Land Battle for Guadalcanal, (August 1942–February 1943) Part I
Posted by Mitch Williamson in WWII on Saturday, January 28, 2012
Bitter contest between the Japanese and the Americans that
marked a turning point in the Pacific war. The struggle on Guadalcanal was
protracted, and the period from August 1942 to February 1943 saw some of the
most bitter fighting of the war. In all, there were some 50 actions involving
warships or aircraft, 7 major naval battles, and 10 land engagements.
Guadalcanal is an island in the Solomon chain northeast of
Australia. It lies on a northwest-southeast axis and is 90 miles long and
averages 25 miles wide. Guadalcanal’s southern shore is protected by coral
reefs, and the only suitable landing beaches are on the north-central shore.
Once inland, invading troops faced dense jungle and mountainous terrain,
crisscrossed by numerous streams. The Guadalcanal Campaign encompassed not only
Guadalcanal, but Savo and Florida Islands as well as the small islands between
Florida and Guadalcanal: Tulagi, Tanambogo, and Gavutu.
In January 1942, Japanese amphibious forces had landed in
the Bismarck Archipelago between New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. They
quickly wrested Kavieng on New Ireland Island and Rabaul on New Britain from
the Australians. The Japanese consolidated their hold and turned Rabaul into
their principal southwest Pacific base. By early March, the Japanese landed at
Salamaua and Lae in Papua and on Bougainville. Their advance having gone so
well, the Japanese decided to expand their defensive ring to the southeast to
cut off the supply route from the United States to New Zealand and Australia.
On 3 May, the Japanese landed on Tulagi and began building a seaplane base
there. Between May and July, the Japanese expanded their ring farther in the
central and lower Solomons. These operations were carried out by Lieutenant
General Imamura Hitoshi’s Eighth Army from Rabaul. The first Japanese landed on
Guadalcanal on 8 June. On 6 July, their engineers began construction of an
airfield near the mouth of the Lunga River.
The discovery of the Japanese effort on Guadalcanal led to
the implementation of Operation WATCHTOWER. Conceived and pushed by U.S. Chief
of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King, it called for securing Tulagi as an
additional base to protect the United States–Australia lifeline and as a
starting point for a drive up the Solomons to Rabaul. On 1 April 1942, the
Pacific was divided into two commands: U.S. Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley,
commanding in the South Pacific, was to take the southern Solomons including
Guadalcanal, and General Douglas MacArthur’s forces were to secure the
remainder of the Solomons and the northwest coast of New Guinea, the final
objective being Rabaul.
If the Japanese were allowed to complete their airfield on
Guadalcanal, they would be able to bomb the advanced Allied base at Espiritu
Santo. U.S. plans to take the offensive were now stepped up, and a task force
was hurriedly assembled. From Nouméa, Ghormley dispatched an amphibious force
under Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner, lifting Major General Alexander A.
Vandegrift’s 19,000-man reinforced 1st Marine Division. A three-carrier task
force under Vice Admiral Frank J. Fletcher provided air support. This operation
involved some 70 ships.
On 7 August 1942, the Marines went ashore at Tulagi,
Florida, Tanambogo, Gavutu, and Guadalcanal, surprising the small Japanese
garrisons (2,200 on Guadalcanal and 1,500 on Tulagi). On the same day, the
Marines seized the harbor at Tulagi, and by the next afternoon they had also
secured the airfield under construction on Guadalcanal, along with stocks of
Japanese weapons, food, and equipment. Supplies for the Marines were soon coming
ashore from transports in the sound between Guadalcanal and Florida Islands,
but this activity came under attack by Japanese aircraft based at Rabaul.
Vandegrift told Fletcher he would need four days to unload the transports, but
Fletcher replied that he was short on fuel and in any case could not risk
keeping his carriers in position off Guadalcanal for more than 48 hours.
Stakes were high for both sides. The fiercest fighting
occurred for the airfield, renamed Henderson Field for a Marine aviator killed
in the Battle of Midway. Vandegrift recognized its importance and immediately
established a perimeter defense around it. Eating captured rations and using
Japanese heavy-construction equipment, the U.S. 1st Engineer Battalion
completed the airfield on 17 August. As early as 21 August, the day the
Japanese mounted a major attack on the field, the first U.S. aircraft landed
there. The Japanese now found it impossible to keep their ships in waters
covered by the land-based American aircraft during the day, and they found it
difficult to conduct an air campaign over the lower Solomons from as far away
as Rabaul.
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