Battle of Guadalcanal

The Battle of Guadalcanal was one of the most important battles of World War II. Despite being quite small in comparison to land battles in the European theater, Guadalcanal was one of the first prolonged campaigns in the Pacific War. The assault on the Japanese-occupied island of Guadalcanal by the Allied navies and 16,000 United States troops on 7 August, 1942, was the first offensive by US land forces in the Pacific Campaign. Additional amphibious attacks simultaneously assaulted the islands of Florida, Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo.

Background

Guadalcanal is situated in the middle of the long Solomon Islands chain, north-east of Australia. The location of the Solomons made them key to Japanese plans for cutting off shipping between the US and Australia. Japan held a major base on the northern end of the chain, at Rabaul, but the Solomons are so long that aircraft from Rabaul could not patrol the entirety of the island chain.

The Imperial Japanese Navy intended to turn the Solomons into a major strategic base, and in 1942 started a program of occupying islands all along the chain and building airbases for land-based patrol bombers. Guadalcanal was to be the major base in the middle of the chain, just within ferry range of Rabaul. If this had succeeded, Allied shipping would have been forced to take long detours to the south.

The Allies, aware of the Japanese plans, decided that Guadalcanal would serve just as well as a base for operations against Rabaul, so the US, Australian and New Zealand navies formed an invasion fleet.

Operation Watchtower

On 7 August 1942, the 1st Marine Division performed an amphibious landing east of the Tenaru River. Initially, only unarmed Japanese construction and support personnel occupied Guadalcanal itself, allowing the Americans to come ashore almost unhindered. A nearby muddy airstrip was captured and renamed to Henderson Field after Major Lofton Henderson, a Marine aviator who had been killed at the Battle of Midway. Henderson Field would be a main focus of the Guadalcanal campaign as it enabled U.S. airpower to hinder Japanese attempts at resupplying.

On 8 August, Vice Admiral Frank J. Fletcher informed Major General Alexander Vandegrift that his aircraft carriers would be leaving the area, thus Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner departed with his transports, taking over half the Marines' supplies and all their heavy artillery. The carriers left a day before the battle of Savo Island, but the transports departed only after the crushing defeat of the defending cruiser-destroyer force.

Because of the invasion, Japanese reinforcements were dispatched to the island from Rabaul to destroy the Americans and take back the airstrip (Operation Ka-Go). The Japanese build-up would be under the command of the Japanese 17th Army, led by Lieutenant-General Hyakutake Harukichi.

The first significant battle occurred at the Tenaru River on August 20 when a battalion-sized force of Japanese named the Ichiki Detachment attacked the Marines across the river sand bars. (Defenders outnumbered the attackers 10 to 1...) In the Battle of Tenaru, the fire power provided by Colonel Pedro del Valle's artillery units killed many assaulting Japanese soldiers before they ever reached the Marine positions. The attackers were killed almost to the last man. The massacre was so stunning that the Japanese commander, Colonel Ichiki Kiyonao, committed seppuku shortly afterwards.

The following month, 6,000 Japanese troops mounted a night assault against 11,000 Marines from the south with the goal of taking back the airfield. The "Battle of Edson's Ridge" (or "Bloody Ridge") began on 11 September and continued until the 14th before the attack was finally beaten back by the Marines.

On 23 September, the Marines began a drive to establish defensive positions along the Mantanikau River. A land attack was combined with a small amphibious landing on the flank, but the operation was repulsed by the Japanese.

A lull in the fighting occurred as the Japanese prepared for a new attack. The Japanese Navy, led by battleships Kongo and Haruna, bombarded the airfield with special fragmentation shells on 13 and 14 October in an attempt to suppress the aircraft operating from the base. The airfield suffered heavy damage, but was returned to service.

Finally on 23 October, with the addition of more troops, the Japanese made another attempt to capture Henderson Field from the south of the salient. The newly arrived U.S. Army's 164th Infantry Regiment and 1st Battalion, 7th Marines defended this position, and after a determined battle the attack was finally repulsed after committing the U.S. reserves.

On 25 October Platoon Sergeant Mitchell Paige and 33 marine riflemen emplaced 4 water-cooled .30-caliber Browning machine guns on a ridge to defend Henderson Field. By the time the night was over the Japanese 29th Infantry Regiment had lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men. The Japanese 16th Regiment's losses were not accounted for but the 164th's burial parties handled 975 Japanese bodies. Total American estimates for Japanese casualties on that ridge were 2,200. All the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon were either killed or wounded during the night of fierce fighting. Mitchell Paige moved up and down the line placing dead and wounded troops back into foxholes and firing short bursts from each of the four Brownings to deceive the Japanese that a force still held the ridge. Paige was subsequently cited for a Medal of Honor for his actions that night. He was also honored in 1998 by the Hasbro Toy Co. when it produced a Mitchell Paige version of its G.I. Joe action figure.

At dawn of the next day, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley reinforced Paige on the hill. It was decided that they would charge the remnants of the two Japanese regiments who were now regrouping. Conoley gathered his resources who consisted "three enlisted communication personnel, several riflemen, a few company runners who were at the point, together with a cook and a few messmen who had brought food to the position the evening before." In total 17 marines charged the Japanese at 05:40 on the morning of the 26th, signaling the turn in the Pacific theatre of the second world war.

