Guadalcanal Battle

It was the beginning of one of the most significant battles on the Pacific Front of World War II. The Battle of the Guadalcanal took place on August 7th of 1942, when the United States Marines landed on the Guadalcanal. The landing at the Guadalcanal was unchallenged and it took Americans six months to defeat the Japanese which turned into a battle of attrition. After the Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway, Americans thought of taking back the Pacific Islands and the first confrontation was to be at the Guadalcanal.

The Guadalcanal is a part of the Solomon Islands and sets to the north-eastern part of Australia. Guadalcanal is a humid, jungle-covered, tropical island. The atmosphere made it important for both sides in the Pacific War. If Japanese were to take the island, they would cut off the sea route between Australia and America. If the Americans took control of the island, they would be more likely to protect Australia from Japanese invasion and protect the Allied build-up in Australia, which would be a major assault on the Japanese.

The hierarchy in the Japanese Navy believed that not proceeding forward would be seen as
forces land. The first U.S. Marine Division was commanded by Major-General Alexander Vandegrift, who had a lot of men in it that had no combat experience. Vandegrift was told that the men would have time to train when they were in the Pacific, but by the end of June, half of the division still had not been in the war zone and the attack was five weeks away. The whole forces were lacking in reliable maps, tide charts, and etc. The ones that were used were lacking the basics of details. The naval force had no charts for hazards underwater, so they could not calculate how far inshore a ship could go. Because of theses issues, it was agreed to put back the day of the attack from August 1st to August 4th and then to August