Guadal-canal by Richard B. Frank. Random House, New York. ISSBN 0-394-58875-4 Copyright 1990 Price $34.45 US $46.50 Canadian Richard B. Frank's study of the Guadal-Canal campaign is nothing less than outstanding. In the preface Frank writes that his intention was to prepare the first full balanced study of the Guadal Canal Campaign. In this he has succeeded. Only someone who has ever attempted to research a subject on the grand scale that Frank has achieved can truly appreciate the phenomenal achievement that this book represents. There are 618 pages of organized, well written text describing the events as they unfold. Frank includes 28 pages of appendices. The appendices contain the forces arrayed, orders of battle, Allied and Japanese losses in men and equipment. Then there are 119 pages of notes on sources, 20 pages containing the general index and finally a 10 page index of the military units engaged. This is not a book on the Guadal-Canal Campaign, it is the encyclopedia of the campaign! Illustrated with 50 photographs and with 30 maps it also includes full tables of the composition of forces for every action with type of ship, name, commander and unit it was attached to. There are complete tables of relative combat power which provide shell, torpedo size and the number of barrels and torpedo tubes of the engaging forces. The book is not merely a compendium of data. It has a point to make. Namely that the conventional view of this battle may not be accurate. As a young man I read Richard Tregaskis's Guadal-Canal Diary and obtained the impression that the action was principally a Marine combat landing. Then during the 90's, after picking up The Cactus Air Force by Thomas G. Miller, I was of the opinion that Guadal Canal was essentially an air contest. It was also my impression that Marine or air battle, Guadal-Canal was a stand alone battle, the first of many island hopping campaigns. Most people are of the opinion that the Battle of Midway was to the Pacific War what the Battle of Stalingrad was to the European -- the turning point in the war. Frank's history deeply shakes that conviction. The six month campaign, with seven major naval engagements and constant air and ground combat, its outcome continually in doubt, changed the course of the war more than Midway did. Guadal-Canal was our Stalingrad! Thirteen years in the making, Frank's book is a labor of love -- a must read! Back to Cry Havoc #16 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1996 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com