Global InformationGuadalcanal campaign information
| 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. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States United Kingdom•  Solomon Islands[1]•  Fiji[2]•  Tonga[3] Australia New Zealand |
 Japan | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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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 | |||||||
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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 captured38 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.
- ^ Zimmerman documents the participation by native Solomon Islanders in the campaign at pp. 173–175.
- ^ Jersey, pp. 356–358. Assisting the Americans in the latter stages of campaign were Fijian commandos led by officers and non-commissioned officers from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
- ^ Garamone, Jim (9 November 2010). "Mullen Thanks Tonga for Steadfast Support". U.S. Navy. Archived from the original on 23 October 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- ^ Frank, pp. 57, 619–621; Rottman, p. 64. Approximately 20,000 U.S. Marines and 40,000 U.S. Army troops were deployed on Guadalcanal at different times during the campaign. Figures for other the Allies are not included.
- ^ Rottman, p. 65. 31,400 Imperial Japanese Army troops and 4,800 men of the Imperial Japanese Navy were deployed to Guadalcanal during the campaign. Jersey states that 50,000 Japanese army and navy troops were sent to Guadalcanal and that most of the original naval garrison of 1,000–2,000 men was successfully evacuated in November and December 1942 by Tokyo Express warships (Jersey, pp. 348–350).
- ^ Tucker 2014, p. 213
- ^ The USMC History Division states that the US ground forces (Army and Marine Corps) suffered 4,709 total wounded. Marine air units add another 127 to this figure. Frank notes that the Bureau of Personnel, World War II Casualty List, Books 2 and 3, Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C. lists US Navy wounded over the course of the campaign as 2,953, (Frank, p. 644) but this number appears to be an understatement.
- ^ Frank, pp. 598–618; and Lundstrom, p. 456. 85 Australians were killed in the Battle of Savo Island. Total Solomon Islander deaths are unknown. Most of the rest, if not all, of those killed were American. Numbers include personnel killed by all causes including combat, disease, and accidents. Losses include 1,768 dead (ground), 4,911 dead (naval), and 420 dead (aircrew). Four U.S. aircrew were captured by the Japanese during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and survived their captivity. An unknown number of other U.S. ground, naval, and aircrew personnel were, according to Japanese records, captured by Japanese forces during the campaign but did not survive their captivity and the dates and manners of most of their deaths are unknown (Jersey, pp. 346, 449). Captured Japanese documents revealed that two captured Marine scouts had been tied to trees and then vivisected while still alive and conscious by an army surgeon as a medical demonstration (Clemens, p. 295). Ships sunk includes both warships and "large" auxiliaries. Aircraft destroyed includes both combat and operational losses.
- ^ Cowdrey (1994) p. 71: "Of the 19,200 dead, only 8,500 were 'killed in actual combat,' the majority perishing by malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and beriberi." Naval personnel deaths both on land and at sea are not included.
- ^ "Title". www.combinedfleet.com.
- ^ Frank, pp. 598–618; Shaw, p. 52; and Rottman, p. 65. Numbers include personnel killed by all causes including combat, disease, and accidents. Losses include 24,600–25,600 dead (ground), 3,543 dead (naval), and 2,300 dead (aircrew). Most of the captured personnel were Korean slave laborers assigned to Japanese naval construction units. Ships sunk includes warships and "large" auxiliaries. Aircraft destroyed includes both combat and operational losses.