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003 - The Landing and August Battles · First Offensive- The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal

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  Speaker 1: Chapter two of First Offensive, The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal
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  Speaker 1: by Henry Shaw. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: The landing and August battles on board the transports approaching
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  Speaker 1: the Solomons, the Marines were looking for a tough fight.
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  Speaker 1: They knew little about the targets, even less about their opponents.
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  Speaker 1: Those maps that were available were poor constructions based upon
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  Speaker 1: outdated hydrographic charts and information provided by former island residents.
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  Speaker 1: While maps based on aerial photographs had been prepared, they
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  Speaker 1: were misplaced by the Navy in Auckland, New Zealand, and
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  Speaker 1: never got to the Marines. At Wellington. On seventeen July,
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  Speaker 1: a couple of Division staff officers, Lieutenant Colonel Merrill B.
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  Speaker 1: Twining and Major William McKean, had been able to join
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  Speaker 1: the crew of a B seventeen flying from Port Moresby
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  Speaker 1: on a reconnaissance mission over Guadalcanal. They reported what they
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  Speaker 1: had done scene, and their analysis, coupled with aerial photographs,
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  Speaker 1: indicated no extensive defenses along the beaches of Guadalcanal's north shore.
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  Speaker 1: This news was indeed welcome the Division Intelligence officer G two,
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel Frank b. Getchi had concluded that about eight thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred Japanese occupied Guadalcanal and Tulagi. Admiral Turner's staff
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  Speaker 1: figured that the Japanese amned to seven one hundred twenty
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  Speaker 1: five men. Admiral Gormley's intelligence officer pegged the enemy's strength
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  Speaker 1: at three thousand, one hundred, closest to the three thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty seven actual total of Japanese troops.
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  Speaker 1: Two thousand, five hundred seventy one of these were stationed
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  Speaker 1: on Guadalcanal and were mostly laborers working on the airfield.
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  Speaker 1: To oppose the Japanese, the Marines had an overwhelming superiority
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  Speaker 1: of men at the time. The tables of organization for
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  Speaker 1: a Marine Corps division indicated a total of nineteen thousand,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred and fourteen officers and enlisted men, including naval,
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  Speaker 1: medical and engineer CB units. Infantry regiments numbered three thousand,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred sixty eight and consisted of a headquarters company,
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  Speaker 1: a weapons company, and three battalions. Each. Infantry battalion nine
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  Speaker 1: hundred thirty three Marines was organized into a headquarters company
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  Speaker 1: eighty nine, a weapons company two hundred seventy three and
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  Speaker 1: three rifle companies one hundred eighty three. The Artillery Regiment
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  Speaker 1: had two thousand, five hundred eighty one officers and men,
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  Speaker 1: organized into three seventy five millimeter pack howitzer battalions and
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  Speaker 1: one one hundred five millimeter howitzer battalion. A light tank battalion,
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  Speaker 1: a special weapons battalion of anti aircraft and anti tank guns,
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  Speaker 1: and a parachute battalion added combat power. An engineer regiment
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  Speaker 1: two thousand, four hundred fifty two marines with battalions of engineers, Pioneers,
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  Speaker 1: and CBS per provided a hefty combat and service element.
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  Speaker 1: The total was rounded out by division headquarters battalions, headquarters,
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  Speaker 1: signal and military police companies, and the division Service Troops, Service, Motor, Transport, Amphibian, tractor,
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  Speaker 1: and medical battalions for Watchtower, The first Raider Battalion and
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  Speaker 1: the third Defense Battalion had been added to Vandergriff's command
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  Speaker 1: to provide more infantrymen in much needed coast defense and
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  Speaker 1: anti aircraft guns and crews. Unfortunately, the division's heaviest ordinance
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  Speaker 1: had been left behind in New Zealand. Limited ships, base
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  Speaker 1: and time meant that the division's big guns a one
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  Speaker 1: hundred fifty five millimeter howitzer battalion and all the motor
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  Speaker 1: transport battalions two and a half ton trucks were not loaded.
