Robert Leckie: Challenge for the Pacific

Reischauer, Edwin O., Japan: Past and Present . New York: Knopf, 1964.

Robson, R. W., The Pacific Islands Handbook, 1944 . New York: Macmillan, 1945.

Roscoe, Theodore, United States Destroyer Operations in World War II . Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1953.

———, United States Submarine Operations in World War II . Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1949.

Russell, Lord, of Liverpool, The Knights of Bushido: The Shocking History of Japanese War Atrocities . New York: Dutton, 1958.

Sakai, Saburo, with Caidin, Martin, and Saito, Fred, Samurai: Flying the Zero in WW II with Japan’s Fighter Ace . New York: Ballantine Books, 1963.

Sherrod, Robert, History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II . Washington: Combat Forces Press, 1952.

Sherwood, Robert E., Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History . New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1950.

Shigemitsu, Premier Mamoru, Japan and Her Destiny: My Struggle for Peace . New York: Dutton, 1958.

Simmons, Walter, Joe Foss: Flying Marine . New York: Dutton, 1943.

Sims, Edward H., Greatest Fighter Missions of the Top Navy and Marine Aces of World War II . New York: Harper & Bros., 1962.

Smith, Gen. Holland M., Coral and Brass: Howlin’ Mad Smith’s Own Story of the Marines in the Pacific . New York: Scribner’s, 1949.

Stafford, Cmdr. Edward P., The Big E: The Story of the U.S.S. Enterprise . New York: Random House, 1962.

Stern, Michael, Into the Jaws of Death . New York: McBride, 1944.

The War Reports of General of the Army George C. Marshall, General of the Army H. H. Arnold, and Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King . Philadelphia and New York: Lippincott, 1947.

Tregaskis, Richard, Guadalcanal Diary . New York: Popular Library, 1959.

Tsuji, Masanobu, Singapore: The Japanese Version . New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1960.

United States Navy, Medal of Honor, 1861–1949 . Washington: Naval History Division, 1950.

United States Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific), The Campaigns of the Pacific War . Washington: Naval Analysis Division, 1946.

——— , Interrogations of Japanese Officials , 2 vols. Washington: Naval Analysis Division, 1946.

Vandegrift, General Alexander A., and Asprey, Robert B., Once a Marine: The Memoirs of General A. A. Vandegrift . New York: Norton, 1964.

Williams, Mary H. (Compiler), Chronology 1941–1945 . (“U.S. Army in World War II.”) Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History, 1960.

Willoughby, Lt. Malcom F., The U.S. Coast Guard in World War II . Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1957.

Zimmerman, Maj. John L., The Guadalcanal Campaign . (Marine Corps Historical Monograph.) Washington: Historical Branch, U.S. Marine Corps, 1949.

Jitsuroku Taiheiyo Senso (Personal Records of the Pacific War). This work, as yet unpublished in English, includes the following seven memoirs, all bearing on Guadalcanal.

Gadarukanaru: Guadalcanal , by Col. Masanobu Tsuji, member of the General Staff of the Guadalcanal Expeditionary Forces of the Japanese Army.

Kawaguchi shitai no shito: Struggles of the Kawaguchi Detached Force , by Maj. Gen. Kiyotake Kawaguchi.

Tokyo kyuko: Tokyo Express , by Lt. Senzo Kabashima: His diary of bringing supplies to Guadalcanal aboard destroyer Yudachi .

Ue to shi no kiroku: Record of Hunger and Death , by Maj. Yasuhei Oneda: A personal account of Oneda’s ordeal with the 230th Battalion of the 38th Regiment.

Ningen no genkai: Limit of Human Invulnerability , by Lt. Yasuo Obi, bearer of the colors of the 125th Infantry Regiment with the Kawaguchi Brigade.

Gadarukanaru-to sakusen keikaku: Military Strategy for the Guadalcanal Campaign , by Col. Takushiro Hattori, Chief of the Operations Section of the Imperial Headquarters of the Japanese Army.

Jigoku no mogura yuso: Mole Transportation in the Hell , by Cmdr. Teiji Yamaki, navigation officer of Submarine I-41: Description of attempts to supply the island by submarine.

First Marine Division Final Report . Research & Records (R&R) Historical Branch, U.S. Marine Corps.

Japanese Eighth Fleet War Diary . Office of Naval Records and Library (ONRL). Document No. 161259.

Seventeenth Army Operations . OCMH. File 8-51, AC 34.

The Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II . OCMH. File 8-5.1, AC 127.

Southeast Area Naval Operations . OCMH. File 8-5, AC 48.

Outline of Southeast Area Naval Air Operations , Parts II & III. OCMH. File 8-5.1, AC 121, 122.

Order of Battle of the Japanese Armed Forces . Unclassified document, R&R, File 045930.

Infantry Journal

Field Artillery Journal

Marine Corps Gazette

Leatherneck Magazine

United States Naval Institute Proceedings

ROBERT LECKIE was the author of more than thirty works of military history as well as Marines , a collection of short stories, and Lord, What a Family! , a memoir. Raised in Rutherford, New Jersey, he started writing professionally at age sixteen, covering sports for The Bergen Evening Record of Hackensack. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor, going on to serve as a machine gunner and as an intelligence scout and participating in all First Marine Division campaigns except Okinawa. Leckie was awarded five battle stars, the Naval Commendation Medal with Combat V, and the Purple Heart. Helmet for My Pillow (Random House, 1957) was his first book; it received the Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association award upon publication.

2010 Bantam Books Trade Paperback Edition

Copyright © 1965 by Robert Leckie

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

BANTAM BOOKS and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in hardcover and in slightly different form in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., in 1965.

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to include the following copyrighted material in this book:

Excerpts from A Coastwatcher’s Diary by Martin Clemens. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Excerpts from The Battle for Guadalcanal by Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith II, copyright © 1963 by Samuel B. Griffith II. Published by J. B. Lippencott Company.

Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Excerpts from Strong Men Armed by Robert Leckie, copyright © 1962 by Robert Leckie; Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie, copyright © 1957 by Robert Hugh Leckie. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc., and the author.

Excerpts from Once a Marine: The Memoirs of a General A. A. Vandegrift, U.S.M.C. , as told to Robert B. Asprey, copyright © 1964 by A. A. Vandegrift and R. B. Asprey. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Excerpts from Japanese Destroyer Captain by Commander Tameichi Hara, with Fred Saito and Roger Pineau, copyright © 1961 by Captain Tameichi Hara, Fred Saito, and Roger Pineau. Reprinted by permission of Ballantine Books, Inc.

eISBN: 978-0-553-90824-4

Maps by Liam Dunne