In November the Japanese sent reinforcements in the form of the 38th Infantry Division. During the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, however, the transports carrying this reinforcement were badly damaged and the division was reduced to the strength of a regiment. Through November, American forces continued its offensive in an attempt to push the perimeter out beyond artillery range of the airfield. The Mantanikau River area was finally cleared after overcoming strong Japanese resistance.

By December the weary 1st Marine Division was withdrawn for recuperation, and over the course of the next month the U.S. XIV Corps took over operations on the island. This corps consisted of the 2nd Marine Division, the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division, and the Americal Division.

Japanese strength on the island waned due to attrition and shortages of supplies brought on by the build-up of Allied ships and aircraft. The U.S. XIV Corps began offensive operations on 10 January 1943, and by 8 February they had forced the remaining Japanese to be evacuated from Cape Esperance. American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure on 9 February, 1943, after more than six months of combat.

The lack of supply on both sides meant that combat was especially intense and characterized by extreme desperation. The Japanese used fear as a tactic by placing the severed heads of dead Americans on pikes and planting them around the Marine perimeter. Additionally, neither side took many prisoners. Disease also played a significant role in the ground campaign, as both the Japanese and American forces were weakened by malaria in the insect-infested jungles. Both sides had difficulty maintaining their supplies to the island, the Japanese particularly, to the extent that island became also known as 'Starvation Island' to them.

See also Operation Ke, and Operation Shoestring.

Naval battles

These convoys and the land battle on Guadalcanal became magnets for naval activity on both sides. This resulted in seven naval battles:

Savo Island on 9 August
Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August
Battle of Cape Esperance on 11–12 October
Battle of Santa Cruz Island on 26–27 October
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal — two separate naval engagements fought on the nights of 11–12 November and 14–15 November
Battle of Tassafaronga on 30 November.

Due to the significant number of vessels sunk in the approaches to Guadalcanal island, the stretch of water between Guadalcanal and Florida Island to the north became known as Ironbottom Sound. Except for Savo Island, the Second Naval Battle (14–15 November), and Tassafaronga, these battles did not produce a clear tactical victory for either side. The net result of all of them was strategically critical in that the Japanese were unable to quickly replace their lost ships.

Aftermath & historical significance

Although the Battle of Midway is widely considered to be the turning point in the Pacific theater, it was a strategic naval victory rather than a land-based one. Australian land forces defeated Japanese marines at the Battle of Milne Bay, rather than the Imperial Japanese Army. When U.S. soldiers finally secured Guadalcanal, it was the first step in a long string of invasions that would eventually lead to invasions of Japanese islands and the surrender of Japan. The capture of the island was the first breach of the perimeter that Japan had established during the first six months of the Pacific War. Because of this, Guadalcanal is considered the turning point for the Imperial Japanese Army.

The Battle of Guadalcanal was one of the first prolonged campaigns in the Pacific. While the Battle of Midway had been quickly decided by luck on the part of the U.S. (catching three of four Japanese fleet carriers at their most vulnerable point), Guadalcanal was rather a battle of attrition that strained the logistical capabilities of the Americans and Japanese. Both sides poured resources into Guadalcanal over the following six months, with eventual victory going to the United States.

From this time on the Japanese forces were decidedly on the defensive. The constant need to reinforce Guadalcanal weakened the Japanese effort in other theatres, leading to successful Australian counteroffensive in New Guinea, which culminated in the capture of the key bases of Buna and Gona in early 1943. In June, the Allies launched Operation Cartwheel, which initiated a strategy of isolating the major Japanese forward base, at Rabaul, and concentrated on cutting its lines of communication. This prepared the way for the island-hopping campaigns of General Douglas MacArthur in the South West Pacific and Admiral Chester Nimitz in the Central Pacific towards Japan.

According to US historian Gerhard L. Weinberg, Guadalcanal's broader effect on the war has often been overlooked. Japan's leaders planned a major offensive in the Indian Ocean and so notified their German ally, but the ships and planes required for the undertaking were instead drained into the Guadalcanal quagmire. At the time Guadalcanal began, Britain was struggling to hold the Afrika Korps away from the Suez Canal. Resupply and reinforcements who contributed to the victory at El Alamein could be sent because the Indian Ocean was still open to Allied shipping.Weinberg, G. L.: Germany, Hitler and World War II, pp. 208–209. Cambridge University Press, 1995.

In addition, vital Lend-Lease supplies from the US were able to travel through the Indian Ocean and across Iran just as the Soviet Union was struggling to defeat Germany's Operation Blue. British power in India was at its weakest in 1942; the Axis' one and only chance of toppling the Raj, and severing the last supply routes to Nationalist China, slipped away in the Southwest Pacific.Ibid., pp. 209–210.

Popular Culture References

In the American television series, Charmed, the Battle of Guadalcanal was mentioned in several episodes as the setting where the character Leo Wyatt died as a World War II medic. It was then featured in flashback form in episodes "Saving Private Leo" in season 4 and "Someone to Witch Over Me" in season 7.

References

Notes

Books

-Book review:^*
Online views of selections of the book:^*

External links

- Interactive animation of the battle

Audio/visual media

— One episode from a 26-episode series about naval combat during World War II.
— Film adaptation of James Jones' fictional, dramatic novel of the same title set on Guadalcanal.
- Fictional drama about U.S. Marine pilots involved in the Battle of Guadalcanal.
- Film adaptation of Tregaskis' book referenced in "Books" section above.

World War II operations and battles of the Pacific Campaign | History of the Solomon Islands | Battles of Japan | Battles of the United States

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