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Despite the title this book actually covers the entire air war over Guadalcanal, including the contributions of both the Cactus Air Force (referring to those units actually based on the island), along with enough detail on the land and naval battles found on and around the island to make sense of the air story.
The book was largely written by Eric Hammel, but sadly he died before it was complete so the task of editing it went to Thomas McKelvey Cleaver. Both men have written extensively on Guadalcanal and the Pacific war, while Cleaver has worked on the Pacific War, Korea and Vietnam, so is a good choice of editor. The book feels well constructed, and Cleaver has done a good job.
This does fit nicely with other books I’ve reviewed recently that focus more on the naval aspects of the battle. The use of a significant number of eyewitness accounts means we get a good feel for how their pilots viewed the different aircraft they flew, and how they managed to overcome the relative weaknesses of most compared to their Japanese rivals to make the battle rather more equal than might have been expected. The use of extracts from one particular pilot’s diary is very effective, tracing how combat exhaustion slowly got to him, until eventually he was taken off flying duties and ordered off the island for a rest.
Chapters
1 – Before
2 – War Comes to the South Pacific
3 – Operation Watchtower
4 – Tally-ho!
5 – Pug Southerland’s Odyssey
6 – Disaster
7 – The Cavalry Arrives
8 – Admiral Yamamoto’s Reply
9 – Hide and Seek in the Solomon Sea
10 – Battle of the Eastern Solomons – Killing Ryujo
11 – Saving Enterprise
12 – Resolution
13 – Reinforcement
14 – Growing into the Job
15 – Stalemate
16 – The Situation is not Hopeless, but it is Certainly Critical
17 – Swivel-Neck Joe
18 – And Then There Was One
19 – The Darkness before Dawn
20 – End of the Beginning
Author: Eric Hammel and Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2022