War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hello and welcome back to Guadalcanal Air, Land, and Sea, our 10,000-foot survey of the epic

Guadalcanal campaign of the Pacific Theater World War II.

I'm your host, James Early, as always, and I am joined by my co-host, Dave Holland, as always.

Well, in our last episode, we talked about a naval engagement called the Battle of the Santa Cruz

Island.

It was a Japanese tactical victory, although the Japanese did not get everything they wanted out of it,

and they had failed to eliminate the American South Pacific Fleet.

One thing they did eliminate was the USS Hornet, one of the last carriers that the U.S. had in the area.

And then we saw that the Marines launched yet another offensive on the Matanacau River, and we saw some fighting

east of the perimeter as well, and then we talked about my favorite thing or part of the

Guadalcanal campaign, and that, of course, was Carlson's patrol, or the Long Patrol, the one in which

my father participated. Well, this time we are going to do another naval battle, another huge naval battle.

This one's so big that it's just simply called the naval battle of Guadalcanal.

This is the big daddy of naval battles, at least in the Guadalcanal campaign.

So Dave, sorry, you're not going to be on land any this week,

but are you ready for this big naval battle?

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