{"title":"Illustrated by Howard Gerrard","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781780961545","title":"The naval battles for Guadalcanal 1942","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA highly illustrated account of the series of naval battles around the embattled island of Guadalcanal in late 1942.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe battle for Guadalcanal that lasted from August 1942 to February 1943 was the first major American counteroffensive against the Japanese in the Pacific. The battle of Savo Island on the night of 9 August 1942, saw the Japanese inflict a severe defeat on the Allied force, driving them away from Guadalcanal and leaving the just-landed marines in a perilously exposed position.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis was the start of a series of night battles that culminated in the First and Second battles of Guadalcanal, fought on the nights of 13 and 15 November. 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Operating a classic pincer attack of the kind that succeeded during the 1942 Kharkov campaign he hoped that the resulting heavy losses inflicted on the Red Army would give the Wehrmacht time to recover its strength. However, the Soviet anticipation of the attack led to extensive losses on both sides as Soviet anti-tank mines and fierce fighting pushed the Germans back, liberating the German-held Orel in the process.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFocusing on the northern front of the battle with Generaloberst, Walter Model’s forces pitted against General Rokossovsky’s Central Front between 5 July and 18 August, this volume will explore both the German offensive and the Soviet counteroffensive. 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Senior British commanders left the North African theater with a jaundiced and dismissive view of the combat capabilities of the inexperienced US Army after the debacle at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia in February 1943. Sicily was a demonstration that the US Army had rapidly learned its lessons and was now capable of fighting as a co-equal of the British Army.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Sicily campaign contained a measure of high drama as Patton took the reins of the Seventh US Army and bent the rules of the theater commander in a bold race to take Palermo on the northern Sicilian coast. 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