Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal, a 2,510 square mile (6,500 km²) island in the Pacific Ocean and a province of the Solomon Islands, is largely a jungle. The island became the scene of the important Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II. The island contains the national capital of the Solomon Islands, Honiara.

Related Topics:
Island - Pacific Ocean - Solomon Islands - Battle of Guadalcanal - World War II - Honiara

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A Spanish expedition under Álvaro de Mendaña discovered the island in 1568. It was named by Mendaña's subordinate Pedro de Ortega after his home town in Andalusia, Guadalcanal. However, he could not spell the name properly (using variously Guadarcana, Guarcana, and Guadalcana), and it became subsequently known as Guadalcanar. Later it became part of the British Empire, and in 1932 the British changed the spelling to Guadalcanal.

Related Topics:
Álvaro de Mendaña - 1568 - Pedro de Ortega - Guadalcanal - British Empire

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Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor and Singapore, the Japanese forces advanced into the South Pacific, reaching Guadalcanal in May 1942. United States forces chose Guadalcanal for their first major large-scale invasion of a Japanese-held island. Guadalcanal became a major turning-point in the war.

Related Topics:
Attack on Pearl Harbor - Singapore - Japan - 1942 - United States

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The Battle of Cape Esperance was fought on October 11, 1942 on the northwest coast of Guadalcanal. In the battle, United States Navy ships intercepted and defeated a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island. US forces reinvaded and, after six months of fighting, managed to halt the Japanese advance, driving Japan's troops into the sea on January 15, 1943. American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure on February 9, 1943.

Related Topics:
Battle of Cape Esperance - October 11 - 1942 - United States Navy - January 15 - 1943 - February 9

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Two U.S. Navy ships have been named for the battle. The first was a World War II escort carrier assigned to convoy duty in the Atlantic, and the second was a an amphibious assault ship based on the then new idea of "vertical envelopment" launched in 1963 and decommissioned in 1994. Interestingly, the crews of both Guadalcanals had the rare experience of capturing another warship.

Related Topics:
A World War II escort carrier - An amphibious assault ship

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On June 4, 1944, 150 miles West of Cape Blanco in French West Africa, a US Navy escort carrier task group led by the escort carrier Guadalcanal captured, boarded and salvaged the German U-boat 505 and towed it 2,500 miles to the Naval Operating Base in Bermuda. The task group encountered the enemy submarine as it was returning to its base in Brest, France after an eighty-day commerce destroying raid in the Gulf of Guinea. The U-505 is the submarine exhibited in the Science and Industry Museum in Chicago.

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In 1987, the helicopter carrier Guadalcanal was leading mine-sweeping operations in the Persian Gulf when it encountered the Iran Ajar laying mines in the shipping lanes. Helicopters from the Guadalcanal attacked the ship; troops from the Guadalcanal boarded and captured the ship. This Guadalcanal also provided the Marines for the first wave of Operation Provide Comfort, the Kurdish relief operations in Northern Iraq immediately following the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

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