Midnight in the Pacific

A sweeping narrative history of America's first major offensive of WII: the brutal campaign to take Japanese-occupied Guadalcanal.

From August to November of 1942, US Marines, sailors, and pilots struggled against an implacable enemy: Japanese soldiers, inculcated with the bushido tradition of death before dishonor. The glittering prize was the strategically decisive Henderson Airfield.

The bitter slugfest dragged on with heavy losses on both sides. More American sailors died in these battles than in all previous US wars. Each side lost twenty-four warships, and the air war claimed more than 500 US planes. Meanwhile, starving Japanese soldiers called it “the island of death.”

In the end, American Marines, sailors, and airmen had finally halted the Japanese juggernaut that had whirled through Asia and the Pacific for five years. Guadalcanal was America's first major ground victory against Japan and, most importantly, the Pacific War's turning point.

Drawing on vivid accounts written by the combatants, along with Marine Corps and Army archives and oral histories, Midnight in the Pacific is both a sweeping narrative and a compelling drama of individual Marines, soldiers, and sailors caught in the crosshairs of history.