Guadalcanal is the second largest island (after Bougainville) of the Solomons and largest of the Solomon Islands Protectorate southwest Pacific...
During World War II it was the scene of bitter land and sea fighting between U. S. and Japanese forces...
On August 1942, the U.S. Marines, in the Allies' first major offensive in the Pacific, seized a Japanese airfield, Henderson Field, on the island...
On November, in a naval engagement, the Allies prevented the Japanese from landing reinforcements... By February 1943 the Japanese, badly outnumbered, were forced to evacuate Guadalcanal and by the end of the year they were on the defensive in their last stronghold in the Solomons, Bougainville Island...
"Guadalcanal Diary" is based on the best-selling book by war correspondent Richard Tregaskis... It follows the career of a platoon of Marines from Pre-landing shipboard briefings through two months slow murderous fighting in the taking of the South Sea jungles...
The film gives a realistic view of the hardships of war, and has its moments... Perhaps the most touching scene is at the climax when the tired veterans watch the fresh, green troops marching past them... The feeling is one of a continuous hard effort... The impudent newcomers have yet to face the revolting horrors that an American soldier is subjected to... Certainly, they will fight as well as those before them, however, we cannot but help feeling sad for those who will never return...
The film reveals the hard life in camps, shelters, patrols, hospitals, beaches and jungles in absolute reality... It is terse, violent, close in atmosphere and technique to "Wake Island" (1942).
