SOLOMON ISLANDS
HENDERSON FIELD in the Lunga area, Guadalcanal, as it appeared in November 1943. Lunga River can be seen in right foreground. The airfield, in the process of being built by the Japanese in the summer of 1942, was the immediate objective of the marines who landed on the island on 7 August 1942. This broad, level, coastal plain on the north coast of Guadalcanal was the only territory in the southern Solomons offering terrain suitable for the construction of large airfields.
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SOLOMON ISLANDS
SOUTHWEST PORTION OF FLORIDA ISLAND, looking across Gavutu Harbour toward the northwest part of Florida. The immediate objectives in the Guadalcanal Campaign were the Tulagi-Gavutu-Tanambogo area, the largest and best developed anchorage in the southern Solomons, and the nearly completed airfield on Guadalcanal. The Guadalcanal Campaign was the first amphibious offensive operation launched by the United States in World War II.
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SOLOMON ISLANDS
RESULTS OF AIR AND NAVAL BOMBARDMENT on Tanambogo, which the Marines requested in order to halt enemy fire hindering their progress on Gavutu. Gavutu Island, on left, is connected with Tanambogo by a stone causeway and is about a mile and three quarters to the east of Tulagi Island. These islands form the western side of Gavutu Harbour where the Japanese had developed a seaplane base. On 7 August 1942, concurrent with landings on Guadalcanal, marines landed on Tulagi, Gavutu, and Florida Islands.
SOLOMON ISLANDS