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  • World War II

    TAKING THE HIGH ROAD

    Apr 02, 2019 5 minutes
    BY WILLIAM COULSON

    THE ALLIED CAMPAIGN on Guadalcanal stretched from August 1942 to February 1943. By the end of 1942, the forces—mostly U.S. Marines—who had seized a Japanese airfield there were successfully defending it. But by January 1943 the Japanese still held the high ground south and west of the airfield. From positions on Mount Austen, a nearby redoubt called the Gifu, and a series of hills collectively known as Galloping Horse Ridge, the Japanese could observe and disrupt U.S. air and sea movements. American planners were determined to clear the enemy from these positions—and from Guadalcanal—once and for all.

    On a recent visit to Guadalcanal, I had the rare opportunity to hike the remote Galloping Horse Ridge battlefield. It was my fourth visit to Guadalcanal, the largest of the Solomon Islands in the

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