Description: "On August 20, 1942, twelve Marine dive-bombers and nineteen Marine fighters landed at Guadalcanal. Their mission: defeat the Japanese navy and prevent it from sending more men and supplies to 'Starvation Island, ' as Guadalcanal was nicknamed. The Japanese were turning the remote, jungle-covered mountain in the south Solomon Islands into an air base from which they could attack the supply lines between the U.S. and Australia. The night after the Marines landed and captured the partially completed airfield, the Imperial Navy launched a surprise night attack on the Allied fleet offshore, resulting in the worst defeat the U.S. Navy suffered in the 20th century, which prompted the abandonment of the Marines on Guadalcanal. ... [This book] follows Major John L. Smith, a magnetic leader who became America's top fighter ace for the time; Captain Marian Carl, the Marine Corps' first ace, and one of the few survivors of his squadron at the Battle of Midway; ... and Major Richard Mangrum, the lawyer-turned-dive-bomber commander whose inexperienced men wrought havoc on the Japanese Navy"--
Review Quotes: "In Fifty Three Days on Starvation Island, author John R. Bruning has crafted a masterful thriller set in the malarial jungles and heavens over Guadalcanal, as a daring band of Marine Corps aviators fought to block the Japanese advance in the fateful early days of World War II. In Bruning's talented hands, readers will feel the terror of aerial combat, endure the heat and depravity of combat in the sultry tropics, and suffer the pain of losing friends and fellow aviators. This is a story of brotherhood, bravery, and the against-all-odds heroism that America so desperately needed as the nation fought to turn the tide of the war. I couldn't put it down."--James M. Scott, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Black Snow and Target Tokyo