DVIDS – News – Battle of Guadalcanal: 81st Anniversary of Operation Watchtower

.
“We struck at Guadalcanal to halt the advance of the Japanese. We did not know how strong he was, nor did we know his plans. We knew only that he was moving down the island chain and that he had to be stopped. We were as well trained and as well armed as time and our peacetime experience allowed us to be. We needed combat to tell us how effective our training, our doctrines, and our weapons had been. We tested them against the enemy, and we found that they worked. From the movement in 1942, the tide turned, and the Japanese never again advanced.”– UNITED STATEMarine Corps Brig Gen. Alexander A. Vandergrift

Heavy clouds as well as extreme tornados covered the activity of the Allied intrusion fleet whilst a Japanese patrol airplane from Tulagi Island, a district of the …