Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal – In Real Life

Guadalcanal is the third of 3 maps that will be released with the core of Battlefield 1943, along with (Wake Island and Iwo Jima). Guadalcanal is located in the Pacific Ocean and is a part of the Solomon Islands. The terrain is widely bush and was so at the time of the war. The Battle of Guadalcanal (as played in the Battlefield map) was the first major offensive fight of the Allied forces to those of Japan. The battle lasted from August 7 1942 and ended February 9 1943. The battle was fierce to say the least and included major support from both air and sea.

The main goals of the Allies was to keep control of the Battle of Guadalcanal so it could be used as a base to support their own objectives and to stop the Japanese from using it to threaten supplies between American and Australia/New Zealand. On first arriving to the Island the Allies vastly outnumbered the Japanese defenders and easily took the Island. However the Japanese were surprised by the Allied offensive and sent large numbers of troops to retake the Island.

Once captured the Allied forces spared no time in defending the airfield. They moved all recently landed equipment from the beach to the airfield and begin on defenses around the area.

There were many battles between the American forces and those of the Japanese on Guadalcanal, and a constant stream of Japanese was used in an attempt to take back the Island. The Americans were perhaps unaware of the sheer amount of Japanese troops concentrated on the Island until a supply depot held supplies for at least 3000 men.

The Americans would then call for reinforcements to help against the repeating raids by the Japanese. Although the Japanese themselves had plans to bring 17000 troops from two other devisions to Guadalcanal.

After many more large battles between the Japanese and American forces in varying areas of Guadalcanal (which included support from the air/sea from both sides). The Japanese decided to give up and withdraw from Guadalcanal, it was also decided that there would be no further attempts to take the Island.

It is the many battles between the US and Japan on Guadalcanal that is recreated in the Guadalcanal on Battlefield. There like in WW2 each side periodically loses and gains ground in the many battles that are fought.

For a more detailed look at the different battles that occurred in the Battle of Guadalcanal, you should see this Wikipedia article.