as well trained in amphibious operations as was that 7th Army Infantry Division which would take Kwajalein Islet to the south. The Marines themselves had trained the 7th, and the 7th had already been in battle at Attu, but the Fourth had not had much opportunity to train as a unit. Yet, green as it was, it was commanded by one of the most experienced leaders in the Marine Corps, Major General Harry Schmidt.
The sun helmet General Schmidt wore over his scowling face testified to his status as an old China hand. He had been assistant to the Marine Commandant. With Howlin’ Mad Smith he had been a pioneer in developing Marine amphibious techniques, and he had worked out a good plan to implement Smith’s novel tactic of landing artillery a day before the main body of infantry.
The First Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal, August 7, 1942, but the first major battle came two weeks later. A Japanese force led by Colonel Kiyono Ichiki (left) was annihilated at the mouth of the Tenaru River. 
Sergeant Major Vouza of the Solomons Defense Force warned Marines of impending Tenaru assault, crawling to American lines after Japanese captured him, tortured him and left him for dead. 
Marines, such as these riflemen crossing the Matanikau River, patrolled the jungle daily on the hunt for Japanese build-ups. Guadalcanal, begun as the first American offensive of World War Two, quickly became a defensive action, with Marines hanging on against Japanese attempts to retake island. 
“Pistol Pete” was the nickname Marines gave to Japanese artillery. This 108-mm. rifle was captured at Kokumbona. 
Marine stand brought third star and Medal of Honor to Alexander Vandegrift, a major general during the four months he commanded at Guadalcanal. 
Vandegrift’s opponent, Lieutenant General Haruyoshi Hyakutate, was overconfident, fed in his troops piecemeal. 
Whiskers such as Captain Joe Foss’s were common among Marine pilots who wrested control of Solomons air from Japanese. With 26 kills, Foss was second-ranking Marine ace of war. 
RIGHT: Lieutenant James (Zeke) Swett became legendary for shooting down seven planes on his first combat flight. Swett’s feat was one of many outstanding performances during bitter aerial battle which raged over Solomons for six months after the Japanese quit Guadalcanal in February, 1943. 
RIGHT BOTTOM: Staff Sergeant Bill Coffeen was a casualty of that fighting. Shot down over waters of The Slot, he spent 70 days wandering through islands. Natives found him floating on raft in delirious state and nursed him back to health.
The famous Chesty Puller won the third of his five Navy Crosses on Guadalcanal, and was also wounded there. 
Manila John Basilone was a machine-gun sergeant in Puller’s battalion during night battle in which he won Medal of Honor. Basilone was killed at Iwo Jima more than two years later. 
Bougainville in the Northern Solomons was the next big Marine assault, after numerous actions in Central Solomons. On November 1, 1943, landing boats began putting Third Marine Division ashore at Cape Torokina. 
LEFT: Among Marine airmen who helped make Bougainville landing light in casualties was Lieutenant Robert (Butcher Bob) Hanson. He shot down three planes on D-Day, was downed himself, but survived. Hanson had total of 25 kills to his credit when death in action two months later cut short the most phenomenal career of any American flier. 
RIGHT: Torokina Airfield became the base from which Major Gregory (Pappy) Boyington led his swashbuckling Black Sheep Squadron on the fighter sweeps which helped strangle the big Japanese base at Rabaul. Boyington (with paper) was later shot down and imprisoned, but his mark of 28 planes remained tops for Marine aces in World War Two. 
Marines roll drums of oil out of Puruata Island dump that Japanese bombers set afire. Puruata, the storehouse for troops on Bougainville, was bombed night and day. 
A machine-gun position in Bougainville rain forest. 
Tarawa was next. Second Marine Division hit Betio, chief islet of the atoll, on November 20, 1943; many of them were killed and wounded under the fortified sea wall which surrounded the islet. 
On Tarawa there were only the quick and the dead. 
Many Marines, such as these riflemen working along pier, had to wade into Tarawa through withering fire. Amtracks, which were to take them ashore from reef a half mile out in lagoon, were knocked out early in the battle. 
The sea wall on the second day of battle after the Marines had gradually forced their way into the island’s defenses. Colonel David Shoup (above) kept separated and battered Marines together during first critical two days and won Medal of Honor. 
These Marines are fighting to take, not a hill, but the top of a Japanese bombproof. Japanese admiral inside this fort boasted his defenses were so strong that “a million men cannot take Tarawa in one hundred years.” They fell to about 15,000 Marines in less than four days. 
Many Japanese on Tarawa killed themselves inside their bunkers. Man at left disembowled himself with grenade; man at right put rifle muzzle in mouth and pushed trigger with big toe. Marines regarded Japanese suicides as first sign of enemy collapse. 
RIGHT: Fatherly Major General Julian Smith (right) commanded the Second at Tarawa. With him is his chief of staff, Colonel Merritt (Red Mike) Edson, the famous Raider leader and a hero of Guadalcanal. 
In December, 1943, the First Marine Division was back in action. Here riflemen wade ashore at Cape Gloucester on New Britain. 
