Guadalcanal Campaign

The Guadalcanal Campaign (aka Battle for Guadalcanal) in the Solomon Islands was a series of land, air, and sea battles between US and Japanese forces in the Pacific War of WWII. Lasting from August 1942 to February 1943, the campaign was a titanic struggle for control of Guadalcanal Island and its vital airstrip. The landing of tens of thousands of US Marines aimed to stop further Japanese expansion into the South Pacific and follow up the US victory at the Battle of Midway, but a large amphibious landing of Japanese forces and tit-for-tat naval encounters meant the final US victory came at a cost of over 6,000 US casualties and the loss of 24 ships, including the aircraft carrier Hornet.

The Turn of the Pacific War

Even before the Second World War (1939-45) began, the Japanese military government had been steadily expanding the Japanese Empire in East Asia and the Pacific region. By 1941, Japan controlled territories from Northern China to Thailand. In December 1941, Japanese carriers sent aircraft to attack Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, home of the US Pacific Fleet. The plan was the brainchild of Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku (1884-1943), Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet. Yamamoto realised the US was the greatest threat to Japan's ambitions in the Pacific and he wanted a pre-emptive strike of such magnitude that it would give Japan time to consolidate its defences and perhaps even push the US into a peace deal.

Achieving complete surprise, the attack on Pearl Harbor caused over 3,500 casualties and destroyed or seriously damaged 18 ships, including eight battleships. Crucially, no US carriers were in harbour that day. The US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) responded by declaring war on Japan. That same December, Japan launched attacks on the US-controlled Philippines, and British-controlled Malaya, Burma (Myanmar), and Hong Kong. Singapore was captured in February, and the Dutch East Indies were attacked in March and April 1942.