Blazing Star, Setting Sun

"In November 1942, the fortunes of the US Navy in the Pacific War had reached their lowest point since Pearl Harbor. The Allied offensive in the South Pacific had stalled, and the battered US Navy had its back to the wall. It was only through the courage and the sheer perseverance of the sailors, the aviators, the soldiers, and the officers who commanded them, that the Allies could withstand the enemy onslaught and slowly push the Japanese out of Guadalcanal. During the tumultuous five months that followed, despite some missteps and misfortunes, American, Australian, and New Zealand forces labored to secure Guadalcanal and begin the drive up the Solomon Islands toward the Japanese fortress at Rabaul. This account gives fresh insight into the hard-fought and costly Allied victories in the First and Second Naval Battles of Guadalcanal, as well as the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in March 1943, during a campaign in which neither side gave any quarter"--Back cover.