The Solomons
are a group of islands in Western Pacific, east of New
Guinea. The group includes Guadalcanal, Bourgainville and New
Georgia.
The Solomons
were occupied by the Japanese
Army in 1941. Guadalcanal became a primary strategic objective
of the American Pacific offensive in 1942.
On 7th
August 1942, Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher
provided the back-up support that enabled General Alexander
Vandegrift
and 19,000
US
Marines to
land on Guadalcanal, Gavutu and Tulagi. It was the first time that
the Navajo
Code Talking was used.
The Japanese
garrison of 4,000 held out for two days on Tulagi. Progress was slower
on Guadalcanal and despite
attempts by the Japanese Army, Japanese
Navy and Japanese
Air Force, the US Marines were able to stay and build the
Henderson Field airstrip.
The US
Marines managed to withstand continuous attacks including the
battles of Tenaru River (21st August) and Bloody Ridge (12th September).Another
20,000 Japanese soldiers were landed on Guadalcanal and this led to
a renewed offensive at Matanikau River on 23rd October.
In October, 1942, TG 16
(Enterprise) and TG 17 (Hornet)
were combined to form TG 61 and was placed under the command of Rear
Admiral Thomas
Kinkaid . He faced Nobutake
Kondo at the battles that took place at Santa Cruz Islands (26th-27th
October, 1942). During the battle Hornet
was sunk and the Enterprise
was severely damaged. However, the Japanese
Navy had greater difficulty replacing her losses and found it
difficult to provide supplies to the Japanese
Army in the region.
Admiral William
Halsey took control of naval operations during the Guadalcana
campaign (12th-13th November, 1942) and sunk two Japanese battleships,
two destroyers and six transport ships for the loss of two cruisers
and four destroyers.
General
Alexander
Vandegrift,
who was awarded the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor, for his achievements
on Guadalcanal, was relieved by General Alexander
Patch and the 14th Corps in December 1943. It is estimated
that the Japanese Army lost more than
25,000 men during the struggle for the Solomons
Islands.
(1)
Studs
Terkel interviewed Eugene
B. Sledge about his experiences in the US Army
in Guadalcanal for his book, The Good War (1985)
I was nineteen, a replacement in June of 1944. Eighty percent of the
division in the Guadalcanal campaign was less than twenty-one years
of age. We were much younger than the general army units.
The Japanese fought by
a code they thought was right: bushido. The code of the warrior: no
surrender. You don't really comprehend it until you get out there
and fight people who are faced with an absolutely hopeless situation
and will not give up. If you tried to help one of the Japanese, he'd
usually detonate a grenade and kill himself as well as you. To be
captured was a disgrace. To us, it was impossible, too, because we
knew what happened in Bataan.
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