Peter MerskyBesprekingen

This was an excellent short read.

This booklet is one of the 25 in the "Marines in World War II Commemorative Series", published by the U.S. Marine Corps. As the title indicates, this booklet is about the Marine Corps pilots during the World War II operations in the Solomon Islands, between 1942 and 1944. It is well illustrated. There is a good map of the Solomons, New Britain, New Ireland, etc. There should be something that shows where The Solomons are in relation to Australia and the rest of the world. There is no table of contents nor any index. There is a good bibliography in Sources, at the end.

Sidebars:
-- ' CUB One' at Guadalcanal
-- The Aircraft in the Conflict
-- Marine Corps Aviators Who Received the Medal of Honor in World War II
-- Brigadier General Roy S. Geiger, USMC
-- Comparative Table for the Main Types pf Fighters (an extensive table covering two aircraft for each of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Air Force, Japanese Navy and Japanese Army aircraft)
-- Japanese Pilots in the Solomons Air War
-- Researching the Aces' Scores
-- USMC Aces During the Period August 1942-April 1944

Some minor issues:
-- The data about Lt. Col. Bauer's Medal of Honor confuses me. On page 14, it states 'for service from May to November 1942'. On page 18, it states 'posthumously for his flight on 16 October'.
-- The data about 1st Lt. Walsh's Medal of Honor confuses me. (It's obvious I'm prone to that state.) On page 14, it states 'for action on 15 and 30 August 1943'. On page 23, the caption for the picture states 'for a mission on 30 August 1943'.
-- Is the Japanese pilot's name Sasai (picture caption on page 31 and text on page 32) or Sadai (picture caption on page 33)? Or are they different pilots? Sakai on page 32 is a totally different pilot.

Read from November 22 to 23, 2010.½