THE CACTUS AIR FORCE: Air War Over Guadalcanal

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For 40 years from 1961, the late Eric Hammel interviewed more than 150 American participants in the air campaign at Cactus -- the code name for the island Guadalcanal. These interviews are the most comprehensive first-person accounts of the battle assembled by any historian. More importantly, they involved the junior officers and enlisted men whose stories and memories were not part of the official history, thus providing a unique insight.

The battle of Guadalcanal was the first offensive operation undertaken by the US and its allies in the Pacific War. The three months of air battles between August 20, 1942, when the first Marine air unit arrived on the island, and November 15, when the last enemy attempt to retake the island was defeated, proved to be a disaster for Japanese air and naval power, experienced forces whose losses could never be made good.