17. Seizing an Airfield
1942 had been a generally grim year for America and her allies in the Asia-Pacific Theater, relieved only by the naval victory at the Battle of Midway that June. The rampaging Japanese kicked off WWII in the theater by running riot, capturing the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Hong Kong, Burma, Wake plus sundry other Pacific islands, much of New Guinea, and were threatening India and Australia. Things began looking even grimmer when news arrived that the Japanese were busy building an air base in Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.
In peacetime, there was nothing significant about the Solomons, but in wartime, they became vitally important. Japanese long-range aircraft operating out of Guadalcanal could disrupt communications and supply lines between America and Australia, and that was unacceptable. So it was decided to seize the island before the Japanese airfield became operational. Rushed planning was followed by a rushed Marine invasion in August, 1942, that caught the enemy off guard and seized the nearly completed airfield. It was hurriedly completed by its new owners, and opened up for business as Henderson Field, named in honor of a Marine aviator.