First Marine Division Lands on Guadalcanal – 69 Years Ago

The First Marine Division invaded the small island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands yesterday.

This was headline news Aug. 8, 1942, heralding the first American D-Day in the Pacific.

The Marines had landed to stop the Japanese advance on Australia. A spotter plane was seen on an airstrip under construction on Guadalcanal. An airstrip that would threaten Australia in the depths of one of the worst years of World War II.

Guadalcanal became one of "the greatest tales of heroism"* for the young inexperienced sailors and marines who fought, bled and died there as their commanders and their country learned how to fight the Pacific portion of World War II.

As Guadalcanal disappears into the mists of history, some have said* the First Marines, what was left of them, "deserve the honors awarded the Greeks at Thermopylae, the colonials at Valley Forge, the British at Waterloo" and the old, young Americans who survived the cesspool in hell known as Guadalcanal.

Read more about the Battle of Guadalcanal.

*Taken from Victory at Sea.

Full Disclosure: McLean Patch is a student of World War II so we remember important World War II anniversaries because we can never forget our McLean World War II veterans, the men and women who saved the world.