Customer Reviews

Guadalcanal: Starvation Island

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

 

 

Guadalcanal is the most interesting battle of American history. It was the first American offensive of World War II and victory hung in a seesaw balance for three months as Americans slowly and painfully gained land, sea, and air superiority over their Japanese opponents. The costs were enormous. Japan and America lost 26 ships each. Most of them were sunk in "Iron Bottom Sound" in the "Slot." The 18 pilots of one fighter wing of the "Cactus" air force were reduced to four in less than three months -- but they shot down 83 Japanese planes. Hammel estimates that 35,000 Japanese died in the battle -- about one third of them of disease and starvation. U.S. losses of Army, Navy, and Marines totalled about 3,000 dead.

Eric Hammel has written a competent and readable book on the battle of Guadalcanal from August 7, 1942 when the first Marines stepped on shore until mid-November when the battle was won -- although three months of bloody mop-up operations remained. Hammel covers land, sea, and air operations, and his descriptions range from the strategy sessions of the Brass to the battle experiences of 18-year old Marine privates. My enthusiasm for this book is restrained however as there are many other accounts in books and on the web which are equally good.

Hammel's technical discussions of battles and strategies are very good; his description of the conditions the marines faced in Guadalcanal -- abandonment by the navy, malaria and dengue, shortages of everything, a shrieking, suicidal enemy who hardly seemed human, a dark, menacing jungle -- is less good. The marines called Guadalcanal "Operation Shoestring" and it deserves the name. For the Japanese it was even worse.

The best book I've read on Guadalcanal. Helps one understand the professionalism of the Marines. A dedicated group of men trying to survive a very tough situation. I was really impressed by their ability to keep their weapons operating in that jungle environment for months with almost no resupply help from the Navy. - Robert Merritt Edson

Eric Hammel is a splendid writer, and this book is a splendid account of the Guadalcanal campaign. Part of a trilogy which included volumes about the naval aspects of the Guadalcanal battle, "Starvation Island" focuses on the land and land-based air phases of this far-flung struggle. Well-written and entertaining, this is history at its best. Along with the other fine volumes about the Guadalcanal campaign, such as Richard B. Frank's excellent work ("Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle") this book will be enjoyed by anyone interested in this crucial turning point in the war in the Pacific.

As my mother was near death from Alzheimer's a few months ago, my brother, who had been caring for her, was going through her house with me, asking if there were items I wanted. I wanted few, but in a room stacked with family memorabilia my brother insisted I take possession of two items. One was a glass-encased American flag that had been draped over the coffin at her father's funeral, and another was an un-encased such flag that had been draped over the coffin of her second husband, who had died a few years before.

Both men had received full military honors at their funerals, in recognition of their service. My mother's second husband had been a Marine in World War II. He never spoke about it to me, but I knew he had been at Guadalcanal.

The possession of that flag had a haunting effect on me. Like many boys of my generation, I had always had an interest in World War II, but it occurred to me that I really knew nothing about the battle of Guadalcanal except its name. It seemed to lack the clear-cut, decisive rationale and action that made Midway, Tarawa and Iwo Jima stand out for me as key victories in the Pacific.

I set out to learn a bit about Guadalcanal, watching a few DVDs, reading a few books, and doing some on-line research. Finally, based on fairly good reviews, I bought and read this book.

I wish this book was better written. Obviously, Mr. Hammel put a great deal of research and effort into it, but the book did not profit from it. In fact, the excessive attention to detail detracted greatly, largely because the author lost sight of his task: to organize and make clear all this detail for his reader.

The endless land, sea and air skirmishes lacked any coherence. The names of the men and units involved on both sides flooded by endlessly in brief vignettes that flowed past in a constant deluge, as if they were mere flotsam and jetsam bouncing about in a torrent without any identifiable landmarks, no dry land to observe from. I had the feeling that all this endless detail was merely included because it was available from the author's research, as if that compelled him to use it regardless of the fact that readers would have to sort through the mess. He seems to have written a number of books on war: maybe that's his method of cranking out so many. I'd prefer quality over quantity.

The details left out were noticeable as well. The reality behind the "Starvation Island" reference in the title was only touched on in passing, as were the logistical blunders and diseases that took far more casualties than all the skirmishes that were described endlessly down to the level of the several dozen individual shrapnel and bullet wounds some soldiers endured. There was never any real insight into the abysmal imbalance of casualties between the two sides in every battle. Even on the human interest level the book never left me with any lasting impressions: it was about a series of names, not the people who bore them.

How very nice it would have been, for instance, to have had a simple time line to refer to, and a chain of command and organizational chart for the individual units and the entire military command on both sides. Appendices A and B did include Command Lists for the American ground and air forces, but they seemed merely xeroxed out of some files from somewhere for completeness sake, not for the benefit of the reader: most of the names were not people mentioned in the writing, and there was no visually intuitive organization, such as a chart might have provided.

