Military history of Spain Portugal and engage French forces on the frontiers while Spanish "guerrilleros" wore down the occupiers. Acting in concert, regular and irregular allied forces prevented Napoleon's marshals from subduing the rebellious Spanish provinces. The Spanish navy, put to sea in support of France during the War of the Third Coalition in 1805, suffered terrible losses at the Battle of Trafalgar, having been weakened by yellow fever in the preceding years; in many ways this marked the nadir of Spanish naval history. The events in mainland Spain had extensive consequences for her empire. Spain's colonies in the Americas had shown an increasing
Battle of the Eastern Solomons bombardment while covering the landing of the Japanese army troops to retake Guadalcanal and Tulagi. In response to an unanticipated land battle fought between U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal and Japanese forces on 19–20 August, the U.S. carrier task forces under Fletcher reversed towards Guadalcanal from their positions to the south on 21 August. The U.S. carriers were to support the Marines, protect Henderson Field, engage the enemy and destroy any Japanese naval forces that arrived to support Japanese troops in the land battle on Guadalcanal. Both Allied and Japanese naval forces continued to converge on 22 August and both sides