Spearheaded by the 1st Marine Division, U.S. forces turned the tide of the Pacific war in the grueling campaign for Guadalcanal.
The epic Guadalcanal campaign lasted six months, from 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943. It featured seven major naval battles, a score or more large-scale battles ashore, the almost daily cut and thrust of aerial clashes, and dozens of encounters between ships and planes. The long struggle remains without peer in military history for heavy, sustained combat in all three dimensions — land, sea, and air. Japan and the United States battled at even odds, resulting in a see-saw campaign with first one antagonist and then the other gaining the upper hand.
