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(Friday, August 7, 1942, 8:00 a.m. Solomon Islands Time, launching the Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo and the Guadalcanal Campaign, part of the Solomon Islands campaign of the Pacific Theater of World War II) — Allied forces, predominantly United States Marines, landed this morning on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands, with the objective of using Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases in supporting a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain.

It was the first major land offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.

Two battalions of U.S. Marines, including the 1st Raider Battalion under Colonel Merritt A. Edson (Edson’s Raiders), and the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines (2/5) under Lieutenant Colonel Harold E. Rosecrans made an unopposed landing at 8:00 a.m. on the western shore of Tulagi about halfway between the two ends of the oblong-shaped island.

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Beds of coral near the shore kept the landing craft from reaching the shoreline. The Marines, however, were able to wade the remaining 110 yards without hindrance from the Japanese forces, who were apparently taken by surprise by the landings and had yet to begin any organized resistance.

At this time, the Japanese forces on Tulagi and Gavutu, a detachment of the 3rd Kure Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) plus members of the Yokohama Air Group—commanded by Captain Shigetoshi Miyazaki—signaled their commander at Rabaul—Rear Admiral Sadayoshi Yamada—that they were under attack, were destroying their equipment and papers, and signed off with the message, “Enemy troop strength is overwhelming, We will defend to the last man.”

Masaaki Suzuki, commander of the SNLF unit, ordered his troops into pre-prepared defensive positions on Tulagi and Gavutu.