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Across the Dark Islands: The War in the Pacific

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ACROSS THE DARK ISLANDS
The War in the Pacific

Floyd W. Radike
Brigadier General, U.S. Army (Ret.)


"I remember sitting in a foxhole on Guadalcanal in the rain. The sergeant I shared the hole with shook his head and asked me: 'What in the hell are we doing on this godforsaken island? Why don't we let the Japs keep this stinking rock?' I didn't have an answer."

The war in the Pacific has never been portrayed more honestly--or in prose more powerful--than in Across the Dark Islands. In this unflinching account, Brig. Gen.Floyd W. Radike remembers how he started his military career in the mud and mayhem of Guadalcanal, fighting a campaign as crucial to the war's outcome as it was chaotic and cruel.

Here is no whitewashed view of that war or the men who waged it. Here instead is the sobering story of a junior officer in a National Guard unit suddenly shipped off to the front lines, disdained by "regular army" elitists who served beside him, and given second-class status so that others could earn headlines and promotions. While struggling to survive amid dirt and disease, routine and monotony, Radike endured harrowing missions incompetently, arrogantly, or just impatiently planned.

As no book ever has, Across the Dark Islands reveals shocking details removed from myth and sentimentality: how American commanders were intimidated by the Japanese stereotype of fearlessness, night attacks, and cries of "banzai" . . . how imitations of John Wayne heroics caused immediate death . . . threats of court-martial quieted accusations of Army injustice . . . and panic and flight destroyed a fight for the enemy's Munda Field airstrip, an event that "disappeared from the record and appears in no official history."

Emerging from the hellish conditions and military miscalculations is a tribute to common sense, courage, and respect for proper procedure, attributes that would help the author and soldiers like him to save their lives, succeed in battle, and win the war. From Guadalcanal to the Philippines to a planned invasion of Japan ended by the atom bomb, General Radike's experience spanned the entire course of the pivotal Pacific theater conflict. Candid and cautionary, his memoir is an important work whose writing rivals that of classic novels like James Jones's The Thin Red Line and Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead. It should be read by anyone looking to join an army or wage a war.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Random House

Filesize

1.20 MB

Number of Pages

272

eBook ISBN

9780307414465

Excerpt from: Across the Dark Islands by Floyd W. Radike

Background

Guadalcanal. We knew as much about the island as we did about the dark side of the moon. Most of what we knew came from the flow of war correspondent stories that appeared daily--stories emphasizing the bravery of the marines, the maniacal courage of the Japanese, and the hot, dark, mysterious, disease-filled jungle.

The best impression I could call up was of something dark--dark and sinister and shapeless. This was a place where the form and outline of battle was lost in the free flow and violence of the jungle encounter; a place where the enemy was never there, but here.

The announcement of our destination created a stunned silence, followed almost immediately by an uproar of conversation. Our captain leaned toward us and said, "This will give us a chance to get at those slant-eyed monkeys quicker. We ought to be able to clear the island in a few weeks, I'll bet that. . . ."

But he was interrupted by the XO who figured that there had been enough chatter.

"I attended a meeting this afternoon on the command ship, and there is little or no written information available for distribution here. After all, when we left Pearl we were heading for Australia to join General MacArthur's forces."

That remark brought a few whistles and considerable shuffling around. After all, we knew a little about the country "down under"--the swagger of its fighting men, the lovely girls, the kangaroo and wallaby, the walkabout, and the rambunctious history of a people who had tackled a tough continent similar to our own and conquered it.

But that was not to be.

The XO continued. "One of our regiments is already going ashore there [Guadalcanal]. As soon as the navy can turn its convoy protection around and send it back for us, we'll be on our way."

He paused, looked down, and once again smoothed the rug with the toe of his shiny low-quarter shoe.