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  Speaker 1: Colonel Pedro A. Del Valley, commanding the eleventh Marines, was
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  Speaker 1: unhappy at the loss of his heavy howitzers and equally
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  Speaker 1: distressed that essential sound and flash ranging equipment necessary for
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  Speaker 1: effective counter battire was left behind. Also failing to make
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  Speaker 1: the cut in the battle for shipping space were all
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  Speaker 1: spare clothing, betting rolls, and supplies necessary to support the
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  Speaker 1: reinforced division beyond sixty days of combat, ten days supply
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  Speaker 1: of ammunition for each of the division's weapons remained in
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand. In the opinion of the first Division's historian
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  Speaker 1: and a veteran of the landing, the men on the
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  Speaker 1: approaching transports thought they'd have a bad time getting ashore.
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  Speaker 1: They were confident, certainly ensure that they could not be defeated,
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  Speaker 1: but most of the men were entering combat for the
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  Speaker 1: first time. They were combat veteran officers and non commissioned
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  Speaker 1: officers NCOs throughout the division, but the majority of the
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  Speaker 1: men were going into their initial battle. The commanding officer
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  Speaker 1: of the first Marines, Colonel Clifton B. Kates, estimated that
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  Speaker 1: ninety percent of his men had enlisted after Pearl Harbor.
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  Speaker 1: The fabled First Marine Division of later World War II,
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  Speaker 1: Korean War, Vietnam War, and Persian Gulf War fame the
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  Speaker 1: most highly decorated division in the US Armed Forces, had
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  Speaker 1: not yet established its reputation. The convoy of Ships, with
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  Speaker 1: its outriding protective screen of carriers, reached Coro and the
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  Speaker 1: Fiji Islands on twenty six July. Practice landings did little
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  Speaker 1: more than exercise the transport's landing craft, since reefs precluded
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  Speaker 1: an actual beach landing. The rendezvous at Coro did give
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  Speaker 1: the senior commanders a chance to have a face to
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  Speaker 1: face meeting. Fletcher, McCain, Turner, and Vandergriff got together with
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  Speaker 1: Gormley's Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callahan, who
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  Speaker 1: notified the conferees that Comsoapback had ordered the seventh Marines
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  Speaker 1: on Samoa to be prepared to embark on four days
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  Speaker 1: notice as a reinforcement for Watchtower. To this decidedly good news,
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  Speaker 1: Admiral Fletcher added some bad news in view of the
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  Speaker 1: threat from enemy land based air he could not keep
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  Speaker 1: the carriers in the area for more than forty eight
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  Speaker 1: hours after the landing. Vandergriff protested that he needed at
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  Speaker 1: least four days to get the division's gear ashore, and
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  Speaker 1: Fletcher reluctantly agreed to keep his carriers at risk Another day.
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  Speaker 1: On the twenty eighth, the ship sailed from the Fijis,
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  Speaker 1: proceeding as if they were headed for Australia. At noon
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  Speaker 1: on five August, the convoy and its escorts turned north
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  Speaker 1: for the Solomons, undetected by the Japanese. The assault force
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  Speaker 1: reached its target during the night of six to seven
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  Speaker 1: August and split into two landing groups. Transport Division X
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  Speaker 1: RAY fifteen transports headed for the north shore of Guadalcanal
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  Speaker 1: east of Lunga Point, and Transport Division Yoke eight transports
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  Speaker 1: headed for Tulagi, Galvutu, Tanambogo and the nearby Florida Island,
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  Speaker 1: which loomed over the smaller islands. Vandergriff's plans for the
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  Speaker 1: landings would put two of his infantry regiments, Colonel l
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  Speaker 1: Roy P. Hunts fifth Marines and Colonel Kates's First Marines
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  Speaker 1: ashore on both sides of the Lunger River, prepared to
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  Speaker 1: attack inland to seize the airfield. The eleventh Marines, the
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  Speaker 1: third Defense Battalion, and most of the division's supporting units
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  Speaker 1: would also land near the Lunga prepared to exploit the
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  Speaker 1: beachhead across the twenty miles of Sea Lark Channel. The
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  Speaker 1: division's assistant commander, Brigadier General William H. Rupertus, led the
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  Speaker 1: assault forces slated to take Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tonambogo. The
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  Speaker 1: First Raider Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Merrit A. Etson, the second Battalion,
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  Speaker 1: Fifth Marines Lieutenant Colonel Harold E. Rosecrans, and the first
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  Speaker 1: Parachute Battalion, Major Robert H. Williams Company A of the
