The Guadalcanal campaign was America’s first major ground offensive of World War II in the Pacific, but some of its most important fighting took place along a relatively small stretch of ground west of Henderson Field: the Matanikau River.
Author and Guadalcanal battlefield expert Dave Holland joins Veterans Breakfast Club to explore the repeated battles fought along the Matanikau front. Over several months, American and Japanese forces struggled for control of the river, surrounding ridges, and approaches to Henderson Field in a series of hard-fought engagements that helped shape the outcome of the campaign.
Drawing on years spent walking and researching the battlefields, Holland will take us onto the ground where Marines and Japanese troops fought and explain why the Matanikau became one of the most important—and often overlooked—fronts of the Guadalcanal campaign.
