Customer Reviews

The Lost Ships of Guadalcanal: Exploring the Ghost Fleet of the South Pacific

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Between August 1942 and February 1943, a land-sea and air battle was waged for an island in the south pacific called Guadalcanal. The six-month long battle for the island would be one of the definitive battles of the war. It was also one of the costliest. Thousands of Allied and Japanese soldiers died. And a channel north of the island had so many ships go down there that it was renamed Iron Bottom Sound.

It is possible that more men died in the waters off Guadalcanal then on the island itself. But for many years, most of the ships were out of reach to divers and eventually were all but forgotten. Then, in 1992, Oceanographer Robert Ballard, who had found the Titanic and the Bismarck, decided to explore the area using the latest in technology. It is quite an experience to see a past battlefield on land like Normandy, Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg or Guadalcanal itself. But the battlefields were obviously cleaned up afterward and don't look the way they did when the battle concluded. But time knows no boundaries in Iron Bottom Sound. The paintings by Ken Marshall and the photographs show many of the ships still upright on the ocean floor; Their guns and torpedo tubes still trained outward as if firing at a long gone enemy. But some of the ships are not so beautifully preserved. The Battleship Krishima, for example, lies upside down in two pieces on the ocean floor. And the Destroyer Barton is broken in half and lying on its side from two torpedoes. Nevertheless, most of the ships appear ready to rise up and continue fighting.

Lavishly illustrated and with a detailed text, The Lost Ships of Guadalcanal will make a welcome addition to the collection of any War, Naval or Shipwreck enthusiast (If you can find a copy that is).

From stunning photographs of the wrecks, to nicely detailed accounts, to beautiful paintings depicting the wrecks as they are today, to art from people who fought over a half century ago, this book is a wonderful account of the naval war in "Iron Bottom Sound" (Gudalcanal). Exciting. Poignant. You can feel for the poeple who were caught in the battles. I've read this book cover to cover twice, and highly recommend this text for the historian and general reader alike.

I will say that like most of Ballard's books this is nicely laid out; good sized and with excellent photographs & drawings.

Most of the book is taken up by short histories of the various battles that make up the 'Guadalcanal Campaign.' This didn't leave much room for the exploration of the wrecks themselves which gives you a rather rushed feeling despite the good background history.

Perhaps this would have been even better as an expanded two volume set.

Dr. Bob Ballard discovered the Titanic in the mid 1980's using cutting-edge underwater technology. For this book, he turned that skill and knowledge to lead an expedition to examine the wrecks of one of the bloodiest naval battles of World War II, one so full of death and destruction that veterans of the battle gave the waters of Gualdalcanal the nickname of "Iron Bottom Sound" because of the number of ships and aircraft that lay underwater. Guadalcanal was the linchpin of American and Japanese military strategy for control of the south Pacific islands. The Americans controlled the airfield, but the Japanese controlled the island and the waters around it. The Japanese couldn't resupply its army because of attacks to its freighters by Allied aircraft and the Americans couldn't resupply its airfield because of attacks to its fleet of ships. In one single battle in the pitch-black darkness of night, the mighty Japanese fleet engaged a weaker American destroyer group where American guns were aimed by radar and Japanese guns were aimed by looking for the flashes from the American weapons. The American fleet was destroyed but it was a Pyhric victory because the Japanese supply ships failed to reach the starving Japanese troops on the island. Dr. Ballard does a remarkable job of capturing both the essence of the battle and the essence of underwater archeology to create a wonderful book filled with full-color pictures of the wrecks and period black-and-white pictures of the war. He also includes the fantastic paintings and maps in the style that has adorned his other books to show how the wrecks would look if there was absolute clarity underwater and with a "God's Eye". This book is one of the better ones I've found that deal with the ships of Guadalcanal and underwater archeology. I've noticed copies adorning the workbenches of many model-ship builders (including mine). Its a great gift idea and sure to please anyone interested in great battles, maritime history, WW2, underwater exploration, or tales of bravery (by those who fought and those who study the ocean).

The work of Dr Robert D. Ballard knows no bounds and is truly inspirational to those of us who read of his exploits and seek to emulate his standards with much lesser shipwrecks.

Once again, just as soon as I took delivery of "The Lost Ships of Guadalcanal" I knew I had a 5 Star Book in my hands and, once again, I found nothing within it's 220 pages to make me take away any of those stars.

