Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Solomons Campaigns 1942-1943 From to Bougainville Turning Point by Willi The Solomons Campaigns 1942-1943: From Guadalcanal to Bougainville Pacific War Turning Point by William L. McGee. From Guadalcanal to Bougainville. A new book by William L. McGee. Click here and print out our order form. THE SOLOMONS CAMPAIGNS 1942-1943, From Guadalcanal to Bougainville� Pacific War Turning Point, Volume II By William L. McGee Review by John Cummer Editor, The Elsie Item LCI (Landing Craft, Infantry) National Assn. Our friend . Bill McGee, who did such a fine job of telling the story of the early days of Flotilla Five in The Amphibians Are Coming !, has produced another impressive, interesting and highly readable account. This time, broadening his scope to include all services, he has produced a meticulously researched history that anyone interested in this early and decisive campaign will treasure. It could well become the definitive work on the campaigns. With this broader perspective, LCL veterans will see more clearly t heir particular roles. It gives one a sense of, "Ah, now I see how what we did fit into the whole picture!" The LCI veteran will need to exercise some patience when first opening the book looking specifically for what it has to say about LCIs. The prelude to the war, strategic decisions relating to Guadalcanal/Bougainville, and the story of the six-month struggle for Guadalcanal all are dealt with before specifics of amphibious operations involving LCIs, as well as LCTs and LSTs, are introduced. The shore-to -shore Landing Craft story begins to unfold in McGee's fifth chapter with t he account of the formation of a most formidable sounding organization: ComLanCraFlotSoPac (Commander, Landing Craft Flotillas, South Pacific) and its commander. Rear Admiral George H. Fort. This organization became necessary with the arrival, in significant numbers, of the first LCIs, LCTs and LSTs in the South Pacific. From that point forward in McGee's book, prominence is given to the roles of each of these types. If you have read McGee's Volume I, The Amphibians Are Coming !, you know that it. centers on the activities of Flotilla Five and , as far as LCIs are concerned, on the war diary of LCI-334, as provided by LT(jg) Al Ormston, skipper of the 334. In this volume, McGee continues this literary device of illustrating the general by the particular and it works well for it would have been a formidable task, indeed, to trace the involvement of all the LCIs. He is not, however, slavishly limited to the 334 alone. Time and again accounts of incidents involving other LCIs are woven into the story. All 26 LCIs in LCI Flotilla Five, commanded by Commander Chester L. Walton, are included in the narrative and several are pictured as well. I was particularly interested to leam the name of the man responsible for me idea of converting LCIs into gunboats. McGee tells us that it was Captain Roy T. "Slim" Cowdrey, a ship repair officer on the staff of Admiral Halsey, who came up with the idea and directed, first, the changes of LCIs 22 and 23 and eventually by December of 1943, the 21, 24, 67, 68, 69 and 70 into gunboats. It is such details, as well as the entertaining and enlightening anecdotes that McGee includes, that make this book such a good read. Get yourself a copy; get into your favorite chair; tell the family not to bother you; and settle down for a great evening of reading and remembering. You'll be glad you did. For more information on The Amphibians Are Coming! Click here Also check out Mr. McGee's other book Bluejacket Odyssey. A added bonus for us is if you order the book using our order form that is linked below before December 31,2001 we will receive 20% from each sale to help support our web site. Click here and print out our order form. Japanese Eighth Area Army.

