Guadalcanal Marine

by Kerry L. Lane

Overview

In the midst of the pitched battle for Cape Gloucester, a young Marine powered a bull-dozer to bridge Suicide Creek and lead his comrades to victory. For bravery and ingenuity under fire, Kerry L. Lane received the Silver Star, and he received the Purple Heart for wounds he sustained on Cape Gloucester. In Guadalcanal Marine, Lane recounts the dark reality of combat experienced by the men of the 1st Marine Division fighting on Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester. With eighty gripping photographs and his text, he brings to life the struggles of his companions as they achieve these two astonishing victories. Lane describes the trials of the common Marine serving in the first grueling island campaign. In vivid prose he tells of joining the service at the age of sixteen and of training. Soon after the shocking news of Pearl Harbor, he and his trusted comrades fight the Japanese in one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific. In the tropics, Lane and his companions suffer malaria and dysentery, endure jungle rot and oppressive heat, and grapple with an enemy who fights to the death. Throughout the book, Lane bares the experience of the average Marine and his historic World War II journey, revealing how one North Carolina farm boy became a Corps hero and ultimately finished his military career as a lieutenant colonel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604730555
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	09/18/2009
Series:	Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	358
File size:	7 MB

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	Abbreviations and Terms	xiii
	Key to Military Map Symbols	xv
Part I	Guadalcanal
1	Making of a Marine	3
2	Preparing for Combat	15
3	Wartime Expansion	33
4	Shoving off to Make History	40
5	Guadalcanal, Their Finest Hour	71
6	Stranded	106
7	The Battle of the Tenaru	133
8	The Battle of Bloody Ridge	162
9	After the Ridge	175
10	September Matanikau Action	211
11	October Matanikau Battle	219
12	Second Assault on Bloody Ridge	244
13	The Final Phase of the Campaign	251
14	Guadalcanal in Perspective	259
15	Departing for the Land Down Under	266
16	Australia Remembered	272
17	Going Back to War	285
Part II	Cape Gloucester
18	Cape Gloucester, the Green Inferno	293
19	The Battle of Suicide Creek	303
20	Cape Gloucester in Perspective	320
21	Pavuvu	328
22	Homeward Bound	331
23	The Last Post	337
	Glossary	343
	Notes	345
	Bibliography	351
	Index	353