Guadalcanal campaign

Guadalcanal campaign
Part of the Solomon Islands campaign of the Pacific Theater of World War II
United States Marines rest in the field during the Guadalcanal campaign.
Date 7 August 1942 – 9 February 1943 (6 months and 2 days) Location Guadalcanal, British Solomon Islands 9°26′44″S 160°01′13″E / 9.44556°S 160.02028°E / -9.44556; 160.02028 Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom  • Solomon Islands[1]  • Fiji[2]  • Tonga[3]  Australia  New Zealand	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 William H. Rupertus Merritt A. Edson U.S. Army: Alexander M. Patch U.S. Coast Guard: Russell R. Waesche	Navy: Isoroku Yamamoto Hiroaki Abe Nobutake Kondō Nishizo Tsukahara Takeo Kurita Jinichi Kusaka Shōji Nishimura Gunichi Mikawa Raizō Tanaka Army: Hitoshi Imamura Harukichi Hyakutake
Units involved
See order of battle	See order of battle
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 including 2 fleet carriers, 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 17 destroyers. 615 aircraft lost[8]	Army: 19,200 dead, of whom 8,500 were killed in combat[9] 1,000 captured 38 ships lost including 1 light carrier, 2 battleships, 3 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser and 11 destroyers. 683 aircraft lost[10][11] 10,652 evacuated

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. It was the first major land offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.

On 7 August 1942, Allied forces, predominantly United States Marines, landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida Island in the southern Solomon Islands, with the objective of using Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases in supporting a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The Japanese defenders, who had occupied those islands since May 1942, were outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Allies, who captured Tulagi and Florida, as well as the airfield—later named Henderson Field—that was under construction on Guadalcanal.

Surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese made several attempts between August and November to retake Henderson Field. Three major land battles, seven large naval battles (five nighttime surface actions and two carrier battles), and almost daily aerial battles culminated in the decisive Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November, with the defeat of the last Japanese attempt to bombard Henderson Field from the sea and to land enough troops to retake it. In December, the Japanese abandoned their efforts to retake Guadalcanal and evacuated their remaining forces by 7 February 1943, in the face of an offensive by the U.S. Army's XIV Corps, with the Battle of Rennell Island, the last major naval engagement, serving to secure protection for the Japanese troops to evacuate safely.

The campaign followed the successful Allied defensive actions at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway in May and June 1942. Along with the battles at Milne Bay and Buna–Gona, the Guadalcanal campaign marked the Allies' transition from defensive operations to offensive ones and effectively allowed them to seize the strategic initiative in the Pacific theater from the Japanese. The campaign was followed by other Allied offensives in the Pacific, most notably: the Solomon Islands campaign, New Guinea campaign, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, the Philippines campaign (1944–1945), and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign prior to the surrender of Japan in August, 1945.