Battle of Guadalcanal
The six-month campaign for the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands (August 1942 – February 1943) was the first major Allied land offensive of the Pacific War and the first defeat of Japan's army on land. US Marines landed on 7 August 1942 to seize the airfield the Japanese were constructing; what followed was a brutal attritional contest — seven major naval battles, constant air combat, and savage jungle fighting — that both sides poured reinforcements into. Japan's 'Tokyo Express' night destroyer runs down the 'Slot' kept landing troops under US air cover, but by February 1943 Japan evacuated its remaining 10,000 soldiers. The campaign cost Japan 24,000 dead, two fleet carriers, and hundreds of irreplaceable aircraft and aircrew; it demonstrated that the US could sustain a land offensive in the Pacific and that Japan could not indefinitely replace losses at this rate. Guadalcanal began the island-hopping strategy that would eventually bring American forces within bombing range of the Japanese home islands.
- Year: 1942 CE
- Category: Military
