What do you think?
Rate this book
The Cactus Air Force: Air War over Guadalcanal
Using diary entries, interviews and first-hand accounts, this vivid narrative brings to life the struggle in the air over the island of Guadalcanal between August 20 and November 15, 1942.
The battle of Guadalcanal was the first offensive operation undertaken by the US and its allies in the Pacific War. The three months of air battles between August 20, 1942, when the first Marine air unit arrived on the island, and November 15, when the last enemy attempt to retake the island was defeated, were perhaps the most important of the Pacific War. “Cactus,” the code name for the island, became a sinkhole for Japanese air and naval power, as they experienced losses that could never be made good.
For 40 years, the late Eric Hammel interviewed more than 150 American participants in the air campaign at Guadalcanal, none of whom are still alive. These interviews are the most comprehensive first-person accounts of the battle assembled by any historian. More importantly, they involved the junior officers and enlisted men whose stories and memories were not part of the official history, and thus provide a unique insight.
In The Cactus Air Force , Pacific War expert Thomas McKelvey Cleaver worked closely with Eric to build on his collection of diary entries, interviews and first-hand accounts to create a vivid narrative of the struggle in the air over the island of Guadalcanal between August 20 and November 15, 1942.
The battle of Guadalcanal was the first offensive operation undertaken by the US and its allies in the Pacific War. The three months of air battles between August 20, 1942, when the first Marine air unit arrived on the island, and November 15, when the last enemy attempt to retake the island was defeated, were perhaps the most important of the Pacific War. “Cactus,” the code name for the island, became a sinkhole for Japanese air and naval power, as they experienced losses that could never be made good.
For 40 years, the late Eric Hammel interviewed more than 150 American participants in the air campaign at Guadalcanal, none of whom are still alive. These interviews are the most comprehensive first-person accounts of the battle assembled by any historian. More importantly, they involved the junior officers and enlisted men whose stories and memories were not part of the official history, and thus provide a unique insight.
In The Cactus Air Force , Pacific War expert Thomas McKelvey Cleaver worked closely with Eric to build on his collection of diary entries, interviews and first-hand accounts to create a vivid narrative of the struggle in the air over the island of Guadalcanal between August 20 and November 15, 1942.
336 pages, Paperback
Published March 12, 2024
84 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
Eric Hammel
97 books50 followersEric Hammel was born in 1946, in Salem, Massachusetts, and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Central High School of Philadelphia in January 1964 and earned a degree in Journalism from Temple University in 1972. His road to writing military history began at age twelve, when he was stuck in bed for a week with a childhood illness. Eric's father bought him the first paperback book he ever owned, Walter Lord's Day of Infamy. As he devoured the book, Eric realized that he wanted to write books exactly like it, what we now call popular narrative history. Lord had pieced together the book from official records illuminated with the recollections of people who were there. Eric began to write his first military history book when he was fifteen. The book eventually turned out to be Guadalcanal: Starvation Island. Eric completed the first draft before he graduated from high school. During his first year of college, Eric wrote the first draft of Munda Trail, and got started on 76 Hours when he was a college junior. Then Eric got married and went to work, which left him no time to pursue his writing except as a journalism student.
Eric quit school at the end of his junior year and went to work in advertising in 1970. Eric completed his journalism degree in 1972, moved to California in 1975, and finally got back to writing while he operated his own one-man ad agency and started on a family. 76 Hours was published in 1980, and Chosin followed in 1982. At the end of 1983 Eric was offered enough of an advance to write The Root: The Marines in Beirut to take up writing books full time. The rest, as they say, is history.
Eric eventually published under his own imprint, Pacifica Press, which morphed into Pacifica Military History and IPS Books. At some point in the late 1990s, Eric realized he had not written in five years, so he pretty much closed down the publishing operation and pieced together a string of pictorial combat histories for Zenith Press. Eric nominally retired in 2008 and took up writing as a full-time hobby writing two novels, 'Til The Last Bugle Call and Love and Grace. Fast forward to 2018 and Eric was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and on August 25th 2020, Eric passed from this life to the next at the age of 74.
Eric quit school at the end of his junior year and went to work in advertising in 1970. Eric completed his journalism degree in 1972, moved to California in 1975, and finally got back to writing while he operated his own one-man ad agency and started on a family. 76 Hours was published in 1980, and Chosin followed in 1982. At the end of 1983 Eric was offered enough of an advance to write The Root: The Marines in Beirut to take up writing books full time. The rest, as they say, is history.
