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Neptune Inferno The US Navy at Guadalcanal James D Hornfischer 9780553806700 Books

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Neptune Inferno The US Navy at Guadalcanal James D Hornfischer 9780553806700 Books

This is a well written history of the US Navy's Guadalcanal campaign, probably its toughest in WWII. It was also remarkable for the number of battles from August 1942 onwards, most of them between surface warships (i.e. battleships, cruisers, and destroyers) as opposed to the carrier battles starting with the Battle of Coral Sea. The author writes very well, often with high literary skill and this is a good read even for those familiar with this campaign and naval history in general. Indeed, as footnotes were lacking, for a while I thought this was just another synthesis of the usual sources (many second hand), but then found a long and impressive set of end-notes as well as the bibliography which included many after action reports, inquiry minutes, and so on. Footnotes would have been better.
I rated this book at four stars because some of the language was "over the top" in stressing the author's views, and because I did not find anything really new, not surprising perhaps given the number of books already published on this subject. However, I would certainly recommend this book for readers not familiar with the Guadalcanal Campaign, and a five star rating would be justified for that reader segment community.


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Neptune Inferno The US Navy at Guadalcanal James D Hornfischer 9780553806700 Books Reviews

This a remarkable look at warfare. Up close and personal. Anyone in national politics should have to read this; there are a thousand ways to die in battle and they are mostly pretty horrific.

That to me is the main reason to read this book.

The overall story of Guadalcanal is very tough to tell in one book, and (perhaps because I'm new to it) I got lost a few times (back on track with the help of the web). I think more pictures would help, with timetables like, "this is the layout of the ships at 0130, this the layout at 0200" and so on.

Along those lines, I'm not sure the book has a thematic coherence. What I mean is, besides the blow-by-blow, what is the overarching theme? That to me is a compelling reason to buy a book. One thing that really got my attention here was the inability of some officers to come to grips with the possibilities of radar. What was that about? For those in the know, this is an issue that has its start at Pearl Harbor (some radar techs did see the blips on the screen and did phone them in but were ignored).

But really, the awfulness of dying in war might really be theme that the author overlooked. While not organized as such, the raw material is in the book, and, again, makes it worth reading by any politician or for that matter citizen.
Despite earlier US naval successes at Midway and the Coral Sea, it was Guadalcanal where the US first succeeded in PUSHING BACK the WWII Japanese expansion in the Pacific. Though I’d heard of “the Tokyo express”, “the Slot” and “Iron Bottom Sound”, this book puts all that (and more) into coherent context. It also made all the naval battles almost feel visceral -- and frustrating.

Why frustrating? We had the advantage of radar, but we had commanders who did not understand how to use radar to their advantage. We had younger commanders who, though having made mistakes, subsequently learned how to more effectively counter the Japanese and their naval tactics -- but they were subsequently replaced by officers with more seniority (but little combat experience) who then proceeded to makes the very same mistakes. Japanese torpedoes (and their tactics for using them) far exceeded the US torpedoes and tactics, yet US naval leadership never seemed to realize that was the case.

The book appears to have covered all the major naval actions around Guadalcanal. And the timeline of those battles is made clear to the reader. It is pointed out that nearly 4 times as many seamen died fighting on the waters around Guadalcanal as did marines fighting on Guadalcanal itself. As for the brutal fighting by the marines on Guadalcanal, that topic is touched on, but that is not the focus of this book. (I’ve read other books that cover the island fighting quite well.)

The book had many stories of individual heroic actions by both the sailors and their officers. But I’m sure there were many other cases of seamen’s bravery, but their deaths meant that their stories would never be told.

Highly recommended.
Hornfischer has surpassed his fine The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors with this book. Three areas stand out for analysis

• The chronology of the Guadalcanal campaign is made very clear. The sea battles are described in detail, sometimes gruesomely so but that’s one of the points of the book. War at sea has no foxholes.
• The command structure, doctrines and idiosyncrasies of both sides are examined. Guadalcanal may have been to the Navy what Kasserine Pass was to the Army – clearing out dead wood.
• More importantly, the psychology of officers and men is explored with empathy. How young, inexperienced boys become men within minutes of horror is a fascinating study.
This is a well written history of the US Navy's Guadalcanal campaign, probably its toughest in WWII. It was also remarkable for the number of battles from August 1942 onwards, most of them between surface warships (i.e. battleships, cruisers, and destroyers) as opposed to the carrier battles starting with the Battle of Coral Sea. The author writes very well, often with high literary skill and this is a good read even for those familiar with this campaign and naval history in general. Indeed, as footnotes were lacking, for a while I thought this was just another synthesis of the usual sources (many second hand), but then found a long and impressive set of end-notes as well as the bibliography which included many after action reports, inquiry minutes, and so on. Footnotes would have been better.
I rated this book at four stars because some of the language was "over the top" in stressing the author's views, and because I did not find anything really new, not surprising perhaps given the number of books already published on this subject. However, I would certainly recommend this book for readers not familiar with the Guadalcanal Campaign, and a five star rating would be justified for that reader segment community.