One thing that WWII did in terms of naval strategy and tactics was to put an end to the battleship as the king of the fleet. It did not stop nations from building them, but their role had changed from the 'sharp end' of the spear, to a supporting role as shore bombardment. Not that there were not ship vs ship gun actions, but those were minimal.

What became dominant was the aircraft carrier. Enough airplanes could sink a ship, but an aircraft carrier was a rather vulnerable target. It is interesting to note that in no case when a US carrier was hit with a torpedo did it survive. Bombs, yes, but not a torpedo. The Japanese were masters at torpedo warfare in the early war. They had the trained crews and some wartime experience in China to draw upon. They also knew how to integrate their attach forces and while their defensive cover was subject to issues as was seen at Midway, the Japanese learned quickly.

The events of the 'forgotten carrier battle' at Santa Cruz in late 1942 turned out to be the best result the Japanese had against US forces and while a tactical victory, was a strategic loss. Much of this loss was in aircraft and air crew. The Japanese lost a prodigious number of crew and training new ones not only took a long time, but lost was the experience of these crews. Not to say the US got away well in this regard, but they came off better than the Japanese in terms of crew and aircraft loss. What's more, they kept the Japanese from decimating Guadalcanal forces and pretty well turned the tide of the campaign.

In this latest book in the Campaign series, author Mark Stille takes a look at the evolving tactics and strategy of both sides during these early war months and shows both the strengths and weaknesses of various plans and tactics. The US, for instance, had very poor CAP control and even worse tactics in terms of an integrated strike force. This led to only damaging Japanese carriers while the Japanese sank one of the only two US carriers in the Pacific at that time.

The book looks at the admirals involved in the operations as well as their plans for the coming battle. We also get a look at the tools of the battle, the aircraft and ships of the two sides. A pretty hefty introduction to the battle is provided to show how tactics changed over time. Then much is put into the campaign itself, looking at it from both sides. Finally, we learn how this event affected future campaigns. As with all books in this series, there are excellent period photos, including many taken during the battles and the superb artwork of Howard Gerrard to add that much more to it.

If you want insight into an operation that has not really had that much ' press', and you want a fascinating read, then this is the book for you. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I'm sure you will as well.

November 2012

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