GUADALCANAL

7 August 1942-21 February 1943

On 7 December 1941, Imperial Japanese forces turned their war on the Asian mainland eastward and southward into the Pacific with simultaneous attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Wake, Guam, Hong Kong, and the Malay Peninsula. The rapid southward advance of Japanese armies and naval task forces in the following months found Western leaders poorly prepared for war in the Pacific. Nevertheless, they conferred quickly and agreed that, while maintaining the 'German first' course they had set against the Axis, they also had to blunt Japanese momentum and keep open lines of communication to Australia and New Zealand. As the enemy closed on those two island democracies, the Allies scrambled to shore up defenses, first by fortifying the Malay Barrier, and then, after Japanese smashed through that line, by reinforcing an Australian drive north across New Guinea. To make this first Allied offensive in the Pacific more effective, the Americans mounted a separate attack from a different direction to form a giant pincers in the Southwest Pacific. This decision brought American forces into the Solomon Islands and U.S. Army troops onto the island of Guadalcanal.