Siera Hotel! My favorite campaign of the entire war! And IMHO, as important as Midway (I’ll explain why when this series starts). SJS, I’ll see how much reference material I can dig up. There’s one book I’m looking for that looks at the seven naval actions as individual pieces, and how they interlocked together…all I gotta do is find it again

For all the reporting and commenting on the battles to come, please don’t overlook the logistics, especially setting up the chain of supply bases that allowed the campaign to begin and continue.

And please don’t overlook the efforts of ships like the escort carriers that shuttled fresh aircraft and ordnance into the area.

The behind-the-scenes war of WWII was always as important as the fighting at the front. As John B. Lundstrom points out in his “Black Shoe Carrier Admiral,” the movements and decisions of Fletcher and Ghormley were dictated as much by supplies — and the slow growing thereof– as any character issues allegedly identified by historians. Sure Halsey was more aggressive; he also had more to work with thanks to Nimitz’ and Ghormley’s buildups of supplies. And more replacements for the ships and men he recklessly used up.