Dark Waters, Starry Skies - The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign - March-October 1943

The Solomons Islands was the venue for a major campaign during the war in the Pacific. In common with the Battle of Stalingrad thousands of miles away, it started in the second half of 1942 when fortunes began, very gradually, to turn in favour of the allied nations. Stalingrad was an attritional, six month long battle; the Solomons Campaign, of a similar nature, dwarfed it in longevity by effectively lasting until 1945. Jeffrey Cox’s book is the third volume of a proposed quartet about this conflict in the South Pacific. The strategic importance of the region for the Japanese was to provide a security barrier for the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain and a stepping off point to disrupt supply lines and communication between the United States and Australasia. The crucial aim for the Allies was to maintain that route. The narrative begins in the latter stages of the battle to re-take the island of Guadalcanal and continues with the ensuing Allied offensive in North Georgia some 200 miles to the northwest. This part of the campaign was particularly hard fought, faltering at times in the face of stiff Japanese resistance. The mountainous and often remote terrain coupled with the oppressive, tropical climate, served to hinder advancement. This was a campaign on land, sea and in the air. However, one factor, increasing allied air superiority, was crucial. The Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway had not only deprived the Axis power of four of its precious aircraft carriers but with it the cream of its naval pilots who had greatly helped their country to achieve unmatched sea control over a vast area the previous year. Dark Waters, Starry Skies is a long book, meticulously researched, with no fewer than 47 pages of endnotes using both American and Japanese sources. Moreover, it is a very balanced account of a complicated and often fragmentary war. Cox is equally praiseworthy and critical of the leaders on both sides and unequivocal in his condemnation of some of the decision-making. Several of the top brass involved receive his unreserved opprobrium, such as General Douglas MacArthur, although it is surprising to read that he and another oversized personality, Admiral ‘Bull’ Halsey, immediately ‘hit it off’ when they first met. We are told that the author is not a career historian and this factor, together with a conversational American style, will be unfamiliar to many and can be distracting when trying to follow and make sense both of the intricacies of the campaign and also the wider strategic course of the War in the Pacific. In this respect, one small map of the region is inadequate. On the other hand, the diagrammatic illustrations of the destroyer/cruiser battles which took place during this period are useful additions to the narrative. Jeffrey Cox’s account is ‘bookended’ by an examination of the events surrounding a Japanese war crime involving Christian missionaries which took place at sea off New Ireland in March 1943. Even from this distance in time it is shocking to read – a pointless and brutal atrocity amidst the relentless slaughter of war.