Medals of Honor on New Georgia

31st July 1943: Awards for outstanding heroism in separate actions as the US Army push forward to take the strategically important Munda airfield

A soldier of the 25th Infantry Division on New Georgia, July 1943.

In the Solomon Islands, the US had launched their campaign to take the New Georgia group (Operation Toenails) a month earlier, on the 30th June. Determined, often suicidal, resistance from the Japanese had forced the US to bring in fresh Divisions before they could attempt to take the mai…