Guadalcanal Province Guadalcanal Province Guadalcanal Province is one of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands, consisting of the island of Guadalcanal. It is a 2,510 square mile (5,336 km²) island and is largely a jungle. Its name was given by Pedro de Ortega Valencia, born in the village of Guadalcanal, Seville, Spain. The national capital and largest city of the Solomon Islands, Honiara, is on the island; however, in July 1983 it was designated a 22-km² separately-administered Capital Territory and is no longer considered part of the province. The population of the province is 93,613 (2009), not including the capital territory. The
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal mission that Abe's force had failed to carry out—the bombardment of Henderson Field. The battleship "Kirishima", after abandoning its rescue effort of "Hiei" on the morning of 13 November, steamed north between Santa Isabel and Malaita Islands with her accompanying warships to rendezvous with Kondo's Second Fleet, inbound from Truk, to form the new bombardment unit. The 8th Fleet cruiser force, under the command of Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa, included the heavy cruisers , , , and , the light cruisers and , and six destroyers. Mikawa's force was able to slip into the Guadalcanal area uncontested, the battered U.S.