Dark Waters, Starry Skies: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign of World War II, March 1943-October 1943

A fast-paced and absorbing read of the final months of the vital Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign during the Pacific War.

Thousands of miles from friendly ports, the US Navy fought to turn the tide of World War II. Jeffrey Cox turns his razor-sharp focus to these final months of the Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign. This is the central plotline running through this page-turning history beginning with the Japanese Operation I and the American ambush of Admiral Yamamoto; continuing with the Allied invasions of New Georgia, Bougainville, and the central and upper Solomons; and ending with the isolation of the Japanese base at Rabaul.

While the ambush of Yamamoto has received considerable attention in the intervening years, the remainder of this campaign, surprisingly, has not. Using first-hand accounts from both sides, this book vividly recreates all the terror and drama of these nighttime naval battles fought to secure the Allied landings. The reader can easily imagine the steely determination of Captain Arleigh Burke with his five destroyers intercepting a Japanese destroyer force at the Battle of Cape St. George, or the fear of an eighteen-year-old ensign as eight-inch naval shells wreak havoc on his cruiser.

Increasingly Allied dominance of the skies was the crucial factor in the campaign. Yet even with Japanese power in its twilight, victory was by no means assured. This book illustrates how formidable an enemy the Imperial Japanese Navy truly was and how victory here would ultimately ensure victory in the Pacific War.