Operation Shoestring: The Guadalcanal Campaign, 1942

Operation Shoestring: The Guadalcanal Campaign, 1942, is an Operational level board-wargame covering the air, land, and sea battles between the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps and the forces of the Japanese Empire on and around Guadalcanal Island in 1942. The unit scale is company-level for the ground game and squadron-level for the air forces. Naval counters represent one ship for carriers and battleships, two ships for cruisers, and destroyer flotillas.

"We struck at Guadalcanal to halt the advance of the Japanese. We did not know how strong he was, nor did we know his plans. We knew only that he was moving down the island chain and that he had to be stopped ... From that moment in 1942, the tide turned, and the Japanese never again advanced." -- Maj. Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift, USMC, Commanding General, 1st Marine Division

The strategic situation at the time found both sides relatively equal in strength for one of the few times in the war. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the ensuing string of rapid conquests, Japanese fortunes had taken a turn for the worse. At the Battle of Coral Sea, American carrier-based air power fought to a draw with the vaunted Japanese, serving notice that the Japanese would not be allowed to project naval power with impunity. Later, the Battle of Midway saw four Japanese carriers sunk, evening the odds in the Pacific and laying the groundwork for the first American offensive of the Pacific War.

The Japanese, having been blunted at Midway, turned their attention to the south, extending a siring of bases southeast through the Solomons chain. They established a seaplane base at Tulagi, and began construction of a large airfield on the island of Guadalcanal. Air pow- er based at these airfields would be able to effectively threaten American supply lines between the west coast and Australia. Shocked by the news of the Japanese airfield construction in the Solomons, the American high command gathered all available marine forces for a strike at Guadalcanal. The main force was the American First Marine Division assembled at Wellington, New Zealand. This Division, understrength and less than half trained, would bear the brunt of driving the Japanese from Guadalcanal.

As the morning of August 7, 1942 dawned, weeks of boredom for the Marines and occasional skirmishes for the air forces were replaced by real battle. The Marines went ashore, first at Tulagi, then Guadalcanal, and finally at Gavutu/Tanambago. The Japanese, caught unprepared by the audacious amphibious assaults, nevertheless recovered quickly and sent air, land, and naval forces to Guadalcanal. The resulting clashes shaped the future of the war in the Pacific.