Eric eventually published under his own imprint, Pacifica Press, which morphed into Pacifica Military History and IPS Books. At some point in the late 1990s, Eric realized he had not written in five years, so he pretty much closed down the publishing operation and pieced together a string of pictorial combat histories for Zenith Press. Eric nominally retired in 2008 and took up writing as a full-time hobby writing two novels, 'Til The Last Bugle Call and Love and Grace. Fast forward to 2018 and Eric was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and on August 25th 2020, Eric passed from this life to the next at the age of 74.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 15, 2022
Noted historian Eric Hammel wrote dozens of books and articles about World War II's battles in the Pacific, and this is his last one as he succumbed to Parkinson's Disease in 2020. With the help of Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, who did much of the organization of Hammel's voluminous material after his passing, Hammel tells the story of the desperate early days of the fight for Guadalcanal and how the hodge-podge collection of fighters and bombers helped stave off the Japanese.
The book is not a complete story of the fight for Guadalcanal, focusing mostly on the naval and aerial battles which occurred prior to the relief of the U.S. Marines by the U.S. Army. Hammel was known for his interviews, and there are plenty of personal stories from soldiers, sailors and aviators who made up what was known as The Cactus Air Force (Cactus was the code name for Guadalcanal and the media came up with the name for the fliers stationed there).
While there might be other books which cover the battle in more detail, this is definitely one of the better ones dealing with the aerial combat over and around Guadalcanal. There's a nice selection of photos, some good (and well-placed) maps, and a narrative which never bogs down.
A fine conclusion to Eric Hammel's excellent career.
The book is not a complete story of the fight for Guadalcanal, focusing mostly on the naval and aerial battles which occurred prior to the relief of the U.S. Marines by the U.S. Army. Hammel was known for his interviews, and there are plenty of personal stories from soldiers, sailors and aviators who made up what was known as The Cactus Air Force (Cactus was the code name for Guadalcanal and the media came up with the name for the fliers stationed there).
While there might be other books which cover the battle in more detail, this is definitely one of the better ones dealing with the aerial combat over and around Guadalcanal. There's a nice selection of photos, some good (and well-placed) maps, and a narrative which never bogs down.
A fine conclusion to Eric Hammel's excellent career.
September 25, 2025
Great book. A quote from the book reads "Until Midway they could have won their war. Until the battle for Guadalcanal, the United States might still have lost it" This book is about the incredible effort those men did with very little to work with. Several years ago I had the honor to meet a Vet who was a airplane mechanic at Guadalcanal. This humble man didn't fully realize the incredible importance of what he did so long ago, and the incredible contribution they made to win the air war over Guadalcanal.
March 25, 2025
Started slow, but once it got off the ground, so-to-speak, it was really enjoyable. And Hammel makes a fairly convincing case that the American victory at Guadalcanal, not Midway, was the real turning point in the Pacific War. If you are interested in the Navy battle of Guadalcanal, see Hornfischers excellent work Neptune's Inferno. Now all I need to do is read the Marines' perspective, and I will have all bases covered.
May 3, 2023
Hammel interviewed many of the Navy and Marine Corps pilots and aircrew who participated in the Guadalcanal campaign. This book tended to put a little more emphasis on the carrier airwar than it did on the Cactus Air Force ashore at Guadalcanal.
June 24, 2024
It was good. Too much was spent not specifically on the air combat.
October 23, 2022
In closing, the authors conclude that the battle for Guadalcanal was the turning point in the Pacific War in World War 2, not Midway. They summarize the ultimate outcome of these seven months as breaking the back of the Imperial Japanese Navy with the sinking, for the first time, of two of the largest battleships, two dreadnaughts, produced in this war, marked the end of Japans ability to wage offensive operations. leaving only defensive strategies. But a reader would not expect that outcome.
The Japanese fielded the most experienced and well-trained Navy in the world designed to fight the upcoming Pacific War while the U.S. Navy was ill-prepared, still using tactics from the last war it fought, while putting inept commanders in leadership positions, only correcting these mistakes after dramatic losses. The battle for Guadalcanal loomed as a defeat for the U.S. Navy, except for the courage, tenacity, and heroism of both Marine and Navy aviators wo struggled with poor equipment, poor facilities, and poor supply lines. In short, the U.S. Navy won the battle only by stumbling into strategies that ultimately succeeded.
