Guadalcanal
This 6-month long campaign lasted from August 1942 to February 1943, during which 60,000 Marines lost 7,100 dead, the U. S. Navy lost 29 ships sunk, and the U. S. Army Air Corps lost 615 planes shot down. The Japanese garrison of 36,000 men lost at least 31,000 killed in action, with only 1,000 captured, the rest unaccounted for, 38 ships sunk, and about 700 planes shot down.
Savo Sound, the stretch of water amid Savo Island, Florida Island, and Guadalcanal has been nicknamed Ironbottom Sound because of the 4 dozen ships sitting on the ocean floor. It is considered sacred to both navies and silence is observed whenever a ship passes through it.
While the navies dueled to the death off the coast, Guadalcanal was the scene of triple canopy jungle fighting of the same drawn-out attrition as that seen in Vietnam. The most bitter fighting was seen around the airstrip, renamed Henderson Field in honor of Lofton Henderson, killed in action at Midway; and “Edson’s Ridge,” also called “Bloody Ridge,” overseeing the airstrip and which the Japanese attempted to wrest from the Marines.
No comments:
Post a Comment