Guadalcanal is located in the south pacific at the end of the solomon Islands chain. Here is a map to help put things into perspective.
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedst...war/pacwar.gif
If you look...the solomon islands run upwards toward New Guinie...that large island leads to the southern part of the Phillipines. the allies had two plans of attack against the Japanese...South pacific campaign led by MacArthur and the army...also the Central campaign led by the Navy and Marines. The Southern campaign was designed to make for the phillipines starting in the Solomon islands (guadalcanal) and moving up New Guinie isolating pockets of resistence and invading what needed to be taken...(island hopping) with an end goal of liberating the philippines and the central campaign was designed to push for the Marianas islands chain (central pacific...and also on map) in order to aquire bases to start a bombing campaign of mainland Japan. Then the two forces would combine and push for Japan and take whatever was needed for the invasion (thus Iwo Jima and Okinawa) Guadalcanal was SO important because it was the BEGINNING of this strategy against Japan...and also it was the first allied offensive against japan.
Guadalcanal had nothing to do with the warships i mentioned...it was the fact that...Guadalcanal was won without those new warships when the US navy was pretty much on par with Japan and it was very possible that Japan be able to counter the invasion of Guadalcanal. BUT they didn't and thats my point...if Japan couldn't defeat the US at that time...then there is no way Japan could hope in defeating the US once the new warships were finally introduced and put into action. By the time Guadalcanal ended in early 1943 the US were just starting to aquire the many Essex class fleet carriers and Princeton class escort carriers...as well as the many fletcher class destroyers that were laid down at the beginning of the war. Those new warships would not only replace our losses...but propell the US into having the largest navy ever! So if Japan couldn't check our offensive before those ships were introduced then there chances in the future seemed very slim! For more info about Guadalcanal here's a link giving more details about the many engagements on land and at sea!
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/brochures/72-8/72-8.htm
i like your questions A.GREG!

keep it up!!!
