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The Battle of Edsons Bloody Ridge - Guadalcanal September, 1942
Posted on: 2013-08-02 17:47:33 By John Dudek @ The Wargamer Perhaps the most savage and bloody, yet largely uncelebrated or remembered, military campaigns in the Pacific War between the US and Japan, revolved around the steamy, tropical Island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands chain. For well over six months the marines, army, naval and air forces of the Japanese Empire and the United States were locked in a bitter struggle of unending mortal combat on land, sea and in the air. At the battle’s conclusion, the two tottering combatants were left standing toe to toe like two bloodied, bruised and exhausted, punch-drunk fighters in a boxing ring, still throwing bludgeoning haymaker punches at the other until only one was left standing. This was the battle that broke the back of Japanese aviation in the Pacific leading to the first truly resounding Japanese defeat of their combined arms, to be followed by an unending series of defeats leading to their eventual surrender at Tokyo Bay in 1945. Read on... |