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  Speaker 1: second Marines would reconnoiter the nearby shores of Florida Island,
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  Speaker 1: and the rest of Colonel John A. Arthur's Regiment would
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  Speaker 1: stand by and reserve to land where needed. As the
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  Speaker 1: ship slipped through the channels on either side of rugged
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  Speaker 1: Tsavo Island, which split Sea Lark near its western end,
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  Speaker 1: heavy clouds and dense rain blanketed the task force. Later,
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  Speaker 1: the moon came out and silhouetted the islands. On board
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  Speaker 1: his command ship, Vandergriff wrote to his wife, Tomorrow morning
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  Speaker 1: at dawn, we land in our first major offensive of
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  Speaker 1: the war. Our plans have been made, and God grant
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  Speaker 1: that our judgment has been sound. Whatever happens, you'll know
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  Speaker 1: I did my best. Let us hope that best will
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  Speaker 1: be good enough. At zero six forty one on seven August,
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  Speaker 1: Turner signaled his ships to land the landing force, just
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight minutes before the heavy cruiser Quincy A thirty
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  Speaker 1: nine had begun shelling the landing beaches at Guadalcanal. The
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  Speaker 1: sun came up that fateful Friday at zero six fifty,
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  Speaker 1: and the first landing craft carrying assault troops of the
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  Speaker 1: fifth Marines touched down at zero nine on Nas nine
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  Speaker 1: on Red Beach. To the men's surprise and relief, no
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  Speaker 1: Japanese appeared to resist the landing. Hunt immediately moved his
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  Speaker 1: assault troops off the beach and into the surrounding jungle,
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  Speaker 1: waded the steep banked Ailu River, and headed for the
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  Speaker 1: enemy airfield. The following First Marines were able to cross
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  Speaker 1: the Islu on a bridge the engineers had hastily thrown
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  Speaker 1: up with an amphibian tractor bracing its middle. The silence
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  Speaker 1: was eerie, and the absence of opposition was worrisome to
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  Speaker 1: the riflemen. The Japanese troops, most of whom were Korean laborers,
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  Speaker 1: had fled to the west, spooked by a week's B
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  Speaker 1: seventeen bombardment, the pre assault naval gunfire, and the sight
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  Speaker 1: of the ships offshore. The situation was not the same
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  Speaker 1: across sea Lark, the Marines on Guadalcanal could hear faint
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  Speaker 1: rumbles of a firefight across the waters. The Japanese on
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  Speaker 1: Tulagi were special Naval Landing Force sailors, and they had
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  Speaker 1: no intention of giving up. They held without a vicious,
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  Speaker 1: no surrendered battle. Edson's men landed first, followed by ros
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  Speaker 1: Krantz's battalion, hitting Tulagi's south coast and moving inland towards
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  Speaker 1: the ridge which ran lengthwise through the island. The battalions
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  Speaker 1: encountered pockets of resistance in the undergrowth of the island's
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  Speaker 1: thick vegetation, and maneuvered to outflank and overrun the opposition.
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  Speaker 1: The advance of the Marines was steady, but casualties were frequent.
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  Speaker 1: By nightfall, Edson had reached the former British residency overlooking
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  Speaker 1: Tulagi's harbor, and dug in for the night across a
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  Speaker 1: hill that overlooked the Japanese final position, a ravine on
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  Speaker 1: the island's southern tip. The second Battalion, fifth Marines had
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  Speaker 1: driven through to the northern shore, cleaning its sector of
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  Speaker 1: enemy Rosecrans moved into position to back up the raiders.
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  Speaker 1: By the end of its first day ashore, second Battalion
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  Speaker 1: had lost fifty six men killed and wounded. First Raider
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  Speaker 1: Battalion casualties were ninety nine Marines. Throughout the night, the
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  Speaker 1: Japanese swarmed from hillside caves in four separate attacks, trying
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  Speaker 1: to penetrate the raider lines. They were unsuccessful and most
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  Speaker 1: died in the attempts. At dawn, the Second Battalion, second
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  Speaker 1: Marines landed to reinforce the attackers, and by the afternoon
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  Speaker 1: of eight August the mop up was completed and the
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  Speaker 1: battle for Tulagi was over. The fight for tiny Gavutu
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  Speaker 1: and Tanambogu, both little more than small hills rising out
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  Speaker 1: of the sea connected by one hundred yard causeway, was
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  Speaker 1: every bit as intense as that on Tulagi. The area
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  Speaker 1: of combat was much smaller, and the opportunities for fire
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  Speaker 1: support from offshore ships and carrier planes was severely limited.
