This is an excellent short read.

This booklet is one of the 25 in the "Marines in World War II Commemorative Series", published by the U.S. Marine Corps. It is about the operations in the northern Solomon Islands from November 1, 1943, to April 14, 1944, against the Japanese by principally the U.S. Marines. It covers operations on the Treasury Islands, Bougainville and Choiseul (a diversion). It is well illustrated and has very good maps. A map or map insert showing where the Solomons are in relation to Australia and the rest of the world is needed. There is no table of contents nor any index. There is a good bibliography in Sources, at the end.

Sidebars:
-- Major General Allen H. Turnage, USMC
-- 3rd Marine Division
-- The Coastwatchers
-- 37th Infantry Division (U.S Army, Major General Robert S. Beightler)
-- War Dogs (Outstanding!)
-- Navajo Code Talkers
-- 'Corpsman'

Anecdotes:
-- A destroyer picked up a canoe with a dead Japanese officer and 26 Japanese enlisted men. The boat had originally fired a machine gun at the destroyer. The destroyer did not return fire. The enlisted men may have handled the situation themselves.
-- Searchlight units.

Read from December 3 to 6, 2010. ( )