Victory Fever on Guadalcanal

Japan's First Land Defeat of World War II

By: William H. Bartsch

Narrated by: Bill Nevitt

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Following their rampage through Southeast Asia and the Pacific in the five months after Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces moved into the Solomon Islands, intending to cut off the critical American supply line to Australia. But when they began to construct an airfield on Guadalcanal in July 1942, the Americans captured the almost completed airfield for their own strategic use. The Japanese Army countered by sending to Guadalcanal a reinforced battalion under the command of Col. Kiyonao Ichiki. The attack that followed would prove to be the first of four attempts by the Japanese over six months to retake the airfield, resulting in some of the most vicious fighting of the Pacific War.

During the initial battle on the night of August 20-21, 1942, Marines wiped out Ichiki's men, who - imbued with "victory fever" - had expected a quick and easy victory. William H. Bartsch draws on correspondence, interviews, diaries, memoirs, and official war records, including those translated from Japanese sources, to offer an intensely human narrative of the failed attempt to recapture Guadalcanal's vital airfield.

The book is published by Texas A&M University Press.

©2014 William H. Bartsch (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Bartsch succeeds in delivering another valuable glimpse into the lives of the average soldier. The depth of his research is on display throughout." (US Military Review)

This a great Guadalcanal book, with caveats.

**I was given this book for free in exchange for an unbiased review**

I have read and listened to several books on Guadalcanal and Operation Watchtower. This one stands out in some areas, however, it must be noted that it only covers infantry combat. There is no coverage of the sea battles in Iron Bottom Sound or mention of the doings over the Cactus Air force except for when their doings directly impacted the action already being covered.

There also is no operational coverage. You will not be taught about the strategic goals or there application in the greater war effort.

What you do get, and I particularly liked this, is visceral minute by minute descriptions of the action at the Tenaru. The first chapter does cover ship life in route to the Solomons. You will get a plethora of first hand accounts. Many of them are from notable people that have their own books. Robert Leckie, Sid Phillips, Eugene Sledge, ect.

So in short if you want an over view of Guadalcanal, don’t get this book. If you want vivid, excellent combat action and lots of it, this is for you and I highly recommend it.

This was also my first book narrated by Bill Nevitt, he is an excellent choice for the genre and I hope he does more military/history work. He also has a prefect pace for listening to 1x and 1.25x as well. Very well read in my opinion.

Another great Nevitt narration

I love LISTENING to military history books. Reading them would be hard for me, but listening is perfect. The details and names and times are perfect for Nevitt's voice. This one is spot on, great writer. Their is so much to learn.
I got a free coy of this book.

"Enjoy the last few minutes of your life!"

I requested and received a complimentary review copy of "VICTORY FEVER". My review of it is voluntary, without favor toward the author (whom I have never met nor read the work of) nor am I under any compulsion to write it. I'm writing this review because I really like this book and I heartily recommend it.

I increased the speed (to 1.25) as I often do with audiobooks, since narrators tend to read slow in order to avoid making mistakes, which are not allowed. This is a case, however, where even listening at normal speed is fine. The narrator himself (Bill Nevitt) has a pleasant voice to listen to for the 9 hours of the audiobook and does a great job.

I've always been interested in World War 2, but most of my attention was focused on the European theater. In "Victory Fever on Guadalcanal" I was able to expand my understanding of the war as a whole by learning, in this fascinating account, about the Pacific theater. I like how both sides of the war were presented rather than a one-sided overview. I also like how the personal touch from soldier diaries/memoirs added humor, such as how seasoned Marines would laugh at the new recruits training and say "Enjoy the last few minutes of your life". It makes me wonder how much humor helped them cope with the harrowing times they lived through. I wondered, toward the end of the book, if some of those heroes who died heroically in battle were some of those seasoned Marines who'd laughed about death. Regardless, they were all heroes and I enjoyed hearing their story.

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It was my pleasure reviewing this book and I thank you so much for reading my review of it!

My rating scale:
1 = Junk! (dumpster worthy) // 2 = Poor // 3 = Good (average) // 4 = Great // 5 = Excellent! (award worthy)

Detailed account of a specific wartime event

I'm thinking that this book will either be very satisfying to you as a reader, or somewhat frustrating. It will satisfy readers who are looking for lots of details about Guadalcanal and it will satisfy readers who have previous knowledge of the topic and are curious about learning additional information to add layers to their mental pictures of this Battle. On the other hand, I can definitely see how this book might be frustrating for other types of readers, who will have 'trouble seeing the forest for all the trees'. They might have wanted to develop a general understanding of what Guadalcanal was all about, why it happened, the consequences, and so on, without all of the dizzying facts and statistics. Also, these readers might have been looking for more of an emotional-based immersive narrative, perhaps focusing on fewer specific individuals, but giving us a stronger sense of how these guys were feeling during their experience. Different types of expectations from readers, requiring very different writing styles. I honestly think that it would be very challenging for a writer to satisfy the needs of both of these types of audiences in a single book...but.... if you're mindful of this, then this audiobook is worthwhile to listen to.

