Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu-Tanambogo

Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
United States Marines wade ashore on Tulagi Island on 7 August 1942.
Date 7–9 August 1942 Location Tulagi and Gavutu in the Solomon Islands Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom British Solomon Islands	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Alexander Vandegrift William H. Rupertus Gerald C. Thomas	Sadayoshi Yamada Shigetoshi Miyazaki†
Strength
3,000	886
Casualties and losses
122 killed, 200 wounded	863 killed, 20 captured

 United States
 United Kingdom

The Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, between the forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied (mainly United States (U.S.) Marine) ground forces. It took place from 7–9 August 1942 on the Solomon Islands, during the initial Allied landings in the Guadalcanal campaign.

In the battle, U.S. Marines, under the overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, successfully landed and captured the islands of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo among which the Japanese Navy had constructed a naval and seaplane base. The landings were fiercely resisted by the Japanese Navy troops who, outnumbered and outgunned by the Allied forces, fought and died almost to the last man.

At the same time that the landings on Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo were taking place, Allied troops were also landing on nearby Guadalcanal, with the objective of capturing an airfield under construction by Japanese forces. In contrast to the intense fighting on Tulagi and Gavutu, the landings on Guadalcanal were essentially unopposed. The landings on both Tulagi and Guadalcanal initiated the six-month-long Guadalcanal campaign and a series of combined-arms battles between Allied and Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area.

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