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  Speaker 1: Once the Marines had landed, after naval gunfire from the
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  Speaker 1: light cruiser San Juan Seel fifty four and two destroyers,
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  Speaker 1: and to strike by f r F Wildcats flying from
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  Speaker 1: the WASP, the first parachute Battalion landed near noon in
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  Speaker 1: three waves, hundred nine five men in all on Gavutu.
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  Speaker 1: The Japanese secure in cave positions opened fire on the
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  Speaker 1: second and third waves, pinning down the first Marines ashore
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  Speaker 1: on the beach. Major Williams took a bullet in the
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  Speaker 1: lungs and was evacuated. Thirty two Marines were killed in
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  Speaker 1: the withering enemy fire. This time Second Marines reinforcements were
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  Speaker 1: really needed. The first Battalion's company b landed on Gavutu
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  Speaker 1: and attempted to take Tanambogo. The attackers were driven to
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  Speaker 1: ground and had to pull back to Kavutu. After a
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  Speaker 1: rough night of close in fighting with the defenders of
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  Speaker 1: both islands, the third Battalion, Second Marines reinforced the men
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  Speaker 1: already ashore and mopped up on each island. The toll
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  Speaker 1: of marine dead on the three islands was one hundred
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  Speaker 1: forty four. The wounded numbered one hundred ninety four. The
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  Speaker 1: few Japanese who survived the battles fled to Florida Island,
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  Speaker 1: which had been scouted by the Second Marines on D
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  Speaker 1: Day and found clear of the enemy. The Marines landings
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  Speaker 1: and the concentration of shipping in Guadalcanal waters acted as
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  Speaker 1: a magnet to the Japanese at Rabaul. At Admiral Gormley's headquarters,
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  Speaker 1: Tulagi's radio was heard on D Day frantically calling for
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  Speaker 1: the dispatch of surface forces to the scene and designating
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  Speaker 1: transports and carriers as targets for heavy bombing. The messages
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  Speaker 1: were sent in plane language, emphasizing the plight of the
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  Speaker 1: threatened garrison, and the enemy response was prompt and characteristic
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  Speaker 1: of the months of naval, air and surface attacks to come.
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  Speaker 1: At ten thirty on seven August, an Australian coast watcher
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  Speaker 1: hidden in the hills of the islands north of Guadalcanal
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  Speaker 1: signaled that a Japanese air strike composed of heavy bombers,
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  Speaker 1: light bombers, and fighters was headed for the island. Fletcher's pilots,
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  Speaker 1: whose carriers were positioned one hundred miles south of Guadalcanal,
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  Speaker 1: jumped the approaching planes twenty miles northwest of the landing
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  Speaker 1: areas before they could disrupt the operation. But the Japanese
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  Speaker 1: were not daunted by the setback. Other planes and ships
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  Speaker 1: were en route to the inviting target. On eight August,
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  Speaker 1: the Marines consolidated their positions ashore, seizing the airfield on
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  Speaker 1: Guadalcanal and establishing a beachhead. Supplies were being unloaded as
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  Speaker 1: fast as landing craft could make the turnaround from ship
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  Speaker 1: to shore, but the shore party was woefully inadequate to
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  Speaker 1: handle the influx of ammunition, rations, tents, aviation, gas vehicles,
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  Speaker 1: all gear necessary to sustain the Marines. The beach itself
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  Speaker 1: became a dump sight, and almost as soon as the
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  Speaker 1: initial supplies were landed, they had to be moved to
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  Speaker 1: positions near a Kukum village and lunga point within the
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  Speaker 1: planned perimeter. Fortunately, the lack of Japanese ground opposition enabled
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  Speaker 1: Vandergriff to shift the supply beaches west to a new beachhead.
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  Speaker 1: Japanese bombers did penetrate the American fighter screen on eight August,
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  Speaker 1: dropping their bombs from twenty thousand feet or more to
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  Speaker 1: escape anti aircraft fire. The enemy planes were not very accurate.
