The title says it all. This book is a comprehensive look at air campaign over Guadalcanal from November to December 1942. The text is organized into eleven chapters, conclusion three appendices, sources/acknowledgements and an index of names, ships, and military units.

Each chapter features photographs, captions, tables, and profile art. The text begins with an allied and Japanese airpower overview and then puts the reader into the air war over Guadalcanal on 1-10 November 1942. This is not a personal account of anyone’s personal experiences but a timeline of events over a two month period. The reading is detail oriented and is laden with facts and descriptions sourced from both Allied and Japanese sources. The reading is not easy and you need to read in sequence otherwise you will miss important information that makes up the air campaign during this time period of World War II. As stated above, this is not a personal narrative, it is strictly a retelling of what happened. This may not appeal to everyone. At times I could only handle a few pages of reading due to the amount of information being presented to the reader. Despite being a bit challenging to read, the text is thoroughly researched and very comprehensive. If you wish to explore the sources used, they are listed in the final pages.

This book is not for everyone. You need to be into facts and authoritative reading. If you are that person then I can highly recommend this publication.

Thank you to Casemate for the review sample.