The Japanese Eighth Area Army ( 第8方面軍 , Dai-hachi hōmen gun ? ) was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Contents. History [ edit | edit source ] The Japanese 8th Area Army was formed on November 16, 1942 under the Southern Expeditionary Army Group for the specific task of opposing landings by Allied forces in Japanese-occupied and New Guinea. [1] It had its headquarters at Rabaul, New Britain and saw considerable combat in the Solomon Islands campaign, Bougainville campaign and New Guinea campaign. [2] William McGee Books. Wrangler, writer, broadcaster, World War II Pacific war historian. The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943. THE SOLOMONS CAMPAIGNS, 1942-1943 From Guadalcanal to Bougainville, Pacific War Turning Point by William L. McGee Vol. II, Amphibious Operations in the South Pacific in WWII. Winner of the Military Writers Society of America Silver Medal for History. “Enough gripping drama, heroism, and heartbreak in McGee’s almost encyclopedic “The Solomons Campaigns” to supply Hollywood with material for a century.” – Marine Corps League Magazine. About The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943. The Battle of Midway was fought 4–6 June 1942 and became the first major turning point in the Pacific war. Two months later, beginning on 7 August 1942 and continuing to 25 November 1943, bloody battles were fought in the Solomon Islands. When they were over, these battles became known as the Solomons Campaigns – the second major turning point in the Pacific war. Under one cover, award-winning WWII military historian William L. McGee provides a definitive account of all the Solomons campaigns: Part I, The Southern Solomons Campaigns covers the bloody six-month struggle for Guadalcanal. The relationship between ground fighting, naval warfare, and air combat is described in detail, as first one side and then the other gains the advantage. Seven major naval engagements are recounted: The Battle of , 9 August 1942 The Battle of the Bloody Ridge, 12-14 September 1942 The Battle of Cape Esperance, 11-12 October 1942 The Battle for Henderson Field, 19-26 October 1942 The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 26-27 October 1942 The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 12-15 November 1942 The Battle of Rennell Island, 29-30 January 1943. Part II, The Central Solomons Campaigns chronicles the amphibious operations in the Islands group, including the five separate landings at Rendova, Segi Point, Viru Harbor, Wickham Anchorage, three more significant naval battles – Battle of , Battle of Kolombangar, Battle of – and the occupation of . Part III, The Northern Solomons Campaigns recounts the Seizure of the Treasury Islands, the Choiseul Diversion, the Bougainville campaign, plus the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay and the Battle of Cape St. George. Finally, the many valuable lessons learned during the Solomons Campaigns are summarized, ranging from logistic support and force requirements to offshore toeholds and leapfrogging, most becoming doctrine in later Pacific campaigns. “ As a Marine who landed on Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942, Bill McGee’s “The Solomons Campaigns” is the most comprehensive book I’ve read on the subject. It covers all the campaigns – Southern, Central and Northern – and sums up the tough lessons learned. It brings back memories of those very dark days. Semper Fi. “ – William J. Carroll, President, Guadalcanal Campaign Veterans. Book Specs. 688 pp, 310 B&W photographs, 44 maps, plus charts, notes, appendices, bibliography, and index Paperback $39.95 BMC Publications, 2001. Other titles in the series. Editorial Reviews of The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943. MILITARY WRITERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA, May 2018 The Solomons Campaigns by William L. McGee… incredibly detailed and exhaustingly researched. Click to read full review. MARINE CORPS LEAGUE Magazine, Summer 2002 Blow by Blow Through the Solomons – One real-life incident during World War II was the inspiration for the box office success, “Saving Private Ryan”… However, there is enough gripping drama, heroism, and heartbreak in McGee’s almost encyclopedic The Solomons Campaigns to supply Hollywood with material for a century …. It is difficult to select what to excerpt from his narrative, because his spare but effective style is as precise and economical as a Mickey Spillane novel … His narrative is copiously supplemented with photographs, tables, stats, command lists, and even official critiques of operations and lessons learned. He drew extensively on a variety of sources to tell the whole tale: records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy, Marine, Army and Army Air Corps archives, Japanese records, veterans’ accounts, memoirs, and other histories of the campaigns. And, as with a good Spillane novel, his tale bears repeated readings. — Edward Cline. LIBRARY JOURNAL , March 1, 2002 A World War II navy veteran and prolific author, McGee has written the second of a three-volume set that will form a definitive account of naval, sea, and land operations in the South Pacific, where America’s response to Pearl Harbor began. McGee’s narrative coverage in this second volume is encyclopedic, providing concise details of operations, often on a daily basis. His introductory essay is an informative summary of events from 1931 to 1941 that illustrates how these events led up to World War II. An exhaustive list of sources and notes creates a solid background for a detailed but readable text. In addition to battle history, the book discusses logistics, tactics, and the deployment of forces. Most useful is the author’s analysis of the campaigns (“Lessons Learned in the Solomons”). Numerous interviews and recollections of veterans bring in the war’s human side, and a long list of military abbreviations and designations aids the reader, as do photos, maps, and charts. This work is a thoroughgoing historical record and analysis that historians and scholars will find invaluable . Recommended for academic and large public libraries and for specialized collections.