In the face of the huge pincer offensive of the five group armies and one and a half air forces of the Chinese National Defense Forces, the Red Russia was already exhausted, while the United States, the only ally that still had the strength to spare, was still entangled with the little Japan that had been beaten so badly, and it could not spare the strength to pull the Maozi brothers for a while. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Due to the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Midway in June of the 21st year of the Taichu Dynasty, the Japanese army lost its sea and air supremacy in the Pacific Ocean at the beginning of the war, and also lost its strategic initiative, and was forced to stop its strategic offensive and abandon or postpone its attack on Fiji, Samoa, and New Caledonia. However, the Japanese army did not realize that its strength had been greatly weakened, and the strength and morale of the US military had greatly increased, so it still decided to continue to attack the islands of the South Pacific, and planned to build an air base on Kuah Island first, and then send out air forces to cover the attack on Port Moresby on the island of New Guinea, and after gaining a firm foothold on the island of New Guinea, it would gradually advance to the southeast and force Australia, an important base of the Allies in the South Pacific, so as to regain the strategic initiative.

In order to realize this strategic attempt, the War Department of the base camp vigorously strengthened the 17th Army, which had been originally prepared to fight for Fiji and Samoa, and was formed in May 21, with Lieutenant General Hyakutake Haruyoshi, the younger brother of the Emperor's Chief Military Attaché, as the commander, and the military headquarters was located in Rabaul, New Britain, and by the beginning of August, the army had jurisdiction over the Nanhai Detachment, the Ichiki Detachment, and the Aoba Detachment, with a total strength of about 13 brigades, assembled in eastern New Guinea and the Bismarck Islands, and assumed the task of capturing Port Moresby. The Admiralty, the base camp, established the 8th Fleet in July, appointed Vice Admiral Mikawa Gunyi as commander, under the jurisdiction of the 6th, 18th, 29th, 30th destroyer groups, 7th, 13th, and 21st submarine fleets, with a number of warships and submarines, including 4 heavy cruisers and 3 light cruisers, and the main force was deployed in Rabaul to cooperate with the 17th Army. The Combined Fleet also sent more than 100 shore-based aircraft under the jurisdiction of the 25th Air Force to Rabaul to provide air cover.

After the Japanese army occupied Rabaul in January 21 and built this port and the nearby airfield into the most important sea and air base in the South Pacific, they occupied Tulagi Island in May of that year, which is located in the southern part of the Solomon Islands, and is on the edge of the combat radius of fighter jets based in Rabaul, about 30 nautical miles away from Guah Island, the second largest island in the Solomon Islands, in the south, and next to Florida Island in the north, which is the hub of sea and air transportation in the South Pacific. After the Japanese army occupied the island, they began to build an airfield, and surveyed the nearby islands, and found that although Kuah Island was mountainous and jungled, the alluvial plain of the Longjia River in the north of Kuah Island was flat, which was more suitable for building an airport than Tulagi Island, so on June 16, he sent about 2,000 engineers of the 11th Engineer Brigade to land on Kuah Island and began to build an airport. On July 1, about 700 engineers from the 13th Engineer Brigade led by Tokucho Okamura were sent to the island to strengthen the construction force, and the construction was ordered to be completed by August 5. After intense construction, by the beginning of August, Kuah Island Airport has been basically completed, and the auxiliary facilities have been largely completed. At this time, Kuah Island had 2,700 Japanese engineers and 240 garrisons, a total of about 2,940 people; Tulagi has 140 Japanese engineers, 400 aviation troops, and 200 garrison troops, a total of about 740 people.

Although the U.S. military won a great victory in the Battle of Midway, which stabilized the situation in the Central Pacific, it was still relatively passive in the South Pacific. When the Japanese occupied Rabaul in January 21, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral King proposed to occupy Tulagi Island in February to halt the Japanese advance and protect the sea traffic between the United States and Australia. President Roosevelt also expressed support for this idea. In order to seize the necessary time to make the necessary preparations, the United States Navy sent troops to Efate Island in the New Hebrides in March, and then occupied Espírito Santo to the north and began construction of airfields on the two islands. At the same time, the elite unit, the 1st Marine Division, was transported from mainland China to New Zealand.

Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Theater, and MacArthur, commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater, both believed that Rabaul was already the core base of the Japanese army, and the key to turning the tide of the war was to capture Rabaul as soon as possible. However, there were disagreements on specific tactics, and MacArthur advocated concentrating the maximum number of troops to organize a landing operation in the Bismarck Islands to capture Rabaul in one fell swoop. Nimitz, on the other hand, believed that the Japanese had formed a strong defense at Rabaul, with nearly 700 shore-based aircraft deployed and could be supported by a combined fleet, including four aircraft carriers, at any time. At this time, the US military had only three aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean, and its strength was weaker than that of the Japanese army, so it could not act rashly. Therefore, it is advisable to first land in the southern part of the Solomon Islands, establish an airfield on the newly occupied islands, and then gradually advance with the support of the air force, step by step, and finally capture Rabaul. Army Chief of Staff Marshall advocated that MacArthur should command the battle, while Chief of Naval Operations Admiral King held that the battle was fought in the rocky waters of the Solomon Islands, and that if it was commanded by someone who did not understand the navy, it would be possible for the naval fleet to fall into passivity in such dangerous sea areas, so Nimitz should be in command. The two sides did not give in to each other, and in the end, President Roosevelt personally presided over the coordination, and only then did a mutually acceptable plan be reached, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff formally approved the operation codenamed "Lookout" on April 1, with Nimitz commanding the Santa Cruz Islands and Tulagi Islands in the first phase. The second phase, commanded by MacArthur, was to capture the remaining islands of the Solomon Islands and wipe out the Japanese forces in Lae and Salamoa areas in the eastern part of New Guinea. The third phase, still under MacArthur's command, captured the islands of New Britain and New Ireland, and then Rabaul.

