Blood Is Thicker Than Water: Background and Info on the Pacific in WWII

The grand strategy in the Pacific was referred to as “island hopping.” Each island attacked would then provide harbor facilities and airfields that would then support the next attack. Starvation defeated many military strongholds which had been bypassed. The Allies were primarily interested in supply centers and airfields.

The broad drives from the Central and South Pacific during 1943 and 1944 were both aimed at the Philippines. The war in the North Pacific was over on August 15, 1942 after first retaking the Aleutian Islands the June prior. When the Allies hit Kiska in August and found the Japanese forces on the island had been evacuated prior to the attack, the battles in the North Pacific were finished.

In the South Pacific the general objective was to bypass and neutralize the Japanese airbase at Rabaul. This was accomplished by taking the Solomons and northern coast of New Guinea. The Allies surrounded Rabaul by first taking the Admiralty Islands.

It was U.S. Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet who conceived the plan of attack against the southern Solomons. He proposed the offensive to deny the use of the southern Solomon islands by the Japanese as bases to threaten the supply routes between the U.S. and Australia, and to use them as starting points for a campaign with the goal of isolating the major Japanese base at Rabaul while also supporting the Allied New Guinea campaign, with the eventual goal of opening the way for the U.S. to retake the Philippines. U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz Allied commander in chief for Pacific forces, created the South Pacific theater, with U.S. Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley in command, to direct the Allied offensive in the Solomons.

Henson, Griffith. A More Perfect Union Volume II: Since 1877. (139, 140). 1991

Further, on Commemorative Series produced by the Marine Corps History and Museums Division, I found and copied this:

Tactical command of the invasion force approaching Guadalcanal in early August was vested in Vice Admiral Frank J. Fletcher as Expeditionary Force Commander (Task Force 61). His force consisted of the amphibious shipping carrying the 1st Marine Division, under Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner, and the Air Support Force led by Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes. Admiral Ghormley contributed land-based air forces commanded by Rear Admiral John S. McCain. Fletcher's support force consisted of three fleet carriers, the Saratoga (CV-3), Enterprise (CV-6), and Wasp (CV-7); the battleship North Carolina (BB-55), 6 cruisers, 16 destroyers, and 3 oilers. Admiral Turner's covering force included five cruisers and nine destroyers.