This is not an easy read with some disturbing photos. However, it is an extraordinary pictorial commentary on a particularly intense and brutal campaign, and for that reason is a valid piece of history.

Warship World, May/June 2017 - reviewed by PCW-M

Jon Diamond has produced a rare collection of photographs of which, in Britain, is the least known battlefield of the Second World War, the Solomon Islands in the South West Pacific. In 1942, Japan struck ‘south’, destroying America’s Navy in Pearl Harbour and British army in Singapore. This opened the door to seize the Dutch East Indies and brought its army to within 500 miles of Darwin in Australia. Britain, fighting a war on three fronts Europe, Middle East and Burma lacked the means to help Australia. Its government appealed to America and on 7th August 1942 America, having ‘rolled with the blow’, sent in the Marine who fought a gruelling six-month battle, which stopped the Japanese advance and began the advance, island by island as they fought their way to Okinawa.
The photographs, windows to the past, bring the reader face to face with the reality of that war.

Each photograph carries a story line taking the reader through a two-dimensional history of the war in the south Pacific. This is not a coffee table book one but a page turner to be read and reread, finding something new on most occasions.

Richard Gough - Military Author and historian

Another new addition to the very popular Images of War series. This book covers the fight back from 1942. The author has provided some very readable text to accompany the fine selection of images. This is one of the larger books in the series and contains more text with extra pages to ensure a first rate collection of images. Much Recommended

Read the full review here.

Firetrench

Lots of interesting photo references in here, while the text provides an equally interesting background to one of the lesser well known parts of the war in the Pacific. Another good addition to the Images of War series.

Read the full review online here.

Military Model Scene, Robin Buckland