The Japanese fielded the most experienced and well-trained Navy in the world designed to fight the upcoming Pacific War while the U.S. Navy was ill-prepared, still using tactics from the last war it fought, while putting inept commanders in leadership positions, only correcting these mistakes after dramatic losses. The battle for Guadalcanal loomed as a defeat for the U.S. Navy, except for the courage, tenacity, and heroism of both Marine and Navy aviators wo struggled with poor equipment, poor facilities, and poor supply lines. In short, the U.S. Navy won the battle only by stumbling into strategies that ultimately succeeded.
December 7, 2022
If you are a fan of World War II history and are looking for very detailed, "in the weeds" description of the Battle of Guadalcanal and the role it played in the overall war in the Pacific, then this is the book for you. While I found the book to be very informative, I found much of it rather dry reading. The majority of the book reads like a string of after-action reports, siting names of allied and enemy ships, amount and types of ammo used, times of days of engagements, latitudes, longitudes, speeds, ect.
The author did drive home several facts that I have read in other books about the Pacific War, manly that one of the decisive factors in Americas victory was Japan's inability to resupply and refurbish its fleet, and match America's productive power. In particular was Japan’s inability to replace it’s trained and experienced manpower. Quoting from the text, “In the air campaign of attrition over Guadalcanal, the Americans were able to rescue 80 percent of the fliers who were shot down, to fly again; the Imperial Navy’s losses were nearly 100 percent.”
Finally, the author makes a convincing argument that Guadalcanal, not Midway was the turning point of the Pacific War.
Again, a good read if this is your area of interest, and you can bear up to this writing style.
The author did drive home several facts that I have read in other books about the Pacific War, manly that one of the decisive factors in Americas victory was Japan's inability to resupply and refurbish its fleet, and match America's productive power. In particular was Japan’s inability to replace it’s trained and experienced manpower. Quoting from the text, “In the air campaign of attrition over Guadalcanal, the Americans were able to rescue 80 percent of the fliers who were shot down, to fly again; the Imperial Navy’s losses were nearly 100 percent.”
Finally, the author makes a convincing argument that Guadalcanal, not Midway was the turning point of the Pacific War.
Again, a good read if this is your area of interest, and you can bear up to this writing style.
February 17, 2023
I gave this 4 stars, probably more of a 3.75. The book is quite well written, lots of detail and anecdotes. I wasn't entirely a fan of the writing style, it did bog down in minutiae from time to time. Contrary to the title, it covers the air and naval war around Guadalcanal. The Cactus AF is really a minor part of the book IMO. A lot more could have been written about the pilots stationed on Guadalcanal itself. Sadly this was not the case. There was much more written about the naval battles and naval aviators flying from the carriers than about the men and their struggles on Guadalcanal. Overall a good read about the total airwar in the Solomons, but, I was disappointed that it did not cover the titled portion very well.
April 19, 2024
This is a serious history of the fight for Guadalcanal. It focuses on the daily operations of the Cactus Air Force but it includes all the relevant naval and land engagements that puts the pilots’ endeavors into perspective. Impressive first person accounts and thorough technical details make this book a great addition to the history of that brutal campaign.
February 15, 2023
Until I started this book I did not know that Eric Hammel had passed... what a loss! Thankfully he and Mr. Cleaver put out one last marvelous collection of first person stories woven into a great narrative.
February 18, 2025
Not quite a James D. Hornfischer book but very good and with a lot of material and events I hadn’t seen from there perspective before. Well organized and very detailed. I liked it very much.
Bill Pace
Bill Pace
July 18, 2025
This book is awesome and should be required reading for those hoping to comprehend the American Pacific War experience. The late Eric Hammel had started this project, a complete history of the Guadalcanal Air campaign , and at his passing another great Air Power historian, Thomas McKelvy Cleaver took the extant notes and finished the job. The result is a great book and a wonderful addition to the Historiography of the Guadalcanal Battle- America's first Island Victory in the great reconquest of the Pacific from the Japanese. Hammel had a mountain of sources, Diaries, Documents and most especially interviews with many participants from his stellar career as an Military Aviation historian- he may have seen this as his final masterpiece. Cleaver takes up the tale as another highly respected Aviation author- using his knowledge of more recent finds and Japanese sources. The result is a narrative that make you feel like you are right along for the battles, as the Americans at the end of a long and tenuous logistics path- fight the Japanese- also at the farthest extent of their new empire. It would turn out that what was dripping out of the American supply system- with Europe given max priority- was still a massive flow compared to what the Japanese could wring from their own coffers.
