In August 1942, after suffering a series of humiliating defeats, inflicted by a nation not much bigger than California, the Allies seized the initiative in their first offensive of the Pacific War. Nicknamed "Operation Shoestring," this unprecedented joint-services campaign involved both ground fighting, air combat, and naval clashes, including two carrier battles. For six months Allied and Japanese forces fought night and day in a ferocious struggle for possession of a tiny ramshackle airfield in the middle of the malarial, pest-ridden jungle of a little-known island called Guadalcanal. Robert Leckie, a decorated machine-gunner and scout with the First Marine Division, fought on Guadalcanal. His own experiences as well as those of other combatantsboth Allied and Japaneseadd immeasurably to the impact of this sweeping narrative. Leckie describes how the exceptional tenacity and courage of ordinary men transformed a campaign of uncertain outcome into one of the most decisive Allied victories of the war, a military triumph that, against formidable odds, decimated Japan's navy and air force, forever shattering her grand strategy and the myth of Japanese invincibility.
- ISBN10 0306809117
- ISBN13 9780306809118
- Publish Date 6 May 1999
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 3 July 2009
- Publish Country US
- Publisher INGRAM PUBLISHER SERVICES US
- Imprint Da Capo Press Inc
- Edition Da Capo Press ed.
- Format Paperback
- Pages 384
- Language English