Solomon Islands campaign

Date

January 1942 – August 21, 1945

Location

British Solomon Islands/Territory of New Guinea, South Pacific

Result

Decisive Allied victory

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Solomon Islands campaign

1st Tulagi – Guadalcanal – Blackett Strait – Cartwheel – Vengeance – New Georgia – Kula Gulf – Kolombangara – Vella Gulf – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Naval Vella Lavella – Treasury Is. – Choiseul – Bougainville – Rabaul air raids – Cape St. George – Green Is.

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Pacific Ocean theater

Pearl Harbor – Midway – Solomons – Aleutians – Gilberts & Marshalls – Marianas & Palau –
Volcano Is & Ryukyu Is

The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, during the first six months of 1942. The Japanese occupied these locations and began the construction of several naval and air bases with the goals of protecting the flank of the Japanese offensive in New Guinea, establishing a security barrier for the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain, and providing bases for interdicting supply lines between the Allied powers of the United States and Australia and New Zealand.

The Allies, in order to defend their communication and supply lines in the South Pacific, support their counteroffensive in New Guinea, and isolate the Japanese base at Rabaul, counterattacked the Japanese in the Solomons with landings on Guadalcanal and surrounding islands in August 1942. These landings initiated a series of combined-arms battles between the two adversaries, beginning with the Guadalcanal campaign and continuing with several battles in the central and northern Solomons, on and around New Georgia.

The Allies created a combined air formation, Cactus Air Force, establishing air superiority during the daylight hours. The Japanese then resorted to nightly resupply missions which they called "Rat Transportation" (and the Allies called "the Tokyo Express") through New Georgia Sound ("The Slot"). Many pitched battles were fought trying to stop Japanese supplies from getting through. So many ships were lost by both sides that the area became known as "Ironbottom Sound".

Allied success in the Solomon Islands campaign prevented the Japanese from cutting Australia and New Zealand off from the U.S. Operation Cartwheel — the Allied grand strategy for the Solomons and New Guinea campaigns — launched on June 30, 1943, isolated and neutralized Rabaul and destroyed much of Japan's sea and air supremacy. This opened the way for Allied forces to recapture the Philippines and cut off Japan from its crucial resource areas in the Netherlands East Indies.

The Solomons campaign culminated in the often bitter fighting of the Bougainville campaign (1943–45), which continued until the end of the war.

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