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The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of World War II.
Jul 23, 2024 · Battle of Guadalcanal (August 1942–February 1943), series of World War II land and sea clashes between Allied and Japanese forces on and around Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific.
On August 7, 1942, America mounted its first major amphibious landing of World War II at Guadalcanal, using innovative landing craft built by Higgins Industries in New Orleans.
Guadalcanal was the last major naval battle in the Pacific War for the next one-and-a-half years, until the Battle of the Philippine Sea. It was one of the costliest naval battles of the Second World War in terms of lives lost.
As U.S. forces fought the Japanese ground offensive to a standstill in the battle for Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field, U.S. and Japanese ships and aircraft confronted each other on the morning of...
Just six months after Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy suffered a shocking defeat at the battle of Midway in June 1942. US dive-bombers destroyed four of Japan’s precious aircraft carriers (out of six), and for the time being, at least, Japanese naval power was broken.
On Guadalcanal, American servicemembers battled heat, mosquitoes, disease, dense vegetation, and unfamiliar terrain along with a determined Japanese enemy in an all-consuming, round-the-clock battle. (Image: The National WWII Museum, 2002.069.144.)
