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Guadalcanal Campaign, 1942 — historical photograph 9.4°S 160.0°E Pacific
1942 · 9.4°S 160.0°E

Guadalcanal Campaign

Solomon Islands · campaign · Pacific

Briefing

The first major Allied ground offensive of the Pacific War began in August 1942 and ran for six months of attritional jungle fighting, starvation, and seven major naval battles in waters that earned the name Ironbottom Sound. By February 1943 Japan had been forced onto the defensive for good — at the cost of more American sailors dead at sea than Marines on the island.

Books Covering This Event (12)

Memoir

Guadalcanal Diary cover
Guadalcanal Diary Richard Tregaskis · 1943

A war correspondent's eyewitness account of the first months of the Guadalcanal campaign, published while the.

Accessible
Helmet for My Pillow cover
Helmet for My Pillow Robert Leckie · 1957

A Marine's memoir of Guadalcanal, New Britain, and Peleliu — from enlistment through combat to homecoming.

Accessible
Goodbye, Darkness cover
Goodbye, Darkness William Manchester · 1980

William Manchester's memoir of his time as a Marine in the Pacific, interwoven with a pilgrimage to the.

Intermediate

Popular History

Strong Men Armed cover
Strong Men Armed Robert Leckie · 1962

The United States Marines against Japan, island by island, by a man who fought as one.

Accessible
The Pacific cover
The Pacific Hugh Ambrose · 2010

The official companion to the HBO series, following five men through the island campaigns.

Accessible
Neptune's Inferno cover
Neptune's Inferno James Hornfischer · 2011

The savage naval battles around Guadalcanal — the most costly naval campaign in American history.

Intermediate
Lost in Shangri-La cover
Lost in Shangri-La Mitchell Zuckoff · 2011

A sightseeing flight crashes in an uncharted New Guinea valley; three survivors meet a stone-age people, and gliders come to get them out.

Accessible
The Conquering Tide cover
The Conquering Tide Ian Toll · 2015

The second volume of Toll's Pacific War Trilogy, covering the brutal middle years from Guadalcanal to the Marianas.

Intermediate

Unbroken cover
Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand · 2010

The life of Louis Zamperini — Olympic runner, bomber crew, castaway, and Japanese POW.

Accessible

Historical Fiction

Tales of the South Pacific cover
Tales of the South Pacific James A. Michener · 1947

Linked stories of sailors, nurses, and islanders waiting out the war between battles in the islands.

Accessible
The Naked and the Dead cover
The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer · 1948

A platoon of American soldiers fights to take a Japanese-held island in the Pacific.

Intermediate
The Thin Red Line cover
The Thin Red Line James Jones · 1962

A novel following an Army rifle company during the Guadalcanal campaign — the second volume of Jones's war.

Intermediate

Timeline Position

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