Operation Watchtower

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 in the Solomon Islands Result Strategic Allied victory Beginning of Allied Offensive Operations in the Pacific
Belligerents
United States  Australia  New Zealand  United Kingdom British Solomon Islands Colony of Fiji  Tonga	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	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)	36,200 men (ground forces)
Casualties and losses
7,100 dead 7,789+ wounded 4 captured 29 ships lost 615 aircraft lost	19,200 dead 8,500+ killed in action 1,000 captured 38 ships lost 683–880 aircraft lost

Strategic Allied victory

19,200 dead

The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower, originally applying only to an operation to take the island of Tulagi by Allied forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of World War II. It was the first major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.

On 7 August 1942, Allied forces, predominantly United States Marines, landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands, with the objective of denying their use by the Japanese to threaten Allied supply and communication routes between the US, Australia, and New Zealand. The Allies also intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases to support a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The Allies overwhelmed the outnumbered Japanese defenders, who had occupied the islands since May 1942, and captured Tulagi and Florida, as well as an airfield (later named Henderson Field) that was under construction on Guadalcanal. Powerful American and Australian naval forces supported the landings.

Surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese made several attempts between August and November to retake Henderson Field. Three major land battles, seven large naval battles (five nighttime surface actions and two carrier battles), and continual (almost daily) aerial battles, culminated in the decisive Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November, in which the last Japanese attempt to bombard Henderson Field from the sea and land with enough troops to retake it was defeated. In December, the Japanese abandoned their efforts to retake Guadalcanal and evacuated their remaining forces by 7 February 1943, in the face of an offensive by the US Army's XIV Corps.

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