"When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war - the invasion...

From the Japanese soldiers' carefully calculated-and ultimately foiled-attempt to build a series of impregnable island forts on the ground to the tireless efforts of the Americans who struggled against a tenacious adversary and the temperature and terrain of the island itself, Robert Leckie captures the loneliness, the agony, and the heat of twenty-four-hour-a-day fighting on Guadalcanal. Combatants from both sides are brought to life: General Archer...

"In the summer of 1942, America was still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the humiliating victories of the Japanese throughout the Far East. Then came the battles of the Coral Sea and the pivotal Battle for Midway. Japan had been effectively countered and it was time to launch an attack. The first landing of American forces on a Japanese held island would occur on Guadalcanal, August 7, 1942. This was the opening of a six-month campaign...