This continues the story from volume 1, which told the story of August and September. Now for volume 2 and which is confined to the story of the battles in October 1942. At the heart of the story are the fortunes of Henderson Field, on Guadalcanal, home to American units best known as the 'Cactus Air Force', where Cactus was the US codename for Guadalcanal. It was an airfield originally started by the Japanese but captured and then used by the US Marines. At the start of the book is a map of the region, with the Solomons and Guadalcanal at the centre, plus Japanese forces to the North East in New Britain, while US and Australian units were south east, in the New Hebrides and New Caledonia, with the Santa Cruz islands to the east. The distances between them all was a major factor in the story, while Japanese units used destroyers to bring reinforcements at night to the army forces on Guadalcanal, the so-called 'Tokyo Express' sailing down 'The Slot'. US forces tried to stop them and there was a foray into the area by the USS Hornet, which then withdrew. A wide variety of aircraft types were used by both sides, including a good mix of flying boats and smaller floatplanes, fighters such as Wildcats and Zeros, plus bombers such as B-17s and Japanese Bettys. Mixed fortunes for both sides throughout the month, and rounded off with another carrier battle at the Battle of Santa Cruz, which resulted in the loss of the USS Hornet.
While this is a follow on from volume 1, I think this does make interesting reading just by itself. The story is illustrated with archive photos throughout the book, along with plenty of useful colour profile artwork of the many aircraft types involved. Plenty of instances of overclaiming but having had reference to official records from both sides, the accurate data, which even includes the names of the aircrew, I found this an really good read.

Military Model Scene

"Highly recommended."

Aviation News - June 2024