Those waters were the scene of many naval clashes, but Hammel concentrates on the three-day span which turned the tide and doomed Japan's effort to recapture Guadalcanal.

That span included the hellish melee of Friday the 13th, in which a Japanese bombardment and resupply force and a pick-up flotilla of US cruisers and destroyers nearly collide in the dark; the daytime defense of the island by the Henderson-based "Cactus Air Force" and fliers from the carrier Enterprise against warships and transports; and the climactic clash of battleships off Savo Island.

These events have been described in many histories but often misunderstood. The surface battles were fought in the dark, among multiple ships operating almost independently. Many ships, and more commanders, were lost. Misidentification of friend and foe occurred from the start, and much confusion has survived to this day.

Hammel's great contribution is his orderly depiction of chaos. While it is both horrifying and thrilling to consider the spectacle of dozens of warships blazing away at one another at point-blank range, it's impossible to understand. Through both review of records and interviews with dwindling survivors, Hammel has put together a time-line. He lets us see what happened to each ship in turn, dividing the free-for-all into fairly comprehensible bites.

The US Navy's achievement here was heroic, and the principals have been lionized. But Hammel does not shrink from showing the heroes' weaknesses. US commanders' failure--and its tragic results--to understand their ships' new technology is depicted frankly. The Americans could have overcome the Japanese' superior night-vision capability by putting ships with the best radar in the lead. But commanders squandered a potential advantage by disposing their ships without regard to radar.

If Hammel has a weakness, it's the characters. Many men figure in the story; we learn what they do, but not who they are. They character who leaves the strongest imprint is US Admiral William F. Halsey, whose aggressive fighting spirit set the tone for the US offensive.

This quibble and the occasional awkward turn of phrase are amply compensated by Hammel's organizational and descriptive skills. He includes a helpful glossary and an array of maps up front, adds a description of participating ships in an appendix, and a good complement of photos in between.

Hammel matter-of-factly describes the deaths of many seamen: blown to bits, drowned, burned, scalded, concussed, torn by shrapnel, run down by ships, shredded by propellers, convulsed by depth charges, machine-gunned in the water, eaten by sharks. Despite the dispassionate tone, the sacrifices of our fighting men assume a cumulative, awesome power. Hammel indulges our senses; his painterly descriptions of the equatorial heat, the conical shadow of Savo, and the sickly-sweet smell of tropical plants linger in the memory as long as images of the horrors of war.

Guadalcanal was a contest of wills. After November 15, The Japanese retained the will to fight, but not to win. The Americans went on the attack and never looked back. The turning point deserves a close examination; this book does it justice.

Read from a book this story is astonishing. Read from a Kindle and you will pull your hair out. Appears that whoever scanned this book, to Kindle format; used inferior text recognition software. The publishing house, grabbed an underpaid, bored, college intern; gave them the book, pointed at a flatbed scanner and put them to work. Sentences begin in lower case, 1 becomes i, Letter O becomes zero. Missing conjunctive adverbs, "Miss spellings", missing punctuation. Eventually you will learn to decode the translation. If I were the publisher I would be ashamed. More fuel for the make a fast buck and run world we live in. You paid $12 for that? I really need to call Amazon on this. Terrible. I want a refund.

Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, November 13-15, 1942

This is the first book that I have ever read by Eric Hammel. Originally I had checked it out from my local library, but it was so outstanding and difficult to put down, that I purchased this book just to have my own copy. I want to read this book again and again. In fact this book has led me to purchase the Guadalcanal triology authored by Mr. Hammel. All books are now in my possession and a reading adventure that I will enjoy for years to come. Mr. Hammel's writing style and the amount of detail he includes will keep you on the edge of your reading chair late into the night.

Hammel does an absolutely amazing job of depicting the surface battles, better than any I've read anywhere before. Has a very intense, vivid writing style that makes the battle very clear to the reader. His descriptions of American destroyers pumping five-inch shell after five-inch shell into the crumbling bridgework of the battleship Hiei are really impressive stuff.

This is undoubtedly the best of the several books that have been written on the Naval Battle of Gaudalcanal. This gripping, fascinating page-turner is another masterful job by Eric Hammel. If I could only have one naval history book in my library, this would be it.

The first 3 chapters are an outstanding expose on America's failure to adequately prepare for war. This is a HUGE lesson we MUST learn before it occurs again! Hammel has a remarkable writing style similar to a novelist, which grasps your attention. It is a page turner. Hammel conveys very well what it was like to be there. The battle text is sobering. The single aspect of this book that struck me was the discipline of the US Navy sailors to respond immediately to an order to fire or to abate. Also, notable is the tenacity of the Japaneses fleet, which did retire too soon from battle. They were a formidable foe! I have a tremendous respect for Imperial Japenese Navy in WW2.

Eric Hammel's "Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea" is an expertly researched battle narrative of the decisive naval battle at Guadalcanal from November 13-15, 1942. While the Imperial Japanese Navy still had a respectable navy upon the conclusion of the battle, two weeks later, the Imperial Japanese Army made the decision to abandon their resistance to American liberation of the island.

Hammel makes history come to life. He provides the readers with sufficient background to understand the doctrine, equipment, and leaders of both fleets. Using original combat reports as research material, he retells the story of the horrific combat action over those three days.

Having just read "Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal," James Hornfischer, there are some major differences between the books. The timeline for Hornfischer's book begins with the invasion of Guadalcanal in August 1942. He explains the rationale for the controversial withdrawal of the naval forces (the source of eternal consternation with any US Marine). Hornfischer also provides an excellent battle narrative of the Battle for Savo Sound, the first major clash between Japanese and American forces in the waters around Guadalcanal. "Neptune's Inferno" mentions the contributions of carrier-based aviation and the Cactus Air Force, an area where Hammel excels -- Hammel personally attributes the bomb damage assessment for the attacks, where Hornfischer merely summarizes the results.

Along with the text, "Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea" contains a few charts to illustrate the battle, and a few black & white photographs of the major leaders and American combatant ships.

I highly recommend "Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea" for any reader who enjoys naval history.

This was a very good account of the two naval battles that occurred near Guadacanal. The author was very descriptive of the accounts of each battle, using many sources. Unfortunately, as is the case when talking about pacific battles, there is little from the Japanese side concerning their viewpoints of the battles. Nevertheless, I think the author did a find job - considering this was a night battle and the ships were so close to each other - of writing this book.

This is THE most detailed and informative historical narrative of the surface action on Guadalcanal, Nov.13-15, 1942. From detailed tactical maps to personal accounts of the actions and heroism of both sides of the conflict, Eric Hammel truly puts the reader on the battle bridge, behind the turrent guns, in the cockpit, and treading shark infested waters. You won't be able to put this book down.