One of the toughest battles of WWII began 77 years ago — here's 7 things you didn't know about Guadalcanal

The Guadalcanal campaign during World War II was one of the more savage battles in the Pacific theater.

Between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943, tens of thousands of US Marines and soldiers gave their lives in a brutal fight against elite Japanese troops

The Guadalcanal campaign began August 7, 1942 and lasted until February of 1943. During those seven months, 60,000 US Marines and soldiers killed about 20,000 of the 31,000 Japanese troops on the island.

The main objective of the fighting was a tiny airstrip that the Japanese were building at the western end of Guadalcanal, a speck of land in the Solomon Islands. The airstrip, later named Henderson Field, would become an important launching point for Allied air attacks during the Pacific island hopping campaign.