Chapter 646: American Reaction and Strategy, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Central Pacific
In the Pacific Theatre, the Allies, mainly America had time to recover from their shock of the early months of the war and the surprising Japanese assaults, victories and expansions. At the borders of India, Australia and in Melanesia, the Japanese expansion was not stopped, but slowed down massively for once. During most of 1942 the Island of Guadalcanal had become the main battleground between the United States and Japan on land, sea and in the air. The loss of the control of Henderson Field in the North of Guadalcanal was a major blow for the Americans, but at the same time the defense of Port Moresby and the push-back of the Japanese forces towards the Kerema-Wau-Lae defense line in New Guinea meant that Australia was once again secure from all to direct raids and invasions. While it was true that the Japanese had managed to land in Darwin, their forces there were cut off from the rest of Australia, poorly supplied and would either soon retread or be defeated, while at the moment they could not fight at the more important front-lines. In the Central Pacific, the American forces were lead by fleet admiral Chester William Nimitz of the United States Navy, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces in the North Pacific and Central Pacific trying to stop the Japanese advance onto Hawaii and push them back, out of Alaska to the Kuril Islands, the Marianne Islands, Iwo Jima and Tokyo. In the south this command was given to General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, who had promised to return to the Philippines and sought to drive the Japanese out of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert- and Ellice Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands and finally the Philippines itself.
Sadly for both Nimitz and MacArthur, the War in Europe (and to a extent Africa and the Middle East) had priority. In the first half year of the confrontation in the Pacific six American divisions (or 270,000 man) had been send to the pacific, soon turning into 360,000 man, or 9 divisions, including two divisions of the U.S. Marine Corps till the End of 1942. The majority of this forces were placed under command of MacArthur. However the General who had first send them to New Guinea to prevent the Japanese from taking all of the island and endangering the supply lines to Australia, or even the continent and state of Australia itself. The landings on Guadalcanal soon included 60,000 American soldiers on Guadalcanal, but the Japanese conquest of Guadalcanal's western half, together with the destruction of Henderson Field and the Japanese building of their own secondary airfield in northern Malaita lead to the dispatching of 60,000 further American soldiers to the island of Malaita. Suddenly all of the American Marines under Mac Arthur's control were either in Guadalcanal or Malaita, leaving the defense of New Guinea to the U.S. Army alongside Australian and New Zealand forces. The devastating loss of the American supplies during the Guadalcanal Landing and the overall massive loss of American transports, pared with the Japanese naval and air supremacy, made it quiet hard for Mac Arthur to reinforce and supply his continuously fighting forces in Guadalcanal and Malaita with everything they needed, while at the same time preparing much better and stronger defenses as well as new Allied harbors and airfields in San Cristobal Islands, Santa Cruz Island and his headquarters on Renell Island, in anticipation and preparation of a continued Japanese push and finally conquest of Malaita and Guadalcanal. Mac Arthur knew that with the Hawaii Islands directly threatened Nimitz would gain much needed further reinforcements, battleships, carriers, transports, fighters and bombers, not him, With already thousands of Americans dead, a few dozen ships sunk and hundred of aircraft lost, Mac Arthur knew that holding onto Guadalcanal and Malaita, even if just as a prolonging of enemy Japanese losses, who were because of their direct assaults and aggressive way of warfare much higher then his own, was worth it, as it gave additional time to prepare the secondary Solomon Island defenses on San Cristobal Islands, Santa Cruz Island and his headquarters on Renell Island. Until then his Marines had to endure the Japanese aggressive assaults and push, while they desperately needed to remain in their positions for as long as possible. Still Mac Arthur hoped, there had to be a opening somewhere, maybe by coordinating a feint attack with Nimitz, leading to the Japanese to be distracted in the North and regrouping their major fleet forces there so that he could make a new push in the south?