Frank’s `Guadalcanal’ an eye-opener

GUADALCANAL, by Richard B. Frank, Random House, 800 pages, $34.95.

As a kid back in 1943 I vividly remember seeing “Guadalcanal Diary,” the World War II flick starring William Bendix and Anthony Quinn: Creepy, crawly jungles. Banzai attacks by hordes of screaming Japanese. Hand-to-hand combat with fixed bayonets. Starvation. Filth. Disease. Pestilence. Sudden Death.

In other words, all the things that fascinate an 11-year-old with relatives off fighting in the South Pacific.

So when the man who hands out the books to be reviewed here at the newspaper offered “Guadalcanal” to me I jumped at the chance.

I won’t say that it was a mistake, because if nothing else after wading through this one a guy appreciates why — as the dust jacket proclaims — it was 10 years in the making. Appendices. Notes. Sources. Maps. Charts. Diagrams.

Let me just say that sticking with Richard Frank’s exhaustive work to the bitter end requires perseverance and great dedication. It is not an easy read, and for that reason may be best tackled in small spurts, giving, in the end, a proper sense of the magnitude of the battle for the Solomon Islands.

However, for one who has labored all these years under the false impression that the Battle of Guadalcanal nearly 50 years ago was mostly about Marines and Army grunts ramming through bug-infested jungles in search of the enemy, it is an eye-opener.

Even though the Marines did seize the island from the Japanese in August 1942 in the Allies’ first major offensive in the Pacific — and were joined later by the Army — most of Frank’s epic is devoted to the naval battles that prevented the Japanese from landing reinforcements that November. The navy fought seven major battles, including one which went down in history as its worst defeat at sea.

Meanwhile, the “Cactus Air Force” stationed at Henderson Field kept up pressure from the air. By February 1943 the Japanese, badly outnumbered, were forced to evacuate the island on which they had begun building an airstrip eight months to the day after their attack on Pearl Harbor. By the end of 1943 the Japanese were on the defensive in their last stronghold in the Solomons, Bougainville Island.

Drawing on official Japanese Defense Agency accounts of the campaign, as well as recently declassified U.S. radio intelligence, the author recreates the epic struggle from the perspective of both sides.

This is always an interesting device in narratives about any conflict, allowing the reader to get a feel for how the enemy sized up a given situation. But the constant switching back and forth can be disruptive, too, if not handled adroitly.

In “Guadalcanal” the reader definitely needs a scorecard to keep track of the players. Fortunately, the author provides a pretty good one.

Kent Ward is the NEWS associate managing editor.