To check the Japanese advance and open the way for a strategic offensive against Rabaul, the Allies planned to seize bases in the southern Solomon Islands. On 7 August 1942 Maj. Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift's First Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal and nearby Tulagi, scattering small Japanese forces on both islands. The Japanese reaction was swift. First, Japanese aircraft struck at the beachhead. Then, in a surprise night attack against Allied naval forces early on 9 August (the Battle of Savo Island), seven Japanese cruisers and a destroyer sank three American cruisers, an Australian cruiser, and an American destroyer. Rear Adm. Richmond K. Turner and Adm. Frank J. Fletcher were forced to withdraw ships from the area, leaving the marines alone to defend the Guadalcanal airfield. Undaunted by the loss of the aircraft carrier Ryuto at the battle of the Eastern Solomons (August 23–25), the Japanese landed thousands of troops on the island in nightly destroyer runs ("Tokyo Express"). In mid-September, the Japanese, now about a division strong, attacked the marine positions (the Battle of Bloody Ridge), only to be repulsed with heavy losses.
For the next month, heavy air and sea battles took place in the Guadalcanal area. While further Japanese reinforcement efforts were frustrated in a series of naval actions, the marines were soon replaced by more than fifty thousand army troops under Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch. The Japanese, short on supplies and weakened by disease, fell back before heavy American attacks. In early February 1943, the thirteen thousand Japanese survivors were evacuated in night operations, leaving Guadalcanal in American hands.
Bibliography
Frank, Richard B. Guadalcanal. New York: Random House, 1990.
Griffith, Samuel B., II. The Battle for Guadalcanal. New York: Lippincott, 1963.
Hammel, Eric M. Guadalcanal, Decision at Sea: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, November 13–15, 1942. New York: Crown, 1988.
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