— David M. Alperstein. LEATHERNECK , Magazine of the Marines, April 2002 Author William L. McGee’s The Solomons Campaigns is intended to accomplish a mighty task: to encompass the entire Solomons campaigns in a single, detailed study. The result is a masterpiece outlining U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations in the South Pacific from Aug. 7, 1942, through Nov. 25, 1943. As McGee points out, there is no other single work of this detail that covers such a large expanse in time and space…. McGee is particularly qualified to document the Solomons campaigns. He knows the fear and frustration of torpedo and aerial attack, the monotony of endless watches and the thrill of victory because he was a young enlisted sailor serving in the waters off Guadalcanal, as well as during other engagements throughout the Pacific campaign … The reader who desires to see life through the eyes of the men who actually manned the guns, fought the fires and stood mind-numbing “go on, stay on” watches, will come away with an enlightened appreciation of just how good our sailors and Marines are. The indexes and appendices are the book’s crown jewels —detailed and easily accessible as a starting point for further research. McGee has done an absolute superb job here, and future authors will benefit from his efforts. Overall, the book is a great read worthy of any Marine’s time and efforts.— Capt. Scott E. Ukeiley. SEA CLASSICS Magazine , April 2002 The same penchant for authentic detail is evident in McGee’s latest companion volume entitled The Solomons Campaigns: 1942-1943. Certainly one of the longest of the hard-fought Pacific battles, the six-month campaign to secure these islands fills this Volume II with enough dynamic action, derring-do, brutal horror and conflict to keep one on the edge of his chair for days on end. Astute use of photos and maps helps clarify many engagements, making these offerings a must read for anyone interested in the perils of amphibious warfare.— Rod E. Redman & Myrle Chivers. WWII HISTORY Magazine , March 2003 The Solomons Campaigns is a broad-ranging and informative study, a masterwork of extensive research, brisk prose, and convincing analysis . Besides being a wonderfully comprehensive overview of operations in the Solomons, from Tulagi and Savo Island to Tassafaronga and Rennell Island, McGee’s volume provides considerable detail about the American and Japanese sea, ground, and air units involved; planning and logistics; leaders and heroes; equipment and weaponry; the costs and lessons learned. SANTA BARBARA NEWS-PRESS , April 7, 2002 The Solomons Campaigns is filled with graphic photographs, maps and even daily journal entries on the various aspects of Solomons Islands campaigns. Not only does one follow the landing craft warfare, but the ground fighting, the air war and naval battles as well. Mr. McGee shows both sides of the conflict. — Fred Klein. Kiyoto Kagawa.

Kiyoto Kagawa ( 香川 清登 , Kagawa Kiyoto ? , 11 December 1895 – 26 November 1943) , was a rear admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Contents. Biography. Kagawa was born in Hiroshima. He graduated from the 46th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, ranked 53rd out of 124 cadets. He served as midshipman on the cruiser Azuma , and as ensign on the cruiser Aso and destroyers Ariake and Susuki . After his promotion to lieutenant, and tours of duty aboard the battleship Fusō and cruiser Natori , Kagawa attended advanced navigational training courses at the Naval War College (Japan). On graduation and after promotion to lieutenant commander in 1930, he was assigned as chief navigator on a number of ships, including the cruisers Yūbari and Takao , and battleship Fusō . He received his first command — the destroyer Fubuki — on 16 November 1936. He then was captain of the destroyer Shionome and executive officer of the cruiser Ōi . Kagawa was promoted to captain on 15 October 1941, and after a series of staff positions, was appointed commander of the 31st Destroyer Group (Desdiv 31) on 12 February 1943. Kagawa's group consisted of the destroyers Ōnami (flagship), Makinami , Amagiri , Yūgiri and Uzuki . During the Battle of Cape St. George on 26 November 1943, Onami was sunk and Kagawa was killed in action. He was posthumously promoted to rear admiral. Solomon Islands campaign. The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, during the first six months of 1942. The Japanese occupied these locations and began the construction of several naval and air bases with the goals of protecting the flank of the Japanese offensive in New Guinea, establishing a security barrier for the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain, and providing bases for interdicting supply lines between the Allied powers of the United States and Australia and New Zealand. The Allies, in order to defend their communication and supply lines in the South Pacific, supported a counteroffensive in New Guinea, isolated the Japanese base at Rabaul, and counterattacked the Japanese in the Solomons with landings on Guadalcanal (see Guadalcanal Campaign) and small neighboring islands on 7 August 1942. These landings initiated a series of combined-arms battles between the two adversaries, beginning with the Guadalcanal landing and continuing with several battles in the central and northern Solomons, on and around New Georgia Island, and . In a campaign of attrition fought on land, on sea, and in the air, the Allies wore the Japanese down, inflicting irreplaceable losses on Japanese military assets. The Allies retook some of the Solomon