Dark Waters, Starry Skies: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign, MarchOctober 1943

(Hardback)

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Esteemed Pacific War historian Jeffrey Cox has produced a fast-paced and absorbing read of the crucial New Georgia phase of the Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign during the Pacific War. Thousands of miles from friendly ports, the US Navy had finally managed to complete the capture of Guadalcanal from the Japanese in early 1943. Now the Allies sought to keep the offensive momentum won at such a high cost. This is the central plotline running through this page-turning history beginning with the Japanese Operation I-Go and the American ambush of Admiral Yamamoto and continuing on to the Allied invasion of New Georgia, northwest of Guadalcanal in the middle of the Solomon Islands and the location of a major Japanese base. Determined not to repeat their mistakes at Guadalcanal, the Allies nonetheless faltered in their continuing efforts to roll back the Japanese land, air and naval forces. Using first-hand accounts from both sides, this book vividly recreates all the terror and drama of the nighttime naval battles during this phase of the Solomons campaign and the ferocious firestorm many Marines faced as they disembarked from their landing craft. The reader is transported to the bridge to stand alongside Admiral Walden Ainsworth as he sails to stop another Japanese reinforcement convoy for New Georgia, and vividly feels the fear of an 18-year-old Marine as he fights for survival against a weakened but still determined enemy. Dark Waters, Starry Skies is an engrossing history which weaves together strategy and tactics with a blow-by-blow account of every battle at a vital point in the Pacific War that has not been analyzed in this level of detail before.

Reviews

Drawing on vivid recollections from participants in the great struggle for the Solomons and from other primary sources, Cox delivers a fast-paced, detailed and highly readable account of the pivotal struggle in the South Pacific. The reader will find Dark Waters, Starry Skies a rich and rewarding experience. * History of War *

Author Bio

Jeffrey R. Cox is a litigation attorney and an independent military historian. A student of history, international affairs, and defence policy for most of his life, his first book was the critically acclaimed Rising Star, Falling Skies (2014) about the Java Sea campaign. This was followed by two volumes on the Guadalcanal-Solomons campaign: Morning Star, Midnight Sun (2018) and Blazing Star, Setting Sun (2020). He resides in Indianapolis.