Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

AIR SUPERIORITY
Guadalcanal in the southern Solomons, posing a very real threat to Allied
communications. As noted previously, the plan to occupy Port Moresby had
not been abandoned. Since the sea route had been denied them, the Japanese
decided to move against this objective by land. On July 21, a landing was
made at Buna, on the north coast of New Guinea, and troops began advancing
across the Owen Stanley Mountains. Because Australia's best troops had
been sent to North Africa and Singapore, the advance was opposed by poorly
trained and poorly equipped militia. The Japanese quickly established an airfield
at Buna and seemed well on the way to establishing air superiority over
eastern New Guinea. Rabaul was the base for both the Solomon Islands and
the New Guinea offensives, and from Rabaul, Japanese fighters and bombers
could reach both Port Moresby and, if necessary, Guadalcanal.
Guadalcanal
On August 7, 1942, U.S. Marines went ashore at Tulagi, where they
met heavy resistance, and at Guadalcanal, where the Japanese labor troops
working on the airfield fled. The ease of the Guadalcanal landing was
deceptive because it was the beginning of a battle that would last into February
of the next year and would cost each of the contending powers thousands
of lives, hundreds of aircraft, and scores of ships before it was
resolved. The real objective of this struggle was the airfield on Guadalcanal,
H-enderson Field as it was quickly named, the possession of which
was the key to the control of the southern Solomon Islands.
Douglas TBD Devastators on board the USS Enterprise prior to take off for
the Battle of Midway; only four of these torpedo-bombers returned.
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