The American counteroffensive in the southwest Pacific began in August 1942 with the landings at Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, with the primary mission of taking the incomplete Japanese airfield there. After its capture by the Marines, this field would be completed and become the base of operations for the so-called Cactus Air Force. This mixed force of Navy and Marine airmen flew fighters, torpedo planes, and the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber from this strip in support of the American battle against the Japanese in the Bismarck Archipelago. For six bloody months the American dive bombers would be in constant action against Japanese troops and shipping in the island. The aerial threat presented to the Japanese by these hard-fighting squadrons would dictate the terms of the air-sea battles in the area, and go a long way to securing American victory in these exhausting battles, in which the war machines of the Japanese Empire and the United States were most evenly matched.
