The Most Pivotal Battle of WWII, The Turning Point Of The War.....
The Guadalcanal campaign deserves a lot better on-screen telling than this soggy mess.
shareI guess you might enjoy Guadalcanal Diary more.
shareIn the Pacific Theater one can argue that Guadalcanal was part of a one two punch that turned the tide against the Japanese. But imo The Battle of Midway was the more signficant of the two, and Guadalcanal would not have been as likely to go as it had if the Japanse Navy had not suffered the catastrophic losses they did at Midway.
The Japanese were already in Tulagi by May of 1942, before the Battle of Midway. Extension of their presence in the Solomons across the straight to begin construction of what became the named Henderson Field was, concededly, after Midway, but it did not represent a significant extension of ground/sea area covered by Japanese forces. By comparison the Japanese entered into no significant offensive naval expeditions after Midway. (there concededly were some smaller offensive operations here and there, arguably such as what turned out to be the failed attempt to take Port Moresby in New Guinea, but that is a rather minor exception to the general considerations here. There was also the JIN's major effort in what became the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, but that technically was a covering engagement intended to coordinate with a counter offensive by Japanese ground forces already on Guadalcanal.)
After Midway, the Japanese were largely on the defensive, and the Allies gained the initiative, of which the first and major of evidence of same was the landing on Guadalcanal and subsequent efforts there. For all the importance of the Guadalcanal campaign, including my calling it a one two punch, imo Midway was the more significant, and hence the better answer to what was the turning point in the Pacific Campaign.
The turning point in Europe was probably Stalingrad, to a lesser extent joined by the Allied effort to push the Germans out of Northern Africa, but that was the European theater.
The Japanese took a much worse, much more sustained and longer beating in the Guadalcanal campaign than at Midway. Guadalcanal turned into a constant meatgrinder in which the Japanese lost a steady stream of soldiers, ships, planes, and pilots they couldn't replace. Midway is just more popularized.
shareDarth,
The factors you mention concerning Japanese losses at Guadalcanal are significant. But sheer extent of losses does not define the term "turning point." As I said Midway was the turning point because the US and its allies gained the initiative as the Japanese lost theirs, and the course of the war was never really altered following Midway.
Yes, a Japanese victory at Guadalcanal would have been a significant turning point back, and the US victory there was quite significant. But if one focuses on when fortunes turned against the Japanese, and leaving in room for the strategic effect of the Battle of Coral Sea, the answer is Midway. (In other words I am familiar with the argument that Coral Sea was the beginning of that turn, but however true that may be, and I see some merit in it, unless Midway went as it did, that turning point would not have reached a critical significance.)
I will disagree with that. You can't separate the two.
Yes Midway took a few of their carriers, and more importantly their even less replaceable cadre of experiences and skilled naval aviators.
But you also have to consider the effect on US strategists. Guadalcanal helped impel the island hopping strategy, which was a profound change and in the view of many something that utterly changed the war. The tenaciousness of the Japanese ground troops had not been understood until that campaign.
You have to consider what impels actors to act the way they do as pivotal moments too. In that sense the Doolittle raid, which caused major crisis and impelled Japan into the trap at Midway was a turning point.
The same for Guadalcanal, which helped drive and impel the US to the successful island hopping/mass aerial bombardment of Japan's cities which was the real turning point.
Just as Okinawa, and the even bloodier Battle of Luzon impelled the US to use the atomic bomb can be seen as major if not the major turning points as well.
There is no right answer to which is the definitive turning point, t just depends on which lens you look at it with
murad,
The question of "turning point" does not even necessarily have to do with overall importance. The question is when did the initiative in the Pacific Theater pass from the Japanese to the US? However one views the Doolittle Raid, the Japanese still had the overall initiative.
After Midway, the Japanese no longer had the overall initiative. The US did. Hence Midway was the turning point, not Guadalcanal, no matter how important Guadalcanal was.
Midway was one turning point, Guadalcanal was another. It's just perception.
shareAs I said Midway was the turning point because the US and its allies gained the initiative as the Japanese lost theirs, and the course of the war was never really altered following Midway.
We are comparing two different things...
Guadalcanal was a full and long campaign... by air, sea and land...
While Midway was a full campaign (on theory from the japanese side) but just becomes one battle of a few days (the main thing only 1 day long)...
From this point of view Midway was the real turning point, after this battle the japanese lost forever thier asset... the carriers, planes and specially the pilots...
share