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, as always, and I am once again joined by my co-host, Dave Holland.

Now, in our last episode, we talked about the arrival of the 7th Marines, which was a much-needed

shot in the arm for the American forces there, fresh Marines, and also increasing the numbers,

of course, of the Marines. We talked about the Second Battle of the Metanical, and also increasing the numbers, of course, of the Marines.

We talked about the Second Battle of the Matanacow as well as the Third Battle of the Matanakau,

which not a whole lot was accomplished in either case.

A little bit was accomplished in the third one, in that there was a pretty large Japanese

force destroyed.

We talked about the Air War.

We talked about then the ramping up of another offensive. The Japanese were planning another attempt to come land more troops on the

island and to take Henderson Field. But before they got to that, we, well, we talked about

Edson Ridge a couple episodes ago,

so their second attempt to take Henderson Field and wipe the Marines off of the island, failed.

Now they're going to try a third one.

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