By April 1943 the six-month battle for Guadalcanal had been won, and the U.S. Navy was building toward the offensive drive up the Solomon Islands chain that would eventually isolate the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul. The hard-fought naval battles of Iron Bottom Sound — Savo Island, Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal, Tassafaronga, and Rennell Island — had proved expensive for both sides, but the January 1943 Japanese evacuation of Guadalcanal handed the Allies their first major island-campaign victory. These four pages from the April 1943 Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin — the publication later renamed All Hands — cover the continuing naval and amphibious operations across the South Pacific as the United States began its long advance toward Japan.
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