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In May 1942 the Japanese landed on a number of islands in the British Solomons and began constructing an airfield on Guadalcanal. Their incursion threatened Australia and her vital American supply lines. Neither scheduled nor prepared for offensive action, the 1st Marine Division was directed to take the airfield. The result was a bloodbath; by the time it was over, less than one in five of the Marines in the 1st Parachute Battalion walked off Bloody Ridge. Drawing on government documents and hundreds of hours of interviews with the men who were there, Battalion of the Damned, is the gripping account of the first amphibious assault by U.S. forces in World War II.
James F. Christ is the author of Mission Raise Hell. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
