This is the first in a major series of podcasts looking at the Battles of Guadalcanal. This is an interview with Dave Holland.

This episode looks at:

Guadalcanal's strategic significance
Terrain and Climate of Guadalcanal
Development of Marine Amphibious Doctrine
Combat experience within the 1st Marine Division
Strength and structure of a Marine Division
US intelligence preparation before the landings
Japanese intelligence and intentions
US decision to land on Guadalcanal and Tulagi
Operation Shoestring

Dave is an ex-Marine and was posted to Guadalcananal with the Australian Federal Police. He regularly leads battlefield study tours through the area. He is a world-leading expert on the battles of Guadalcanal and author of Guadalcanal's Longest Fight - The Pivotal Battles of the Matanikau Front.

This is the final episode of three in our series from our interview with Retired Colonel John Antal discussing his research into contemporary combat and how technology is changing the modern battlefield.

John makes a series of great points during the interview:

Modern War Is Fought in a Transparent Battlespace
Visibility through drones, sensors, and AI means traditional massing of forces is now lethal. You must deceive and disrupt enemy sensors or be destroyed.

Masking Should Be a Principle of War
Masking = multi-domain deception to confuse enemy ISR. Use decoys, optical/thermal camouflage, and emission control—make the enemy see what you want them to see.

Camouflage and Concealment Are Critically Neglected
Western armies (incl. U.S. and Australian) have virtually no meaningful camouflage training. Without drones for perspective or thermal checks, soldiers can't learn what the enemy sees.

Command Posts Are Death Traps
Tents and Winnebago-style mobile HQs are vulnerable to drone and artillery strikes. Forces must restructure command posts: smaller, distributed, better masked, and mobile.

Infiltration Is the Primary Tactic of Modern War
Seen in Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, and Gaza, infiltration bypasses strongpoints and succeeds in high-transparency environments where massing is suicidal.

Mobile Phones Kill Units
Civilian phones constantly emit signals. Unless militaries ban personal devices or deploy secure comms, they invite precision targeting.

Drones Are the Machine Guns of the 21st Century
Drones must be ubiquitous, especially at the squad level. But to manage this, armies need a dedicated drone corps—trained, maintained, and operationalised like any combat arm.

Resilience Beats Exquisite Systems
Over-reliance on billion-dollar platforms (e.g., B-2s, F-35s) is a strategic risk. Operation Spiderweb Cheap drones can destroy exquisite systems. Forces must be able to take hits and continue fighting.

Training Is Outdated and Unrealistic
Many exercises simulate conventional war (e.g., Desert Storm) rather than dispersed, dark, denied environments. We fall to the level of our training—not rise to our expectations.

Leaders Must Prepare for First Strike and Distributed Ops
The enemy will hit first. Western forces must train to disperse, operate without emissions, reassemble fast, and strike with real-time decision-making. The key: agility, initiative, and survivability.

Check out the show notes for all of the information that we cover in this episode as well as the images and other details that didn't make it into the podcast.

This is the second episode of our interview with Retired Colonel John Antal discussing his research into contemporary combat and how technology is changing the modern battlefield.

We discuss the lessons learnt from 2nd Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine and recent Israeli battles and how technology is changing the modern battlefield.

Check out the show notes for all of the information that we cover in this episode as well as the images and other details that didn't make it into the podcast.