Excellent book with meticulously research, you get the "grunts" view what is happening in the context of one of the most important battles of WWll. The commentary from the paramarines is amazing. Having grown up with occasional snippets from a combatant such as "Reising gun was a piece of crap" "at first we took the maggots out of the rice" and the "artillery saved us at bloody ridge" it is very much a you are there experience. Mr. Christ combines an excellent overview of the operation and manages to give the feel of the men who fought and died during this campaign. The heroism these men displayed is truly inspiring and the author captures it brilliantly.

I highly recommend reading this book! It is a gripping account of the 1st Marine Paratroopers at Gavutu, and Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal. The author's style combines meticulous historical detail with the feel and emotion of a great novel. The author knows his subject, and in turn I got to know and care about these incredible, courageous marines. The battles are intense and you feel like you are right there. I also appreciated his ability to inject humor amid the heavy drama of the battle field. I also recommend his first book, Mission: Raise Hell, which follows the 2nd Marine Paratroopers diversionary raid on the island of Choiseul. Both are a great read!

When I first noticed this book, I rushed to buy it, because my motivating thought was, "At last, someone wrote the story of the 1st Marine Parachute Battalion at Guadalcanal." Much has been written about the Guadalcanal campaign but little is available about the 1st Marine Parachute Battalion that participated in the bloodiest fighting of the campaign. This book walks the reader through two of the para-marine heroic battles. Battles where outnumbered Marines fought their way to victory at a cost that decimated the battalion.
The author has managed to find and interview the small number of remaining battalion survivors. His discussions with these survivors provides the author the ability to bring the reader down to the individual and small unit level and explain how their actions contributed to the fight.
At the beginning of the Second World War, the US Marines organization is rapidly expanding from two light regiments into division and corps size units. The reader discovers that most of the members of the parachute battalion have already served an enlistment before the war and before the battalion is formed. These men were professionals and experienced. Today's Marines will want to call them "Old Corps" but the Corps did not exist when most of these men enlisted. It is that experience and dedication the author captures in this book that provides the essence of victory.
This story is how Marines, out numbered, starved, sick and short supplied, managed to prevail over a numerically superior enemy in historically critical battles. As they say; "It is the stuff that makes legends." I think the author has provided a book for the record that truly captures the bravery of the Marines of the 1st Parachute Battalion and establishes their legend. The author not only captured what makes a great military unit, but also the essence of why men fight and win desperate battles.

This is an excellent book written in a style to make you feel like you are actually there. Knowing a Marine who was actually on Gavutu was the main reason I bought this book but I will be sure to purchase more from this author.