Guadalcanal
After the attack of Pearl Harbor the battle of Guadalcanal was the first major step by the United States and the allied forces to stop Japan. The Battle of Guadalcanal started on August 7, 1942 and was codenamed operation watch tower by the allied forces. They also called it the Guadalcanal campaign and this battle during WWII was fought on the island of Guadalcanal and around it in the Pacific ocean. Guadalcanal island is part of the Solomon island chain and battles were also fought on these other islands but the major part of the battle was done on Guadalcanal and in the Pacific Ocean.
The other two islands that the allied forces took over were Florida and Tulagi. When the allied forces surprised Japan at Guadalcanal they took the islands of Tulagi and Florida. The allied forces gained control of the Henderson air field on Guadalcanal island and fought off daily bombings and many attacks from Japans' navy and airforce. Their were seven naval battles between the allied forces and Japan fighting over the island of Guadalcanal because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the Henderson air base was a pretty big base for Japan.
The battle of Guadalcanal ended on February 9, 1943 when Japan took all of their troops off of the island because their were too many casualties for them and the allied forces were coming at them with another big offensive.
I like the United States and the allied forces because other countries know that if they mess with us we will come right back at them with three times as much force.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalcanal_Campaign
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/guadlcnl/guadlcnl.htm
Above is a picture of soldiers relaxing in a field and below is an airport and you can see many bomb craters in the ground.
Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima Started on February 19, 1945 and was also called Operation Detachment. The reason for attacking Iwo Jima was to capture the three air fields that were on the island. The air bases were the main reason they could fly farther than other countries because they could fly out there and fuel and get supplies and then fly further which could get them to Pearl Harbor. Iwo Jima is an island that is off the east coast of Japan and is in a chain of volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Japanese soldiers were heavily protected in fortfications that were dug into the volcano. They also had huge machine guns and they were on the hill and the United States soldiers had to come up the hill, so they could just pick them off if they weren't careful. The United States had great protection from the sky. We had airplanes that would bomb the volcano seemingly endlessly. The type of battling at Iwo Jima was the first of its kind because the Japanese weren't scared of dying for their country.
People that had to many tracer bullets and the ones that had flamethrowers on their backs were the people that were the biggest targets because they could see the tracer bullets at night and the flamethrowers had to be shot or they could get torched. The people with the flame throwers would go up to a cave and blast the people out of their and when they would come out on fire people would shoot them so they couldn't get to the guy with the flamethrower and start him on fire.
At the end of the war their were only 216 Japanese taken captive and at the beginning there were 18,000 Japanese troops. Japanese commanders told the soldiers to kill themselves before they get taken to be a prisoner of war so they would torcher them and try and get information from them. The United States took over the island on March 26, 1945 when we killed or captured all the Japanese troops.
These two battles really show how the United States can stand alone and win a battle and also work together with other countries to win a war.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima
http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=12
Comments
Good job Connor!