Guadalcanal campaign

Guadalcanal Campaign
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
United States Marines rest in the field during the Guadalcanal campaign
Date 7 August 1942 – 9 February 1943 (6 months and 2 days) Location Guadalcanal, British Solomon Islands Result Allied victory Beginning of Allied Offensive Operations in the Pacific
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom  • Solomon Islands[1]  • Fiji[2]  Australia  New Zealand  Tonga[3]	Japan
Commanders and leaders
U.S. Navy: Robert L. Ghormley William F. Halsey, Jr. Richmond K. Turner Frank J. Fletcher U.S. Marine Corps: Alexander A. Vandegrift Merritt A. Edson U.S. Army: Alexander M. Patch U.S. Coast Guard: Russell R. Waesche	I.J. Navy: Isoroku Yamamoto Hiroaki Abe Nobutake Kondō Nishizo Tsukahara Takeo Kurita Jinichi Kusaka Shōji Nishimura Gunichi Mikawa Raizō Tanaka I.J. Army: Hitoshi Imamura Harukichi Hyakutake
Strength
60,000+ men (ground forces)[4]	36,200 men (ground forces)[5]
Casualties and losses
7,100 dead[6] 7,789+ wounded[7] 4 captured 29 ships lost 615 aircraft lost[8]	19,200 dead 8,500+ killed in action[9] 1,000 captured 38 ships lost 683–880 aircraft lost[10]

The Guadalcanal Campaign^[11] was fought between August 7, 1942, and February 9, 1943, in the Pacific theatre of World War II. This campaign, which was a decisive and strategically important campaign of World War II, was fought on the ground, at sea, and in the air between Allied forces against Imperial Japanese forces. The fighting took place on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands, and was the first major offensive launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.^[12]

On August 7, 1942, Allied forces, mainly from the United States, started landings on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomons with the aim to make supply routes between the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand safer. The Battle of Guadalcanal was one of the first long campaigns in the Pacific.

1. ↑ Zimmerman documents the participation by native Solomon Islanders in the campaign at pp. 173–175.
2. ↑ Jersey, pp. 356–358. Assisting the Americans in the latter stages of campaign were Fijiian commandos led by officers and non-commissioned officers from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
3. ↑ 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.
4. ↑ 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.
5. ↑ 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).
6. ↑ Tucker 2014, p. 213 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFTucker2014 (help)
7. ↑ 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.
8. ↑ 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.
9. ↑ 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 factored into this total.
10. ↑ 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.
11. ↑ Also known as: the Battle of Guadalcanal, Battle for Guadalcanal; Codename: Operation Watchtower.
12. ↑ Keegan, John (1989). The Second World War. Auckland, NZ: Hutchinson.