Islands (although resistance continued until the end of the war), and they also isolated and neutralized some Japanese positions, which were then bypassed. The Solomon Islands campaign then converged with the New Guinea campaign. Contents. Background [ edit | edit source ] Strategic background [ edit | edit source ] On December 7, 1941, after failing to resolve a dispute with the United States over Japan's actions in China and French Indochina, the Japanese attacked the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack crippled most of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's battleships and started a formal state of war between the two nations. Attacks on British Empire possessions in the Pacific, beginning with an attack on Hong Kong almost simultaneous with the Pearl Harbor attack, brought the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand into the conflict. In launching this war, Japanese leaders sought to neutralize the U.S. fleet, seize possessions rich in natural resources, and obtain strategic military bases to defend their far-flung empire. In the words of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet Secret Order Number One, dated November 1, 1941, the goals of the initial Japanese campaigns in the impending war were to, "(eject) British and American strength from the Netherlands Indies and the Philippines, (and) to establish a policy of autonomous self-sufficiency and economic independence." [4] The Empire of Japan accomplished its initial strategic objectives in the first six months of the war, capturing the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, Wake Island, New Britain, Gilbert Islands, and Guam. A Japanese goal was to establish an effective defensive perimeter from British India on the west, through the Dutch East Indies on the south, and to island bases in the south and central Pacific as its southeastern line of defense. Anchoring its defensive positions in the South Pacific was the major Japanese army and navy base at Rabaul, New Britain, which was captured in January 1942. In March and April, Japanese forces occupied and began constructing an airfield at Buka in northern Bougainville, as well as an airfield and naval base at Buin, in southern Bougainville. [5] Japanese advance into the Solomons [ edit | edit source ] In April 1942, the Japanese army and navy together initiated Operation Mo, a joint plan to capture Port Moresby in New Guinea. Also part of the plan was a navy operation to capture Tulagi in the southern Solomons. The objective of the operation was for the Japanese to extend their southern perimeter and to establish bases to support possible future advances to seize Nauru, Ocean Island, New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa and thereby cut the supply lines between Australia and the United States, with the goal of reducing or eliminating Australia as a threat to Japanese positions in the South Pacific. The Japanese Navy also proposed a future invasion of Australia, but the army answered that it currently lacked enough troops to support such an operation. [6] Japanese naval forces successfully captured Tulagi but its invasion of Port Moresby was repulsed at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Shortly thereafter, the Japanese navy established small garrisons on the other northern and central Solomon Islands. One month later, the Japanese Combined Fleet lost four of its fleet aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway. [7] The Allies countered the threats to Australia by a build-up of troops and aircraft, [8] with the aim of implementing plans to approach and reconquer the Philippines. In March 1942 Admiral Ernest King, then Commander-in Chief of the U. S. Fleet, had advocated an offense from New Hebrides through the Solomon Islands to the Bismarck Archipelago. [9] Following the victory at Midway, General Douglas MacArthur, who had taken command of the South West Pacific Area, proposed a lightning offense to retake Rabaul, which the Japanese were fortifying and using as a base of operations. The United States Navy advocated a more gradual approach from New Guinea and up the Solomon Island chain. These competing proposals were resolved by Admiral King and U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, who adopted a three-task plan. Task One was the capture of the island of Tulagi in the Solomons. Task Two was an advance along the New Guinea coast. Task Three was the capture of Rabaul. Task One, implemented by a directive of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 2 July 1942 and named the initial attacks Operation Watchtower, [10] became the Solomon Islands campaign. Course of campaign [ edit | edit source ] The Allies created a combined air formation, Cactus Air Force, establishing air superiority during the daylight hours. The Japanese then resorted to nightly resupply missions which they called "Rat Transportation" (and the Allies called "the ") through New Georgia Sound ("The Slot"). Many pitched battles were fought trying to stop Japanese supplies from getting through. So many ships were lost by both sides during the Guadalacanal campaign that the southern end of New Georgia Sound, the area north of Guadalcanal previously called Savo Sound, became known as "". Allied success in the Solomon Islands campaign prevented the Japanese from cutting Australia and New Zealand off from the U.S. Operation Cartwheel — the Allied grand strategy for the Solomons and New Guinea campaigns — launched on June 30, 1943, isolated and neutralized Rabaul and destroyed much of Japan's sea and air supremacy. This opened the way for Allied forces to recapture the Philippines and cut off Japan from its crucial resource areas in the Netherlands East Indies. The Solomons campaign culminated in the often bitter fighting of the Bougainville Campaign, which continued until the end of the war.