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  Speaker 1: They concentrated on the ships in the channel, hitting and
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  Speaker 1: damaging a number of them and sinking the destroyer Jarvis
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  Speaker 1: DD three ninety three, and their battles to turn back
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  Speaker 1: the attacking planes, the carrier fighter squadrons lost twenty one
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  Speaker 1: Wildcats on seven to eight August. The primary Japanese targets
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  Speaker 1: were the Allied ships at this time, and for a
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  Speaker 1: thankfully and unbelievably long time to come, the Japanese commanders
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  Speaker 1: at Rabaul grossly underestimated the strength of Vandergriff's forces. They
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  Speaker 1: thought the marine landings constituted a reconnaissance in force, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: two thousand men on Guadalcanal. By the evening of eight August,
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  Speaker 1: Vandergriff had ten nine hundred troops ashore on Guadalcanal and
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  Speaker 1: another six thousand, seventy five on Tulagi. Three infantry regiments
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  Speaker 1: had landed, and each had a supporting seventy five millimeter
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  Speaker 1: pack howitzer battalion. The second and third Battalions eleventh Marines
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  Speaker 1: on Guadalcanal and the third Battalion tenth Marines on Tulagi.
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  Speaker 1: The fifth Battalion, eleventh Marines one hundred five milimeter howitzers
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  Speaker 1: were in general support. That night. A cruiser destroyer force
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  Speaker 1: of the Imperial Japanese Navy reacted to the American invasion
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  Speaker 1: with a stinging response. Admiral Turner had positioned three cruiser
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  Speaker 1: destroyer groups to bar the Tulagi Guadalcanal approaches. At the
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  Speaker 1: Battle of Tsavo, the Japanese demonstrated their superiority in night
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  Speaker 1: fighting at this stage of the war, shattering two of
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  Speaker 1: Turner's covering forces without loss to themselves. Four heavy cruisers
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  Speaker 1: went to the bottom, three American, one Australian, and another
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  Speaker 1: lost for bow. As the sun came up over what
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  Speaker 1: soon would be called Iron Bottom, Sound, Marines watched grimly
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  Speaker 1: as Higgins Boat swarmed out to rescue survivors Euximentally, one
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  Speaker 1: thy three hundred sailors died that night, and another seven
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  Speaker 1: hundred suffered wounds or were badly burned. Japanese casualties numbered
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  Speaker 1: less than two hundred men. The Japanese suffered damage to
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  Speaker 1: only one ship in the encounter, the cruiser Chokai. The
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  Speaker 1: American cruisers Vincennes CAA forty four, Astoria CAA thirty four,
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  Speaker 1: and Quincy CAA thirty nine went to the bottom, as
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  Speaker 1: did the Australian Navy's HMAS Canberra, so critically damaged that
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  Speaker 1: she had to be sunk by American torpedoes. Both the
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: cruiser Chicago CAA twenty nine and destroyer Talbot D D
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  Speaker 1: one fourteen were badly damaged. Fortunately for the Marines ashore,
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese force, five heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and
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  Speaker 1: a destroyer departed before dawn without attempting to disrupt the
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  Speaker 1: landing further. When the attack force leader, Vice Admiral Gunichi
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Mikawa returned in to reball, he expected to receive the
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: accolades of his superiors. He did get those, but he
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: also found himself the subject of criticism. Admiral Issuroku Yamamoto,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the Japanese fleet commander, chided his subordinate for failing to
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: attack the transports. Mikawa could only reply, somewhat lamely, that
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: he did not know Fletcher's aircraft carriers were so far
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  Speaker 1: away from Guadalcanal of equal significance to the Marines on
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the beach. The Japanese naval victory caused celebrating superiors in
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Tokyo to allow the event to overshadow the importance of
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the Amphibious operation. The disaster prompted the American admirals to
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: reconsider Navy support for operations Ashore. Fletcher feared for the
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: safety of his carriers. He had already lost about a
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: quarter of his fighter aircraft. The commander of the Expeditionary
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Force had lost a carrier at Coral Sea and another
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: at Midway. He felt he could not risk the loss
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: of a third, even if it meant leaving the Marines
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: on their own. Before the Japanese cruiser attack, he obtained
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Admiral Gormley's permission to withdraw from the area. At a
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: conference on board Turner's flagship transport, the Macaulay on the
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: night of eight August, the admiral told General Vandergriff that
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Fletcher's impending withdrawal meant that he would have to pull
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: out the Amphibious Force's ships. The Battle of Tsavo Island
