Guadalcanal campaign
On 7 August 1942, Allied forces (primarily U.S.) landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and
Florida Islands in the Solomon Islands .
The landings on the islands were meant to deny their use by the Japanese as
bases for threatening the supply routes between the U.S. and Australia, and to secure the islands as starting points for a
campaign with the eventual goal of isolating the major Japanese base at
Rabaul while also supporting the Allied
New Guinea campaign . The landings initiated the six-month-long Guadalcanal campaign .[6]
Taking the Japanese by surprise, by nightfall on 8 August, the 11,000 Allied troops—under the command of then
Major General Alexander Vandegrift and mainly consisting of U.S. Marine Corps units—had secured Tulagi and nearby small islands, as well as an airfield under construction at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. The airfield was later named "Henderson Field" by Allied forces. The Allied aircraft that subsequently operated out of the airfield became known as the "Cactus Air Force " (CAF) after the Allied codename for Guadalcanal. To protect the airfield, the U.S. Marines established a perimeter defense around Lunga Point. [7]
In response to the Allied landings on Guadalcanal, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters assigned the Imperial Japanese Army's 17th Army—a
corps -sized command based at Rabaul and under the command of Lieutenant-General Harukichi Hyakutake—with the task of retaking Guadalcanal from Allied forces. On 19 August, various units of the 17th Army began to arrive on Guadalcanal with the goal of driving Allied forces from the island.
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