Guadalcanal campaign
1942-1943 series of battles fought on and around Guadalcanal as part of World War II / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Guadalcanal Campaign[11] was fought between August 7, 1942, and February 9, 1943, in the Pacific theatre of World War II. This campaign, which was a decisive and strategically important campaign of World War II, was fought on the ground, at sea, and in the air between Allied forces against Imperial Japanese forces. The fighting took place on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands, and was the first major offensive launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.[12]
Guadalcanal Campaign | |||||||
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Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II | |||||||
United States Marines rest in the field during the Guadalcanal campaign | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States United Kingdom • Solomon Islands[1] • Fiji[2] Australia New Zealand Tonga[3] | Japan | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
U.S. Navy: Robert L. Ghormley William F. Halsey, Jr. Richmond K. Turner Frank J. Fletcher U.S. Marine Corps: Alexander A. Vandegrift Merritt A. Edson U.S. Army: Alexander M. Patch U.S. Coast Guard: Russell R. Waesche |
I.J. Navy: Isoroku Yamamoto Hiroaki Abe Nobutake Kondō Nishizo Tsukahara Takeo Kurita Jinichi Kusaka Shōji Nishimura Gunichi Mikawa Raizō Tanaka I.J. Army: Hitoshi Imamura Harukichi Hyakutake | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
60,000+ men (ground forces)[4] | 36,200 men (ground forces)[5] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
7,100 dead[6] 7,789+ wounded[7] 4 captured 29 ships lost 615 aircraft lost[8] |
19,200 dead
38 ships lost 683–880 aircraft lost[10] |
On August 7, 1942, Allied forces, mainly from the United States, started landings on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomons with the aim to make supply routes between the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand safer. The Battle of Guadalcanal was one of the first long campaigns in the Pacific.