Whilst many have read about the land war on Guadalcanal, this is the first time I've read the day to day sorties that rose from the airfields the Americans were so straining to capture. Code named "Cactus" for it's position as a thorn in the Japanese perimeter, the fields were kept stocked with new Aircraft from first the Marines and the Navy and eventually the Army Air Corps as well. While ships did the heavy lifting of supplies, some essentials were also supplied by air to the base, as well as first a trickle, and then a stream of pilots to stay operational. American air power was sort of born in that South Pacific maelstrom , the job of the Marines and GIs on the ground- just to hold the airfields so American aircraft could do the real job. The Japanese, for all their experience and capability at Air, Land and Sea warfare, were unable to either supply their land troops enough to take back the airfeild, or mount a killing blow from the air. This was to be the last time the two sides would be as evenly matched, for the Japanese could only produce a hundredth of the Americans' Industrial output, and only a tiny fraction of the pilots needed for real mass aerial combat. In this book the reader sees the Empire bleed out before their eyes in aerial battle after battle- many tactically Japanese successes-but strategically mortal..
There are a few adult themes in this book, and some graphic injury passages, so this book is for the Junior Reader over 11/12 years. For the Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast, this book is a great resource, both directly- for creating dioramas/scenarios- and for really fully comprehending the campaign. If the gamer wanted to get all meta- you can marry up the aerial and the ground campaign (obviously those times that the Aircraft were used to attack ground troops would qualify) and fight the whole campaign simultaneously - but that might be too much. The gamer can get all the Blood Red Skies/Aces High/WWII Aircraft Rules scenarios you want- as long as you have attacking shipping as a possible option (Cruel Seas/Victory at Sea?) -as that was a HUGE part of the story. There are also several ship to ship battles- with some air participation- so many options. The modeler gets a lot of diorama/build ideas- although you will need colour resources as all the books good photos are black and white. For the Military Enthusiast, this book is a great insight into perhaps the Pacific War's most important Campaign- the one where the Republic struck back against the Empire- learning to harness technology(Aircraft/Aircraft Carriers/RADAR) and firepower to dominate the seas- and skies.
Whilst many have read about the land war on Guadalcanal, this is the first time I've read the day to day sorties that rose from the airfields the Americans were so straining to capture. Code named "Cactus" for it's position as a thorn in the Japanese perimeter, the fields were kept stocked with new Aircraft from first the Marines and the Navy and eventually the Army Air Corps as well. While ships did the heavy lifting of supplies, some essentials were also supplied by air to the base, as well as first a trickle, and then a stream of pilots to stay operational. American air power was sort of born in that South Pacific maelstrom , the job of the Marines and GIs on the ground- just to hold the airfields so American aircraft could do the real job. The Japanese, for all their experience and capability at Air, Land and Sea warfare, were unable to either supply their land troops enough to take back the airfeild, or mount a killing blow from the air. This was to be the last time the two sides would be as evenly matched, for the Japanese could only produce a hundredth of the Americans' Industrial output, and only a tiny fraction of the pilots needed for real mass aerial combat. In this book the reader sees the Empire bleed out before their eyes in aerial battle after battle- many tactically Japanese successes-but strategically mortal..
There are a few adult themes in this book, and some graphic injury passages, so this book is for the Junior Reader over 11/12 years. For the Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast, this book is a great resource, both directly- for creating dioramas/scenarios- and for really fully comprehending the campaign. If the gamer wanted to get all meta- you can marry up the aerial and the ground campaign (obviously those times that the Aircraft were used to attack ground troops would qualify) and fight the whole campaign simultaneously - but that might be too much. The gamer can get all the Blood Red Skies/Aces High/WWII Aircraft Rules scenarios you want- as long as you have attacking shipping as a possible option (Cruel Seas/Victory at Sea?) -as that was a HUGE part of the story. There are also several ship to ship battles- with some air participation- so many options. The modeler gets a lot of diorama/build ideas- although you will need colour resources as all the books good photos are black and white. For the Military Enthusiast, this book is a great insight into perhaps the Pacific War's most important Campaign- the one where the Republic struck back against the Empire- learning to harness technology(Aircraft/Aircraft Carriers/RADAR) and firepower to dominate the seas- and skies.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews