Archives Branch: Campaign Collections
Guadalcanal and Bougainville (Solomon Islands)
Official Documents from Guadalcanal and Bougainville
Documents include operation plans, operation orders, field orders, intelligence reports, action reports, administrative orders, captured Japanese documents, official correspondence, field messages, studies, and memoranda concerning operations on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Savo, Bougainvlle, and surrounding areas.
Documents were produced by the 1st Marine Amphibious Corps, Task Force 62, Island Command, the Cactus Air Force, and various Navy and Army entities during Operation Pestilence, Operation Watchtower, and Operation Ringbolt.
If you have any questions about these collections, please contact the Archives at (703) 784-4685 or history.division@usmcu.edu.
- Guadalcanal and Bougainville box listThis box list for the Solomon Islands Collection (COLL/3654) comprises official record copies of operation plans, after action reports, and other documents concerning the Operation Watchtower on Guadalcanal and Operation Cartwheel on Bougainville.
Index to Guadalcanal Personal Papers Collections
This index highlights collections found in the Archives Branch concerning Marine Corps involvement in the Guadalcanal campaign, August 1942–February 1943, including Operation Pestilence, Operation Watchtower, Operation Cartwheel, and Operation Ringbolt.
The criteria for selecting collections for inclusion in this index is limited to those personal papers that contain materials pertinent to the study of the Guadalcanal campaign. Collections in this index are comprised of official Marine Corps records, documents, and publications; letters and correspondence; manuscripts; photographs; maps; memoirs and reminiscences; clippings and articles; oral histories and interviews; and realia and ephemera.
- Guadalcanal Personal Papers Collections IndexThis document serves as a pathfinder to personal papers collections in the Archives Branch that concern Marine Corps activities on Guadalcanal.
Guadalcanal and Bougainville Photographs
- Guadalcanal Photographs on the Archives Branch FlickrSelections of Guadalcanal photographs from the collections of the Archives Branch
Guadalcanal Maps
The Archives Branch maintains a collection of original maps from the Guadalcanal campaign, to include the overlays, appendices, and enclosures from the Divisional operation plans and after action reports.
Some of these maps are available in digital format. Please contact the Archives for more information.
- Maps: The Guadalcanal Campaign, August - October 1942Four maps depicting the Guadalcanal Campaign. Documents the initial landing and capture of the airfield by Marine forces on 7-8 August 1942; the attack on Bloody Ridge on 12-14 September 1942; and the Japanese counteroffensive on 23-26 September 1942. From the History Department at United States Military Academy West Point website.
- Map 104: North Coast Guadalcanal: Lunga AreaFrom the Victor Croizat Collection (COLL/2404).
- The Solomons and New Guinea, June 1943 - April 1944From the History Department at United States Military Academy West Point website.
Monographs and publications from the Marine Corps History Division
Available as full-text, searchable PDFs from the Government Publishing Office.
- "The First Offensive: The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal"Download the PDF (in five parts) from the Marine Corps Electronic Library.
- "Fighting on Guadalcanal" (FMFRP 12-110)Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication (FMFRP) 12-110, "Fighting on Guadalcanal", was compiled as an after-action report of the Marines and soldiers who fought and defeated the Japanese on Guadalcanal. First published in 1943, this FMFRP was commissioned by General George C. Marshall, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. Guadalcanal was the first offensive ground campaign conducted against the Japanese in World War II. Both Marines and soldiers were very inexperienced, and Guadalcanal proved to be the critical learning experience on how to meet and defeat a tenacious and proficient enemy in very difficult terrain under most adverse conditions. Viewpoints and suggestions came from every level within the First Marine Division and the Army's Americal Division. The focus, however, is at the small-unit level where the experiences of the combatants are very vivid and very personal many experiences highlighted.
- "The Guadalcanal Campaign"This monograph, prepared by the Historical Division, United States Marine Corps, is the fifth of a series of operational monographs designed to present complete and accurate narratives of the major operations in which the Marine Corps participated during World War II. The Guadalcanal campaign was the first great offensive of the war, and it was begun in the greatest urgency. The units engaged were not as fully indoctrinated with the necessity for submitting full and complete reports as were the participants in later operations. The art of combat photography, later developed to such magnificent degree, was ax yet in its infancy. The hectic nature of the first few weeks on Guadalcanal was such as to make difficult, if not impossible, anything that was not closely and unmistakably connected with the business at hand--fighting.
- "History of the US Marine Corps Operations in World War II: Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, Volume 1"Volume 1 sketches the development of the Marine Corps amphibious mission from its early inception through the campaign on Guadalcanal.
- "The United States Marine Corps in the Guadalcanal Campaign"The first American ground offensive in the Pacific during World War II took place on an obscure island in the Southern Solomon Islands--Guadalcanal.
- Newsreel: "U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal push back Japanese troops"This United News newsreel, circa 1942, is available from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Newsreel is 8:42 in length.