Both squadrons conducted search and bombing missions in the Solomon Islands from McDonald Field on Efate during the Guadalcanal campaign, and the 69th staged twice with torpedoes for strikes against the Japanese fleet that never materialized. The 70th was briefly based on Guadalcanal in mid-November. The 69th arrived at Guadalcanal on 31 December and immediately bombed the Japanese airfield under construction at Munda. It remained at Henderson Field until 12 January, flying eleven missions against Munda and the Japanese seaplane base at Rekata Bay, where it lost two Marauders to antiaircraft fire on 7 January 1943.