This book will stand the test of time as a literary work and outstanding account of one of the major naval battle zones of the Pacific in WW2. There are modern photographs including a number taken from the air, historic photographs (American, Australian, Japanese and local) of the places, the personalities, the ships, aircraft and soldiers, some incredible paintings of the night actions that took place, pictures of Ballard's crew as they go about their work and his advanced equipment being deployed and used. There is also a picture of a very young John F. Kennedy in his PT-109.

The first underwater pictures are enough to make the heart stop for just a moment as you realise this man Ballard has done it again - not once, but in this case several times. Commencing with the 9,850 ton Heavy Cruiser HMAS Canberra (the "A" stands for Australian) we no sooner see the first underwater photographs of this once magnificent ship - which went down fight in the opening minutes of the Battle of Savo Island, then we turn the page to find a 3-page open-out spread of Ken Marschall's painting of the entire wreck.

On the opposite side of that 3 page spread is another equally outstanding painting of USS Quincy followed by her own set of underwater photographs. As the story of Guadalcanal continues, so we find more details of US and Japanese successes and losses and the trials and tribulations endured by the forces of both sides as the author carefully draws us towards that part in the overall series of battles that will bring us to his next discovery and Ken Marschall's next incredible painting - the USS Monssen.

With more underwater photographs of yet more of the "Lost Ships of Guadalcanal," and yet more paintings by Ken Marschall, the author skilfully brings the reader both to the end of the series of battles and to the end of his own journey of discovery. Whilst not one of the greatest works of art within the book, one of my favourite paintings is found on p.200. This is an aerial picture of the entire area called "Iron Bottom Sound" - painted as though the water had been removed and showing the location of no fewer than 13 warships, one aircraft and two beached freighters. As part of the caption states ".... that makes this one of the greatest submarine battlefields." Yes it is, and in this book it was all brought back to life by Dr Robert D. Ballard.

An excellent book by any standards.

NM

An excellent look into the naval battles of the south pacific during World War II. Ballard looks at both sides of the story detailing Japanese,American and Australian naval experiences. A book that should not be overlooked by any generation

The title above is what my great-uncle inscribed on the inside cover of this book. He is the Tommy Morris whose story is told in the pages of this book. Like many more famous sailors and soldiers, Uncle Tommy (who died only two weeks ago after a long decline, for those readers who might be interested)used to tell me and my grandfather (Tommy's brother) that it was impossible for him to think of people as "civilized" having seen how we turn our new discoveries and technology so easily to the unhappy task of killing each other. He also said to me once that his role in the Quincy sinking was that of a "damsel in distress".. which description was follwed by that sort of masculing deep-seated chuckle which only come forth from heroic men who have seen hell on earth.

I am biased, but I wer I not, I would still think this an excellent book!

Gary Morris

It was an extremely good book

Fifty years after the Guadalcanal campaign in 1942, deep diver Robert Ballard went to Iron Bottom Sound to find and photograph some of the ships sunk there in the night battles . Except for the Anglo-Dutch wars of the mid-17th century, there has probably never been a war in which naval fleets so evenly matched fought such ferocious battles.

Based on past experience, I had expected "The Lost Ships of Guadalcanal" to be more about Ballard and his diving than about the sailors and the ships, but this turned out not to be the case. Most of the book is a skillful narrative of the opening and culminating encounters, the Battle of Savo Island and the three-day Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

This combines a well-informed (though brief) analysis of the problems and opportunities confronting the two sides (three if we count the Australians), combined with personal narratives from several of the combatants. Some of the battles in ":the Slot" are still being fought out on paper today, but Ballard does a fair job of creating some of the immediacy of the conflict., which he calls a "crazed nightmare." Writing of his own feelings, working on a modern, peaceful ship, Ballard says, "It was at night that the battles for Guadalcanal became real, stood out in stark contrast to our daylight contest of modern technology versus the elements."

There is a good selection of historical photographs and on-the-scene combat paintings, and the pictures of the sunken ships -- the point of the book -- are adequate if not too exciting. There were no real mysteries that diving to the wrecks could have cleared up, the way there were when Ballard found RMS Titanic. This volume is more an homage to brave men and brave deeds.

Although I have not seen the National Geographic film that documented this expedition, others about Ballard's work that I have seen were offputting with their phony, Saturday matinee serial breathlessness and exaggerations. All that is pleasantly missing from this dignified book.