Invasion of Tulagi (May 1942)

Invasion of Tulagi
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
Japanese officers and petty officers of the 3rd Kure Special Naval Landing Force that seized Tulagi in May 1942
Date 3–4 May 1942 Location Tulagi and Gavutu Islands, Solomon Islands Result Japanese victory Territorial changes Japanese forces occupied Tulagi and nearby islands.
Belligerents
Allied forces including:  United States  Australia  United Kingdom	Japan
Commanders and leaders
William Sydney Marchant (land) Frank Jack Fletcher (naval)	Isoroku Yamamoto Shigeyoshi Inoue Aritomo Goto Kiyohide Shima
Strength
1 aircraft carrier, 3 cruisers, 4 destroyers, 58 aircraft[1]	2 destroyers, 5 minesweepers, 2 minelayers, 1 transport ship, 2 subchasers, 6 aircraft, 400–500 troops[2][3][4]
Casualties and losses
4 aircraft destroyed[5][6][7][8]	1 destroyer, 3 minesweepers sunk, 2 minelayers, 1 destroyer damaged, 1 transport damaged, 5–6 aircraft destroyed, 87 killed[9][10]

The invasion of Tulagi, on 3–4 May 1942, was part of Operation Mo, the Empire of Japan's strategy in the South Pacific and South West Pacific Area in 1942. The plan called for Imperial Japanese Navy troops to capture Tulagi and nearby islands in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. The occupation of Tulagi by the Japanese was intended to cover the flank of and provide reconnaissance support for Japanese forces that were advancing on Port Moresby in New Guinea, provide greater defensive depth for the major Japanese base at Rabaul, and serve as a base for Japanese forces to threaten and interdict the supply and communication routes between the United States and Australia and New Zealand.

Without the means to effectively resist the Japanese offensive in the Solomons, the British Resident Commissioner of the Solomon Islands protectorate and the few Australian troops assigned to defend Tulagi evacuated the island just before the Japanese forces arrived on 3 May. The next day, however, a U.S. aircraft carrier task force en route to resist the Japanese forces advancing on Port Moresby (later taking part in the Battle of the Coral Sea) struck the Japanese Tulagi landing force in an air attack, destroying or damaging several of the Japanese ships and aircraft involved in the landing operation. Nevertheless, the Japanese troops successfully occupied Tulagi and began the construction of a small naval base.

Over the next several months, the Japanese established a naval refueling, communications, and seaplane reconnaissance base on Tulagi and the nearby islets of Gavutu and Tanambogo, and in July 1942 began to build a large airfield on nearby Guadalcanal. The Japanese activities on Tulagi and Guadalcanal were observed by Allied reconnaissance aircraft, as well as by Australian coastwatcher personnel stationed in the area. Because these activities threatened the Allied supply and communication lines in the South Pacific, Allied forces counter-attacked with landings of their own on Guadalcanal and Tulagi on 7 August 1942, initiating the critical Guadalcanal campaign and a series of combined arms battles between Allied and Japanese forces that, along with the New Guinea campaign, decided the course of the war in the South Pacific.