GUADALCANAL: FIRST MAJOR U.S. LAND OFFENSIVE AGAINST JAPAN
Guadalcanal, Southern Solomon Islands • August 7, 1942 On this date in 1942 some 11,000 Marines of the 1st Marine Division assaulted the northcentral beaches of Guadalcanal, the largest of the nearly 1,000 tropical islands in the Solomon Islands chain (see map below). Guadalcanal’s 2,000 Japanese defenders were caught by complete surprise. The amphibious Marine…