It is quite impossible to imagine now, but one of the most decisive struggles of World War II used to be fought on a small, humid island entirely covered by jungle and coral reefs. Before 1942, Guadalcanal was almost a stranger to the world, but it turned out to be the battlefield where the Allies and Japan not only fought for control of the Pacific but also for the entire war’s fate.
By the middle of 1942, the opponents were equally aware of the island’s value. First of all, for the Allies, it was necessary to maintain control over Guadalcanal to keep the supply lines between the United States and Australia and New Zealand, which were of utmost importance. So when Japan started to build an airfield there, it was clear that the lifelines would be under threat. The result of it would have been the isolation of Australia and a probable change of the war’s direction. Neither side could lose with such high stakes.
The United States carried out its first major landing that was part of an amphibious operation in August 1942. With surprising ease, the 1st Marine Division went up on the beach, took over the unfinished airstrip, and gave it its initial name, Henderson Field. The tranquility, however, was not for long time. The Japanese made their move, and the months of continuous fighting on land, air, and sea followed. Due to the huge number of sunken and crashed vessels, the area turned into Iron Bottom Sound, as the sailors gave it that name with a bitter sense of humor.
Ships in the navy that were involved in an early skirmish fared poorly in the Battle of Savo Island. At night, Japanese cruisers quietly moved in and attacked with their lethal Long Lance torpedoes, thus killing four heavily armed Allied cruisers in only a few minutes. This was the darkest hour of the U.S. Navy. However, the defeat was a turning point after which the establishment of radar technology got a major boost, the strategies for fighting at night were revamped, and the fleet was able to confront the Japanese on equal terms in close-quarters combat.
Similarly, the Marines and the Army soldiers had a very rough time fight-wise, but onshore. They suffered from shelling and sniper shots, disease, and hunger, which took turns attacking them. Henderson Field was their salvation, even though it was constantly under attack. “Cactus Air Force,” which was the name of a squadron of poorly equipped fliers, defended it as if their lives depended on it. Against all odds, they did not falter. Two great characters of that time, Lewis “Chesty” Puller and John Basilone, became heroes with their bravery being a symbol of the struggle that would eventually be victorious over the war.
In the course of the heated battles, the decisive moment in the Battle of Guadalcanal was reached in November 1942 with a series of violent nocturnal clashes. Under both the flare and the moonlight, battleships and cruisers fired their guns at point-blank range, thus turning the vast ocean into a chaotic, bright light spectacle.
When the combat that was so fierce calmed down to show its results, Japan had lost two battleships – Hiei and Kirishima – and the naval power that was equal to that of the US was actually stopped for the first time. The Pacific War turned in favor of the Americans.
Still, the price was very high. More than 20,000 lives were lost, and hundreds of ships and planes were destroyed. Besides the metal and the memories on the seafloor, the war had claimed the other most heartbreaking victims of all – the five Sullivan brothers who died when the USS Juneau sank and whose story became a reminder of the fatal human price of war.
Among the catastrophes, however, there were incidents of the crew’s courage and their resourcefulness – the story of the distressed USS New Orleans that survived because the crew repaired the bow with the coconut logs and then made a slow retreat to safety is quite famous.
The Japanese pulled out their last troops from Guadalcanal in February 1943, and the island was finally under the Allies’ control. This was not a victory like all the others, but the turning point. After this moment, Japan was constantly under attack, and its capacity to bounce back after losing was going down. Simultaneously, the US Navy, which was weak and uncertain at the beginning of the campaign, pulled out stronger, wiser, and more confident.
Even now, the shipwrecks that are lying underneath Iron Bottom Sound can still tell one that the battle of Guadalcanal was very tough. It was not simply fighting for an island, but the very instance when the Pacific War’s sea change was confirmed as moving inexorably towards Allied victory.