Books: Solomons: First Seven Weeks

GUADALCANAL DIARY—Richard Tregaskis—Random House ($2.50).

This may not be the best war book of 1943—but it is thorough reporting on one of the most dramatic battles of 1942. Six-foot seven-inch, bespectacled Richard Tregaskis, 26, is an International News Service correspondent who landed with the first Marine contingents to hit the Solomons. For seven weeks, until he was relieved, he lived with the Marines, became as tough and wiry as any. Jap snipers shot at him. Jap pilots strafed and bombed him. On his way out of the islands by bomber he started to write about it all. In Honolulu he finished his...