In this Book

summary
Following their rampage through Southeast Asia and the Pacific in the five months after Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces moved into the Solomon Islands, intending to cut off the critical American supply line to Australia. But when they began to construct an airfield on Guadalcanal in July 1942, the Americans captured the almost completed airfield for their own strategic use.
The Japanese Army countered by sending to Guadalcanal a reinforced battalion under the command of Col. Kiyonao Ichiki. The attack that followed would prove to be the first of four attempts by the Japanese over six months to retake the airfield, resulting in some of the most vicious fighting of the Pacific War.
During one such battle on the night of August 20-21, 1942, Marines wiped out Ichiki’s men, who—imbued with “victory fever”—had expected a quick and easy victory.
William H. Bartsch draws on correspondence, interviews, diaries, memoirs, and official war records, including those translated from Japanese sources, to offer an intensely human narrative of the failed attempt to recapture Guadalcanal’s vital airfield.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Illustrations and Maps
  2. pp. ix-x
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Foreword
  2. Richard B. Frank
  3. pp. xi-xii
  4. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preface
  2. pp. xiii-xiv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xv-xx
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Prologue
  2. pp. 1-7
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. "You Shitheads Are Here to Learn to Fight!"
  2. pp. 8-25
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. "Vandergrift, I Have Some Very Disconcerting News"
  2. pp. 26-47
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. "I'm Beginning to Doubt Whether There's a Jap on the Whole Damned Island"
  2. pp. 48-69
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. "May I Retake Tulagi Too?"
  2. pp. 70-91
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. "The Bastards Are in the Trees!"
  2. pp. 92-115
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. "Was This Going to Be the Real Test?"
  2. pp. 116-133
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 7. "F—k Babe Ruth"
  2. pp. 134-147
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8. "Crying, Praying, and Cursing All at the Same Time"
  2. pp. 148-170
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 9. "Goddamn, They Got Me in the Eyes!"
  2. pp. 171-187
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 10. "We Aren't Going to Let Those People Lay Up There All Day"
  2. pp. 188-212
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Epilogue
  2. pp. 213-232
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Appendix A. Officers, 1st Marine Regiment, Combat Group B (Reinforced), Tenaru River Subsector, August 20, 1942
  2. pp. 233-234
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Appendix B. Officers, 1st Marine Regiment, Combat Group B (Reinforced), South Subsector, August 20, 1942
  2. pp. 235-236
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Appendix C. US Marine Casualties, Battle of the Tenaru, August 21, 1942
  2. pp. 237-240
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Appendix D. Officers and Staff, First Echelon, Ichiki Detachment
  2. pp. 241-242
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 243-286
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Glossary
  2. pp. 287-290
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Sources
  2. pp. 291-298
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index of Military Units
  2. pp. 299-320
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. General Index
  2. pp. 321-340
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Back Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.