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7 August 1942 - 9 February 1943Reputable sourceWell documented

Marines hold a jungle airfield for six months in America's first land offensive of the war

On the timeline · around 7 August 1942 - 9 February 1943 · The Tide TurnsThe Tide TurnsMarines hold a jungle airfield for six months in America's first land offensive of the war1943

What happened

On 7 August 1942, an invasion force under Rear Admiral Richmond Turner landed the 1st Marine Division, commanded by Major General Alexander Vandegrift, on Guadalcanal and the nearby islands of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo. Marines seized a nearly-complete Japanese airstrip on Guadalcanal's Lunga Point and renamed it Henderson Field, after Major Lofton Henderson, a Marine dive-bomber squadron commander killed leading his squadron against a Japanese carrier at the Battle of Midway two months earlier. Holding that airfield against repeated Japanese air, sea, and land counterattacks became the center of a six-month fight. Japan finally evacuated its surviving troops on 9 February 1943.

Why it matters

Guadalcanal is widely considered, alongside Midway, the point where Japan shifted from an expanding offensive to a defensive posture it never fully reversed. The cost was steep on both sides: Allied losses ran to roughly 7,100 personnel casualties, 29 ships, and 615 aircraft, while Japanese losses ran far higher, at roughly 31,000 personnel casualties, 38 ships, and 683 aircraft. Holding Guadalcanal also protected the sea lanes to Australia and New Zealand from Japanese interdiction, the original strategic reason for the landing.

How we know

The campaign is documented through US Navy and Marine Corps official war diaries and after-action reports, and Japanese naval and army records recovered or reconstructed after the war describing their own losses and the decision to withdraw.

Sources

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