Most importantly, however, was the book's horrendous use of maps. At the beginning of the book there were a handful of maps, at various resolutions, some general, some specific to the activities of specific battles (land battles only), and some even spanning the several days or stages of a battle. They should have been helpful, and if placed within the relevant pages of the book, and including enough detail to follow the course of the narrative, they might have changed this book from something to slog through into something to admire. As they were, they were really quite useless for following the author's narrative.

The author's use of language was a bit forced in places, and the style seemed jarringly inconsistent at times, but these are minor complaints compared to the frustrating user-unfriendliness, the utter lack of any attempt to bring some sense of order to the chaos of war for the reader.

The entire story could have been told in half the pages, I imagine, by taking the story of one Marine, or one platoon, and maybe one aviator or squadron, and perhaps one sailor or ship, and following them through the campaign, drawing in all the peripheral details along the way as they relate to those identifiable characters. As it is, the book, despite so many words, shed little light on whatever it was that my mother's husband lived through that earned him that large folded flag, and to me that's a shame.

This was a great book to read. The book gets 5*. However the publisher gets a -5* review due to the slapdash (completely crappy) formatting. Absolutely no effore was spent to clean this book up for the Kindle. Pagination and formatting were ignored to the point of distraction. Many words were hyphenated (for print formatting) and left to sit in the middle of a line, actually making names and words difficult to read. This kind of neglegence by a publisher is inexcusable. ... What should a good eBook have? 1) Clean word formatting -- dump the hyphenation; 2) An active table of contents -- not fancy, just useable; and 3) A decent "active" index.
-----
The saddest thing is that a Linux system could have fixed 98% of the hyphenation errors in under 2 seconds:
$ sed 's/-//g
s/ -//g
s/- //g
s/ - //g' < input.txt > output.txt

Note: this would have eliminated all "-" items in the book. On the other hand, a High School Student at minimum wage could have done it by hand in less than a week!
-----
PS. At least the font selected was a good (and easy to read) one.

Very detailed and informative. I have purchased and read many of Hammel's books. Whether it be WWII, VietNam or the Beirut "police action" Hammel has a unique way of presenting factual history in a fresh, readable fashion. I found his history of the First Marine Division and General Vandegrift to be informative and enjoyable. Highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the Guadalcanal campaign.

One of the current proliferation of books on Guadalcanal, this work combines personal stories with the broader narrative. It flows with a compelling writing style that paints a vivid picture of the of the bravery and suffering of the average soldier, pilot and sailor. My only reservation, which is not uncommon with this style of history, is that the personal stories tend to obscure the broader picture. Still, it is a very enjoyable read

This is typical Hammel for he does a masterful job of blending the tactical operations, that some think is dry, with the human interest and creates an informative, interesting read.
Taking this book along with his two other naval books plus his photo book and you have the definitive series of the Gauadalcanal campaign.
Mr Hammel sees the campaign as a see saw battle where one side has the advantage then loses it to the other in a series of escalating events that eventually turns the advantage to the American side.
The campaign could have lasted much longer or ended in a victory for the Japanese if they acknowledged the seriousness of the American threat and didn't underestimate the marines by landing a decent size force in the early days of the campaign.
The format of the book is broken down in sections according to this up and down series of events. The sections will have anywhere from two to nine chapters. The sections are:

Prologue: Brief history of the area involving the Japanese before the war.
Before: Brief history of the Japanese taking over Tulagi and Guadalcanal before August 1942.
The Division: About the First Marine Division and background info on some of the men in the outfit
Invasion: Aug 7th and 8th and the invasion of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo
Reaction: The immediate reaction of the Japan. They weren't prepared for a amphibious landing but they did launch aerial and naval attacks.
Interlude: This is the time after Fletcher and Turner abandoned the marines prematurely, when they were trying to cope and build an adequate defensive perimeter. Lack of food and disease sent in quickly and added to the misery.
Baptism: This is the time when the Japanese started landing troops on the island and the new marines had to cope with increased resistance and ambushes.
Seesaw: This is the largest section in the book and covers the increasing hostilities as the engagements on the ground, air and sea increase.
Crisis: Adm Ghormley and others were pesimistic about the future of the campaign and really didn't support very well at a time when Japanese resistance was increasing. The enemy was trying to close down Henderson field by attacking it nightly in order to land reinforcements for the upcoming battle they were planning.
Resurgence: After defeating the 17th Army's assault, the marines and the Americal Div go on the offensive in a small way toward the west.
Decision: With Adm Halsey in charge, General Vandegrift received better support, more troops and supplies and the tide of war started to turn for the Americans.
Epilogue: Closing comments on the importance of winning the campaign and its future ramifications for both sides.

There are 14 black and white maps which are pretty good and a few photos to add to the narrative. The book closes with an Appendix, Bibliography and an Index.
The story is a very interesting, informative read and the first in the trilogy that gives you the complete picture of the Guadalcanal Campaign. I highly recommend it.

This is the best written book that I've found on the Battle for Guadalcanal. I will be visiting the island in late September and this book has enlightened on on the complete battle.