![]() ![]() ![]() When the Australians gained control over the Solomons after World War I, they assigned district officers to represent the “Government.” Their administration was benevolent. Local volunteers were trained and given a “telaradeo,” which was capable of both voice and Morse code operations. The coastwatchers were initially set up by the Australian government, which needed observers in Australia’s sparsely inhabited Northern Territory. A native and an American radio operator, part of Donald Kennedy’s coastwatcher team on New Georgia. In addition, the Australian coastwatcher organization and the American “Black Cat” PBY Catalina flying boat squadrons made substantial contributions to minimizing Allied losses and ensuring that Japanese losses were ruinously high. That was partly because Allied strategic and tactical moves were better thought-out than those of the Japanese. At the same time, the Allies’ strength was growing as they deployed new units on the ground, at sea, and in the air and introduced new weapons, innovative tactics, and superior aircraft.Īllied losses during the campaign were painful, but Japanese losses were shattering. They were willing to fight in awkward circumstances and at the end of a painfully vulnerable supply line. Overconfidence-“victory disease”-caused many. The Japanese made some terrible strategic and tactical mistakes. There were a number of reasons for the eventual Allied victory. Bloody battles lay ahead, but now it was a different war. By the end of the campaign, the Japanese would lose the initiative in the Pacific and would no longer have the strength to stop Allied advances. They still had more of every kind of military and naval resource, but the Solomon Island campaign that had begun in January 1942 would change that. ![]() Even after the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the Japanese were still in a commanding position in the western Pacific. ![]()
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