FIFTY-THREE DAYS ON STARVATION ISLAND

A highly detailed account of the Guadalcanal air campaign.

The fighting at Guadalcanal has produced a steady stream of books, but this expert history of the unit that fended off Japanese air and naval attacks during the first critical months examines a heroic element that has received less attention. Veteran combat correspondent Bruning, author of Indestructible and Race of Aces, begins in June 1942 following the Battle of Midway, a triumph of American carrier aircraft but a disaster for squadrons on Midway Island, who were devastated during attacks by more experienced Japanese pilots and their superior fighter, the Zero. Over the following months, survivors assembled in Hawaii under several charismatic officers as the Marine high command worked to reconstitute its air strategy. After barely a month of training, the units were shipped to the South Pacific and dropped on Guadalcanal on August 20. Japanese naval attacks had persuaded the not-very-aggressive American admiral to withdraw his transports before they had completed unloading, leaving the Marines critically short of supplies. This was still the case when 12 dive bombers and 19 fighters flew in. The author follows with a day-by-day account of two months during which they wreaked such havoc that only a dribble of supplies reached Japanese soldiers. It was the Japanese, not the Americans, who called Guadalcanal “Starvation Island.” As Bruning notes, “the mission proved one other thing: the fighter pilots might get all the headlines, but the bomber crews made the history.” This a lucidly written and probably definitive account of the Guadalcanal air campaign, but the author seems to belong to the history-is-boring school, so he converts his material into a somewhat-novelistic narrative featuring detailed conversations and thoughts of a score of historical characters. Nonetheless, it’s undoubtedly entertaining.

Heroism was abundant at Guadalcanal, but these fliers stand out, and Bruning captures the action well.