Santa Cruz 1942: Carrier duel in the South Pacific Paperback – Illustrated, 20 September 2012

Mark Stille is a great writer and this book is just as well written as the others he has done on the Pacific campaigns. The one star that’s gone here then I believe isn’t really his fault as I’m sure the decision to include the battle of the Eastern Solomons was probably that of Osprey Publishing itself. While I agree that including an overview of the previous carrier battle in the region it important understanding the set up for Santa Cruz, these books are restricted in length and therefor the space devoted to it ( 8 pages in the campaign chapter and at least another in the Opposing Plans chapter ) is a lot of space to take away from the battle this book claims to cover. This space could have been well used to provide more detail especially in the attacks by the US aircraft on the Japanese fleet and on the damage control efforts on Hornet, both of which are lacking in detail, although the attacks by the Japanese are still the focus of this chapter and can’t be complained about. Not only does this decision take space from this book but also likely removes the possibility of a book specificity on Eastern Solomon’s itself, which deserves its own title as it still resulted in a sunk Japanese carrier, can contain the torpedoing of Wasp and Saratoga, and contains almost as many air sorties as Coral Sea. However overall this is still a well written book by a good author, with great photos and artwork, and covers all the main bases. It’s lacking as much of a deep dive analysis of the battle that most of his other titles get which I missed here, but it’s still a good informative read and goes a long way to show that Japan wasn’t beat after Midway as is often portrayed, but how hard this action was on Japanese aircrews, which went a long way to ending further carrier actions until 1944, although as Stille points out there was still the flight decks and crews available to be committed to the campaign around the Solomons that Yamamoto refused to commit, which cost them.

Testo preciso e approfondito di facile lettura anche per chi possiede una conoscenza modesta della lingua inglese.Tratta un argomento poco conosciuto e raramente commentato in lingua italiana,Che però interessa molto gli appassionati del settore.La parte iniziale racconta le vicende dello scontro delle isole Salomone avvenuto nell' agosto 1942.

Nachdem sie bei den östlichen Salomonen eine Beinahe- Niederlage erlitten hatten, konzentrierten sich die Japaner weiter östlich, um den amerikanischen Nachschub zu unterbrechen!Daraus resultierte die erbitterte See- Luft- Schlacht bei den Santa- Cruz- Islands, bei der die japanische Marineführung endgültig ihre Optionen auf eine Entscheidungsschlacht mit den Amerikanern hergaben.Das Büchlein beschreibt sämtliche Flottengruppierungen beider Seiten, ihre Ziele und die Schicksale der einzelnen Schiffe dieser bedeutenden See- Luft- Schlacht, die versehentlich von beiden Seiten nicht bis zum Äußersten durchgefochten wurde.Das japanische Marine- Oberkommando verpasste hier seine letzte Gelegenheit. die Amerikaner entscheidend auf Jahre hinaus zurückzuschlagen! Die verbissenen Duelle um Guandalcanal verzögerten die Entscheidung nur um einige Monate!Ein super- detailliertes Buch mit vielen Abbildungen und Zeichnungen, sowie etlichen Karten und 3- D Flug- Angriffs- Simulationen. Die Fibel ist jeden Cent ihres Kaufpreises wert!

This is the third carrier duel of 1942 that Mr Stille has campaigned. The first occurred in the Coral Sea in May and of course at Midway the following month.In his introduction the coverage of these two earlier duels are quickly covered to provide background information and to set the stage for the final carrier battle of the year though there will be plenty of other naval action around Guadalcanal. The author spends time not only on the actual engagements but also on the planning of those battles as well as the key officers propagating all three battles. Numerous officers are covered but Yamamoto, Nagumo are key on the Japanese side while Halsey, Fletcher and Kinkaid have the most influence on the American side. During this introduction and throughout the book, you'll have brief insights as to what drives each of these key people.After the discussion of officers, an excellent critique of the opposing fleets, listing the arsenals of both sides is given; it's the second largest chapter in the book and culminates with Orders of Battle. The chapter was very good, making it easier for the reader to follow the hour by hour coverage of the carrier battle.By the time the Campaign starts, the reader will have a good understanding of who was involved, what ships and planes were involved as well as the locations of the different carriers and the difficulties of finding and destroying those carriers. The campaign is 53 pages long and provides an hour by hour overview of the battle. Not only was this chapter of battle events enlightening, the author's analysis of the events and more importantly of the officers added to the overall effectiveness of the book. Mr Stille was critical of the over aggressive Halsey and less so on Fletcher. The over confidence of Yamamoto and others in the IJN were shown to precipitate poor planning that would cause excessive losses in these three campaigns.Included with this campaign were eight maps that showed fleet movements and locations, several colored action scenes and a hour by hour chronology. There was also a fine gallery of photos showing key people, the carriers and other ships involved and action scenes of planes attacking enemy carriers. These photos clearly will help the reader visualize the actions on that fateful day in late October, 1942.This campaign shows that even after the disastrous losses at Midway, the Japanese still had the determination and means to inflict damage on the US Navy. It also shows US determination and courage to engage a superior enemy force so soon after Pearl Harbor when the Pacific fleet was at its weakest. This trilogy of carrier campaigns plus the author's Raid on Pearl Harbor will go far to bring the reader up to speed on many of the opening events of the Pacific War. All of these campaigns are highly recommended to anybody having an interest in the early months of the Pacific War when the US began its response to stem Japanese Imperialism.

There are some very good and extremely well-informed reviews. For what it is worth here are my thoughts on the book.Yamamoto spoke no more than the truth when he said that Japan's hope for victory in this [upcoming] war was limited by time and oil. 1942 - It was important that the Japanese naval forces hoped to be involved conclusive defeat U.S. naval forces, especially carrier forces – as so far the Pacific war had been waged primarily by carrier groups. The opposing forces never actually seeing each other. The result was a close run thing. This Osprey publication shows, the reader how crucial this battle was in the scheme of things. The way, in which the battle ebbed and flowed, included are excellent pictorials, there are useful and well-illustrated maps. Over all exceptional facts based narrative that deserves 5 stars. For those interested in Pacific war this is must read.