Diamond, Jon Images of War. Guadalcanal

)The Essential Victory. Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese quickly conquered Hong Kong, Guam, Wake Island, the Gilbert Islands and Rabaul. By the spring of 1942, they had conquered Malaya and Singapore, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies and Burma. The Japanese advance continued south, where bases were established in Salamaua and Lae in northwestern New Guinea, followed by landings at Buna, Gona and Sanananda along the northern coast of Papua as a prelude to the conquest of Port Moresby via the Owen Stanley mountain range in order to threaten Australia. Despite a strategic victory by the American Navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the sinking of four Japanese aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway, the situation for the Allies remained desperate. On 3 and 4 May 1942, Japanese naval forces landed on the island of Tulagi and nearby islets off the coast of Florida Island to establish a seaplane and naval base. Japan's goal was to advance across the southern Solomon Islands to New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa in order to create a defensive zone against attacks by the slowly recovering American Navy and further isolate the Antipodes. In July 1942, Allied coastal observers and reconnaissance aircraft spotted the construction of an airfield on Guadalcanal, 20 miles south of Tulagi and the Florida Islands. On 23 July 1942, American military leaders decided to make securing communication lines in the South Pacific and halting the Japanese advance a priority. The American invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi began and led to fierce land, air and sea battles from 7 August 1942 to 3 February 1943. Guadalcanal became the decisive theatre of the fighting between the Allied and Japanese forces, with the victors ultimately gaining control of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. The events of the campaign are expertly described here with contemporary images and detailed texts.