by MatthewB » Fri Sep 18, 2015 2:32 pm
Dan K wrote:Guadalcanal by Richard Frank covers the campaign in its entirety - land, air and sea. It's pretty much the authoritative book on the subject, particularly on the naval side.
Russell Crenshaw's "Tassafaronga" and "South Pacific Destroyer" have excellent, first hand accounts of the period of late 1942 thru mid 1943.
And of course, the other side of this same period, in fact Crenshaw's opponent, is Tameichi Hara's "Japanese Destroyer Captain".
I
just finished Hara's book (as in, the second before checking this message).
And I have the others waiting to be read.
Tamaichi Hara's book was heartbreaking, even though they were "the enemy" and their blunders were our fortune, reading him recounting how he watched the IJN make the EXACT SAME MISTAKES, over and over again... In addition to making new and original blunders simply out of arrogance.
In reading his work, I suddenly understood a HUGE number of references in another hobby of mine: Manga And Anime, where
MANY of the things from his book are staple tropes of Manga and Anime (such as Kamagawa being so notable - his home).
But aside from that, it makes me wonder what would have happened had the Japanese, after Savo Island, sortied with everything they had at holding the island. They do not seem to have understood following up gains, nor how precariously close the USA was to losing most of the Pacific Fleet.
Had they understood that they could have had their "Decisive Battle," just not between opposing Battleship formations, they could probably have held onto their gains long enough to negotiate a cessation of hostilities.
MB
[quote="Dan K"]Guadalcanal by Richard Frank covers the campaign in its entirety - land, air and sea. It's pretty much the authoritative book on the subject, particularly on the naval side.
Russell Crenshaw's "Tassafaronga" and "South Pacific Destroyer" have excellent, first hand accounts of the period of late 1942 thru mid 1943.
And of course, the other side of this same period, in fact Crenshaw's opponent, is Tameichi Hara's "Japanese Destroyer Captain".[/quote]
I [i]just finished[/i] Hara's book (as in, the second before checking this message).
And I have the others waiting to be read.
Tamaichi Hara's book was heartbreaking, even though they were "the enemy" and their blunders were our fortune, reading him recounting how he watched the IJN make the EXACT SAME MISTAKES, over and over again... In addition to making new and original blunders simply out of arrogance.
In reading his work, I suddenly understood a HUGE number of references in another hobby of mine: Manga And Anime, where [b]MANY[/b] of the things from his book are staple tropes of Manga and Anime (such as Kamagawa being so notable - his home).
But aside from that, it makes me wonder what would have happened had the Japanese, after Savo Island, sortied with everything they had at holding the island. They do not seem to have understood following up gains, nor how precariously close the USA was to losing most of the Pacific Fleet.
Had they understood that they could have had their "Decisive Battle," just not between opposing Battleship formations, they could probably have held onto their gains long enough to negotiate a cessation of hostilities.
MB