Fourteen thousand of roughly twenty thousand Japanese troop losses are attributed here to starvation and malnutrition. Destroyer and cruiser supply runs looked daring, yet they exposed valuable warships to losses while struggling to sustain the island campaign. Japanese expansion had outrun the supply organization intended to support it, a problem also illustrated by the attempts to build transport links in Burma. Those difficulties existed before American submarines made the shipping situation worse. Prewar naval planning had assumed a withdrawal towards Japan's logistical and industrial centre, and the force had been organized around that expectation for decades. Building and holding a distant perimeter reversed the direction of support and required a supply system prepared for sustained expeditionary warfare.
Chapter · 18:32-26:12
Guadalcanal's logistics war
Japanese starvation losses at Guadalcanal show what happens when strategy expands beyond the supply system built to sustain it.