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Carrier Strike: The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands,october 1942
Eric Hammel. It was a Japanese victory-but it spelled the end for Japan in the war at sea. In Carrier Strike, critically acclaimed military historian Eric Hammel gives a blow-by-blow, edge-of-your-seat account of this crucial naval battle-a turning point in the bitter Guadalcanal Campaign. Drawing on American and Japanese battle reports and the recollections of aviators and seamen who were there, Hammel recreates World War II's fourth - and last - carrier versus carrier battle, the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942. Written in the heart-stopping style that Hammel's readers have come to expect, Carrier Strike offers the only up-to-date, up-close, in-depth look at the battle that cost Japan any hope of winning the war in the Pacific.
- GenresHistory
456 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
12 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Eric Hammel
98 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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 21, 2015
At the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Japan scored a carrier victory against the United States and lost the ability to ever do so again. This book tells how that happened.
The Battle of the Eastern Solomons (covered in Hammel's earlier book, Carrier Clash) and the Battle of the Sana Cruz Islands aren't as well known as the Battle of Midway. I suspect this is for the same reason that other shipwrecks, worse shipwrecks, more important shipwrecks than the Titanic are less known than that disaster. Many people, perhaps most, understand history, war, and politics in the form of stories. A classic story has a hero and a villain, interesting side characters, a theme or moral-- in the case of Titanic and Midway, the ever-popular Pride Goeth Before a Fall- and a convenient conclusion that wraps everything up in a nice neat package. The Guadalcanal Campaign wasn't like that. It was a brutal slog, a battle of attrition, and while the conclusion had its clear winner and loser, it was anything but neat.
Historically, though, these battles were vital. This is the bridge point in the Pacific War. Before this, the Allies were just trying to hang on. After, more and more Japan was simply steamrollered by unstoppable masses of weapons and manpower. Here, for a while, things hung in the balance and two closely-matched military powers slugged it out. If you want to know about this turning point you should read this book.
I mark it down to three stars because Carrier Strike and Carrier Clash are too clearly two sections cut from an earlier work that covered both battles. Then, to cater to those who read the second book but not the first, the author repeated entire chapters about background information and naval operations. If one does read both books, these repeated chapters take away from the book's interest.
The Battle of the Eastern Solomons (covered in Hammel's earlier book, Carrier Clash) and the Battle of the Sana Cruz Islands aren't as well known as the Battle of Midway. I suspect this is for the same reason that other shipwrecks, worse shipwrecks, more important shipwrecks than the Titanic are less known than that disaster. Many people, perhaps most, understand history, war, and politics in the form of stories. A classic story has a hero and a villain, interesting side characters, a theme or moral-- in the case of Titanic and Midway, the ever-popular Pride Goeth Before a Fall- and a convenient conclusion that wraps everything up in a nice neat package. The Guadalcanal Campaign wasn't like that. It was a brutal slog, a battle of attrition, and while the conclusion had its clear winner and loser, it was anything but neat.
Historically, though, these battles were vital. This is the bridge point in the Pacific War. Before this, the Allies were just trying to hang on. After, more and more Japan was simply steamrollered by unstoppable masses of weapons and manpower. Here, for a while, things hung in the balance and two closely-matched military powers slugged it out. If you want to know about this turning point you should read this book.
I mark it down to three stars because Carrier Strike and Carrier Clash are too clearly two sections cut from an earlier work that covered both battles. Then, to cater to those who read the second book but not the first, the author repeated entire chapters about background information and naval operations. If one does read both books, these repeated chapters take away from the book's interest.
October 16, 2022
Carrier Strike: The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, October1942
Excellent and detailed commentary by Eric Hammel. Highly recommended reading for any serious study of Pacific Wold War II. Action-gripping.
Excellent and detailed commentary by Eric Hammel. Highly recommended reading for any serious study of Pacific Wold War II. Action-gripping.
April 26, 2013
I now know more about WWII Japanese naval aviation then I ever thought possible. Some good observations are made in the book about the future of the war in the pacific.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews