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 2,000-foot survey of the epic

Guadalcanal campaign of the Pacific Theater of World War II.

I'm your host James Early, and I am joined,

as always, by my co-host Dave Holland. I forgot to say, as always, after my name. That's not good.

So, but you know who I am. I'm always here for you. So in our last episode, we talked about how

the struggle for the American air base on Guadalanel Henderson Field, how that is ramping up.

The Japanese were determined to retake it because they had actually built it.

They were determined to take the airfield and push the Marines off of the island,

whereas the Marines were equally determined to not let that happen, to hold on to Henderson Field.

And so we saw a naval battle that broke out last time, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons,

which was an American victory, although the Americans did not prevent the Japanese from landing more reinforcements on Guadalcanal.

We saw the Americans launch another raid on the Matanacal River, which was, of course,

west of the marine perimeter. That didn't particularly result in much positive things.

We saw some more naval and air actions. We saw more Japanese reinforcements being brought to the island.

The Japanese planning another major assault on Henderson Field.

They're going to try to take it again, and this time with more guys.

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