Mr. Bergerud and Mr. Lanzendoerfer write:

<< About time that someone writes about it. There'sn't (I guess my English teacher >would have been pretty mad now) much about the stepping up of the Solomons
>ladder, is there? Though to my shame I must admit I have not yet bought the
>land-war book, I guess you have a customer for this one.
>
>Tim

Guadalcanal has gotten a lot of attention. 1943 and New Guinea in general
kind of sunk into a black hole. Pity really: the Japanese air forces had
their guts ripped out in 43 not 42 and its a story that’s rarely told. One
reason that we cut them to ribbons in the Central Pacific in 44 is that
th >>

It is true that the campaign in the central and northern Solomons has not
gotten anything like the attention that Guadalcanal has. Apart from the
official histories, Mr. Bergerud’s book (which I bought a few months ago and
am looking forward to reading) is about the only major history covering that
period as a whole. There have in recent years, however, been several
additional books on the period. Eric Hammel wrote a book on the New Georgia
campaign called “Munda Trail,” and Harry Gailey wrote a book on Bougainville
(published by University of Kentucky Press; like many university press books I
think it must have had a very limited press run and not a lot of publicity).

New Guinea has also been neglected, but there are a few books out there in
addition to the U.S. Army official histories: Lida Mayo’s “Bloody Buna”; a
brand new book by Stephen R. Taaffe, “MacArthur’s Jungle War,” on the New
Guinea campaign of 1944; and Edward Drea’s “MacArthur’s Ultra,” about
intelligence in the Southwest Pacific. There is also a Leavenworth monograph
by Drea called “Defending the Driniumor.” The Australians bore the brunt of
the New Guinea campaign in 1942-1943 but American historians tend to overlook
their role; I would think there are some good Aussie books on the subject.

One area that is truly undercovered is the Luzon campaign of 1945–the most
neglected large-scale campaign in U.S. military history (there were more U.S.
troops engaged on Luzon than in the Italian campaign, if memory serves).
Apart from the official history, which is pretty good, and a recent Brit book
only on the Battle of Manila, I am not aware of anything on this campaign.
Regards, Keith Allen