United States Army Air Forces in the South Pacific Area southern areas of the widely separated Seventh Air Force and independent units scattered in the South Pacific Area during the Solomon Islands campaign. As the war progressed, Thirteenth Air Force units moved into the South West Pacific theatre and coordinated their activities with Fifth as part of the Far East Air Forces, a new Command. COOK ISLANDS ELLICE ISLANDS FIJI ISLANDS NEW CALEDONIA NEW HEBRIDES ISLANDS NEW ZEALAND NORFOLK ISLAND SOCIETY ISLANDS SOLOMON ISLANDS Bougainville Island Buka Island Guadalcanal Island New Georgia Islands Russell Islands TONGA ISLANDS United States Army Air Forces in the South Pacific Area During World War
History of the Pacific Islands Western Samoa became the first Pacific Island nation to gain political independence. In 1997, Samoa officially dropped the 'Western' from its name as it was an appendage from its colonial era. The human history of the Solomon Islands begins with the first settlement at least 30,000 years ago from New Guinea. They represented the furthest expansion of humans into the Pacific Ocean until the expansion of Austronesian-language speakers through the area around 4000 BCE, bringing new agricultural and maritime technology. Most of the languages spoken today in the Solomon Islands derive from this era, but some thirty languages of the