I'm a newbie on this topic (motivated by a recent episode of Dan Carlin's 'Hardcore History' podcast), so I'm one of the ones who initially felt overwhelmed by the details. However, I realized that if I didn't concentrate on trying to remember or contextualize each new detail, then it freed my mind to listen more broadly to the overall story. With repeat listens of this audiobook, I'm confident that more and more details will fall into place with less effort.

I have two laments about the book. First, especially for newbies like me, I wish I had a map or two to refer to while listening to the story. It's a trade-off with audiobooks - flexibility to listen anytime/anywhere but.... it's only audio, no other supporting medium. I really would like to see the industry address this somehow in the future. In the meantime, no map of Guadalcanal to help me figure out how the chess pieces were moving on the board. Second, it becomes evident early in the audiobook that the personnel on the ground were using faulty maps themselves, so they often thought they were at River A when in fact they were at River B (and so on). My second lament is about the distraction every time the narrator would name a place where the soldiers thought they were, and every single time he would immediately indicate where the soldiers actually were. Perhaps in print format it's less distracting but I found it to be somewhat distracting in audiobook format as the narrator made the continual parenthetical corrections to their geographic orientation.

The narrator was effective. His voice was mostly dispassionate, doing a serviceable job of getting through the details (and there are a lot, particularly in the first two hours of the audiobook!). (I just had a spontaneous mental image of the Professor from Gilligan's Island, for some reason - understated and competent...).

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Detailed and Well Researched... Great Narration

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

It is clear that an extensive amount of research went into this book. The level of detail was impressive, I felt immersed in the story almost from the start. As a history buff, particularly of WW2, I thoroughly enjoyed listening. It is graphic, but I would assume that readers would be aware of that given the subject matter.

Narration was strong, with clear sound quality and great inflection. He really brought the book to life.

WW2 is one f my favorite subject

Being a favorite subject of mine . Mr. Nevitt made this very interesting. My father a fighter pilot first or the RCAF then with the USAAC. He never spoke of anything until after he was in his 70's. My family whole family have fought for this country with courage and honor I think everyone should get this book and audiable. It's just great

Excellent study

USMC, military-history, World-War-ll, Pacific-Theater-of-Operations, historical-research, historical-places-events

Eight months after the declaration of war on Japan by the United States, USMC green recruits, capable NCOs, and few officers were able to best determined Japanese forces on Guadalcanal in the Battle of Tenaru. This book is a detailed account of the events leading up to the battle and accounts obtained from records from each side and from survivors who were still alive at the time of research. The in depth meticulous research done by the author is clearly in evidence, and the value of the body of work to active duty military is clearly apparent.
Will I get in trouble if I mention its value to history buffs and RPG players?
I had to get an audio copy because my print copy was liberated by USMC grandson.
Bill Nevitt continues to be excellent as narrator for study subjects.

Both very well-written and very well-researched

I truly enjoyed this audiobook. The author has done a great job in not only his writing but in his research of the battle of Guadalcanal which followed the Pearl Harbor attack.

Interesting piece of human history

Interesting piece of history

Knowledge is power. I would never think i would be interested in this, but you know it’s nice when discover something you wouldn’t bother with before and end up finding really interesting. It’s nice to strike gold like this sometimes

Action Punctuated By The Dry, The Drudge

I suppose I expected more in the way of humanity and the experiences of the men who lived the combat of this, the first several weeks of Guadalcanal, seeing as the Publisher's Summary cites so many resources, especially diaries and memoirs. And while it does have the memories of many men, Victory Fever on Guadalcanal doesn't have many of them.
For instance, a line will tell us about gnats swarming into eyes, suggesting hell to walk through, but we don't get anything about what the men actually experienced, how it felt to be walking through that.
And there are many men. Many, many men. So many that I found it somewhat confusing at times. And there's planning for battles and engagements. Much, much planning. So much that I'd get somewhat bored at times (especially since hey! when has something ever gone according to plan?).
Still, when the listener gets to the actual engagements, there's plenty of action to carry you through and Victory Fever on Guadalcanal delivers. It's really good there.
Bill Nevitt does an admirable job, especially gamely running through the many Japanese names (tho' I'm no expert on Japanese, so I can't 100 per cent guarantee that it's all correct). And he does well in griping when someone gripes, elevating his voice when someone else shouts. I can't tell you how key this is if you're keeping a listener hooked in a book that could be considered dry at points.
A good listen, enough to make me wonder about seeking out Guadalcanal Diary to find out the rest of the history.

I received this audiobook free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review