page_title: Guadalcanal Campaign
section_title: Battle of the Eastern Solomons
hierarchical_section_title: Guadalcanal Campaign / Battle of the Eastern Solomons
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) seen from another U.S. ship while under attack by Japanese dive bombers during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August 1942. An intense fire is burning in her starboard after five-inch gun gallery, the result of a bomb hit that ignited ready-service ammunition. Note the anti-aircraft shell bursts over the carrier.
context_page_description: The Guadalcanal Campaign was fought between August 7, 1942, and February 9, 1943, in the Pacific theatre of World War II. This campaign, which was a decisive and strategically important campaign of World War II, was fought on the ground, at sea, and in the air between Allied forces against Imperial Japanese forces. The fighting took place on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands, and was the first major offensive launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.
  On August 7, 1942, Allied forces, mainly from the United States, started landings on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomons with the aim to make supply routes between the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand safer.
  The Battle of Guadalcanal was one of the first long campaigns in the Pacific.
context_section_description: As the Tenaru battle was ending, more Japanese troops were already on their way. Three slow transports departed from Truk on 16 August carrying the remaining 1,400 soldiers from Ichiki's (28th) Infantry Regiment plus 500 naval marines from the 5th Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force.
  The transports were guarded by 13 warships commanded by Japanese Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka. He planned to land the troops on Guadalcanal on 24 August. To cover the landings and retake Henderson Field from Allied forces, Yamamoto directed Chuichi Nagumo to meet with a carrier force from Truk on 21 August and head towards the southern Solomon Islands. Nagumo's force included three carriers and 30 other warships.
  Three U.S. carrier task forces under Fletcher approached Guadalcanal to attack the Japanese. On 24 and 25 August, the two carrier forces fought the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, which resulted in both fleets pulling back from the area after taking some damage. Japan lost one light aircraft carrier. Tanaka's convoy, after getting heavy damage during the battle from an air attack by aircraft from Henderson Field, including the sinking of one of the transports, changed direction to the Shortland Islands in the northern Solomons. This was done to transfer the troops to destroyers for delivery to Guadalcanal.
caption: The carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) under air attack during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons.
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