On 20 April, the South Pacific Force was established, with Vice Admiral Gormley as its commander, under the command of the 61st and 62nd Task Forces, with 3 aircraft carriers, 1 battleship, 14 cruisers, and 32 destroyers. This force was under the command of Nimitz. On 17 May, Gormley arrived in Noumea, New Caledonia, where the headquarters was located, from Washington to Auckland, New Zealand, where he actively organized preparations for the campaign.

On 2 July, the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued an order to move the dividing line between the two theaters to 159 degrees east longitude, considering that since the dividing line between the operational areas of the Pacific Theater and the Southwest Pacific Theater is 160 degrees east longitude, some troops from the Pacific Theater will enter the territory of the Southwest Pacific Theater and there may be friction in command. Although this decision resolved the issue of theater command, it did not clarify the command relationship between the naval task force and the Marine Corps, and this laid a hidden danger for future operational command. At the same time, the order of the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided that the operation would be launched on August 1.

On 4 July, US reconnaissance planes discovered that the Japanese army had already built an airfield on Kuah Island, and if the Kuah Island airfield was completed, Japanese planes taking off from this airfield would be able to reach the islands of Espírito Santo, Efate, and New Caledonia, seriously threatening the sea lines of communication between the United States and Australia. The Joint Chiefs of Staff immediately changed the operational objectives of the first phase of Operation Lookout to Kuah and Tulagi.

Lieutenant General Gormley, seeing the strength of the Japanese army, his own weak forces, and the lack of preparations, and now (July 1942) had to move the landing site forward, lacked confidence in victory, and asked for a postponement of the attack, and after Nimitz's persuasion, he agreed to launch the attack on August 7. The number of troops participating in the battle was divided into three parts, the first was the landing transport formation under the command of Rear Admiral Turner, consisting of 23 transport ships and 11 destroyers, which was responsible for sending the 1st Marine Division to Kuah Island and Tulagi Island. The second is the cover formation under the command of Rear Admiral Krachley, consisting of eight cruisers and eight destroyers, which are responsible for directly covering the landing convoy. The third is the task force under the command of Vice Admiral Fletcher, with a total of 3 aircraft carriers (USS Valiant (CV-11), USS Hornet (CV-12), and USS Franklin (CV-13)), 1 battleship, 6 cruisers, 16 destroyers, and 3 oil tankers, which are responsible for naval and air support and cover. Air support is also provided by 300 shore-based aircraft in the Southwest Pacific Theater. These forces assembled in the waters off the Fiji Islands on 26 July, and from 28 to 31 July, the 1st Marine Division conducted a landing exercise on Kolau Island in the Fiji Islands, with the naval forces also conducting joint exercises with the landing force.

Previously, the U.S. military's combat preparations were extremely inadequate, because Kuah Island has always been little known, in addition to the sporadic intelligence provided by the U.S. military on Kuah Island, there was only a 90-year-old chart, a few old photos taken by missionaries, and Jack? A novel written by London about the Solomon Islands. The 1st Marine Division, which was the main force of the landing, was the first elite unit in the United States to conduct special training for landing warfare, but a large number of outstanding well-trained officers and non-commissioned officers of the division were transferred to serve as the shelves of the newly formed 2nd and 3rd Marine Divisions; now most of the members of the 1st Marine Division are newly recruited recruits, and their combat effectiveness is no longer on the same level as that of the old 1st Division; by the end of June, the 5th Regiment had just arrived in New Zealand among the three regiments of the 1st Marine Division; The 7th Regiment consisted almost entirely of recruits, having just finished basic training for recruits and arrived in Samoa; The 1st Regiment was still on its way to the South Pacific. The division commander, Major General Van der Griff, was assured that the division would not participate in the war before the end of the year, and that there would be at least half a year of training. But Vandergrift arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, on June 26 and was told that he would be fighting on Kuah Island in August, and he didn't even know there was one before, and dubbed Operation Plague when he saw the battle plan. The preparation time for the campaign was only four weeks, and the preparations were extremely intense. The port of Auckland was immediately flooded with a large amount of war materials, because the loading of materials for the transport ships participating in the landing operation had to be loaded according to the special "combat loading" standard, the port was small, and it coincided with the rainy winter of New Zealand, and the heavy rain for several days made the order on the dock very chaotic, and the dock workers were on strike, and the officers and men of the 1st Marine Division had to carry out the work of unloading and loading, and they were divided into three shifts and worked continuously 24 hours a day, exhausted and complaining. Gormley's headquarters was also in disarray, his headquarters had just been formed, his staff was still very small, and the time for preparing for the battle was so hurried that they were in a hurry. The biggest problem was the lack of troops, only two regiments of the 1st Marine Division had reached the theater of operations, and the other regiment was still in Samoa, and at the strong request of Gormley and Vandergrift, the 2nd Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division and three battalions of other units were incorporated into the formation of the 1st Marine Division, barely forming a reinforced division, with a total strength of about 18,000 troops. However, none of these three regiments has yet to conduct rigorous and systematic training in landing warfare, and their tactical level and combat effectiveness are very low. During the July 28 drills, the situation was so bad that Vandergraft consoled himself: "Hollywood convention is that a bad rehearsal is a sign of a successful performance. ”