Posted on 08/07/2025 12:49:48 PM PDT by Jacquerie
The August 1942 landing on Guadalcanal was a colossal improvisation, concocted on the fly to take advantage of a recent dramatic turn in the Pacific war.
We’ve all heard the sayings: “Haste makes waste,” “Look before you leap,” “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” They all make the same point: Be careful, especially when undertaking a difficult task. Prepare yourself. Think about the things that can go wrong, and have a plan ready when they do.
However, sometimes you have no choice. An opportunity arises, you decide to respond, and you go ahead with whatever plans and resources you can cook up at the moment. Just ask the US Marines who landed on the South Pacific island of Guadalcanal in August 1942. The landing was a colossal improvisation, concocted on the fly to take advantage of a recent dramatic turn in the Pacific war. The official name for the Guadalcanal landing was “Operation Watchtower,” but the Marines, with their sardonic sense of humor, had a better name: “Operation Shoestring.”
Just six months after Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy suffered a shocking defeat at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. US dive-bombers destroyed four of Japan’s precious aircraft carriers (out of six), and for the time being, at least, Japanese naval power was broken. Having momentarily seized the initiative, US commanders intended to keep it. Commander in Chief of the US fleet, Admiral Ernest J. King, now drew up plans for a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Success here would punch a hole in Japan’s Pacific perimeter and serve as a sign that this young war had already seen its turning point.
The 1st Marine Division was new to the Pacific. Its commander, General Alexander Vandegrift, wanted six months of training before launching the plan into action.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalww2museum.org ...
Ditto if the USN had decent torpedoes in 1942.
RIP Uncle Mike…✝️
He was one of the main characters in “The Pacific” miniseries.
The Navy should have grounded the supply ships to leave more supplies for the Marines. I can understand the warships running (although that was premature) - at that stage there weren’t a lot of spares, and a lot of the supplies on the ship would have been lost in Japanese attacks, but some is better than none when it comes to the food and ammo on those ships.
Radiation effects are overrated.
More people were killed in a Tokyo fire bombing raid (night of March 9 -10 1945, than by the Nagasaki Atomic bomb.
Tokyo = between 90,000 and 100,000.
Nagasaki = Around 40,000 in the blast, about that many from radiation. (NIH says about 70,000 total)
Numbers aren’t as clear for Hiroshima - maybe as high as 140,000, maybe as low as 70,000.
For comparison, figures for the Dresden bombing range from 25,000 to 250,000.
Your point?
In 1944 there was D-Day timed with Bagration.
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The Russians killed 300,000 German soldiers and captured 150,000 more during Bagration. That was surely helpful to the Allies.
More guys, more casualties especially with the USN’s crappy tactics of their destroyers and cruisers. Failure to use their advantages in radar. USN’s commanders failed miserably until they got some leaders. Freeing the destroyers to operate as a task force relieved of escort requirements paid off as the commanders leveraged their advantage and were able to aggressively prosecute their plans. For starters.
I was speaking of Guadalcanal. Not Europe.
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