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: reinforced the decision to get away before enemy aircraft, unchecked
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  Speaker 1: by American interceptors, struck. On nine August, the transports withdrew
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  Speaker 1: to Numeya. The unloading of supplies ended abruptly, and ships
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  Speaker 1: still half full, steamed away. The forces Ashore had seventeen
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  Speaker 1: days rations after counting captured Japanese food, and only four
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  Speaker 1: day supply of ammunition for all weapons. Not only did
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the ships take away the rest of the supplies, they
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: also took the Marines still on board, including the second
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Marine's headquarters element dropped off at the island Espiritu Santo
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and the new Hebrides. The infantry Marines and their commander,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Colonel Arthur were most unhappy, and remained so until they
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: finally reached Guadalcanal on twenty nine October. Ashore. On the
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: marine beachheads, General Vandergriff ordered rations reduced to two meals
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: a day. The reduced food intake would last for six weeks,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and the Marines would become very familiar with Japanese canned
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: fish and rice. Most of the Marines smoked, and they
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: were soon disgustedly smoking Japanese issued brands. They found that
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the separate paper filters that came with the cigarettes were
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: necessary to keep the fast burning tobacco from scorching their lips.
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  Speaker 1: The retreating ships had also hauled away empty sand bags
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  Speaker 1: and valuable engineer tools, so the Marines used Japanese shovels
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to fill Japanese rice bags with sand. To strengthen their
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: defensive positions, the Marines dug in along the beaches between
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the Tenaru and the ridges west of Kukum. A Japanese
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: counter landing was a distinct possibility inland of the beaches.
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  Speaker 1: Defensive gun pits and fox holes lined the west bank
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  Speaker 1: of the Teneru and crowned the hills that faced west
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: towards the Metanakaw River, and point crews. South of the
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: airfield were densely jungled. Ridges and ravines abounded. The beachhead
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: perimeter was guarded by outposts, and these were manned in
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: large part by combat support troops. The Engineer, Pioneer and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Amphibious Tractor Battalion all had their positions on the front line.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: In fact, any marine with a rifle, and that was
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: virtually every marine, stood night defensive duty. There was no
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: place within the perimeter that could be counted safe from
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: enemy infiltration. Almost as Turner's transport sailed away, the Japanese
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: began a pattern of harassing air attacks on the beachhead
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the raids came during the day, but the Third
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Defense Battalion's ninety millimeters anti aircraft guns forced the bombers
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: to fly too high for effective bombing. The erratic pattern
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: of bombs, however, meant that no place was safe near
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the airfield the preferred target, and no place could claim
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: it was bomb free. The most disturbing aspect of Japanese
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: air attacks soon became the nightly harassment by Japanese aircraft, which, singly,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: it seemed, roamed over the perimeter, dropping bombs and flares indiscriminately.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: The nightly visitors, whose planes engines were soon well known sounds,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: won the singular title washing Machine Charlie at first and
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: later Louis the Laos when their presence heralded Japanese shore bombardment. Technically,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Charlie was a twin engine night bomber from Reball. Louis
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: was a cruiser floatplane that signaled to the bombardment ships,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: but the harassm Marines used the names interchangeably. Even though
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: most of the division's heavy engineering equipment had disappeared with
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: the Navy's transports, the resourceful marine soon completed the airfield's
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: runway with captured Japanese gear. On twelve August, Admiral McCain's
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: aid piloted in a pby five Catalina, a flying boat,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and bumped to a halt on what was now officially
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Henderson Field, named for a marine pilot, Major Loftenar Henderson.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Lost at midway, the Navy officer pronounced the airfield fit
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: for fighter use and took off with a load of
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: wounded marines, the first of twenty eight hundred and seventy
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: nine to be evacuated. Henderson Field was the centerpiece of
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Vandergriff's strategy. He would hold it at all costs. Although
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: it was only two thousand feet long and lacked a
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: taxiway and adequate drainage. The tiny air strip, often riddled
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: with potholes and rendered unusable because of frequent torrential downpours,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: was essential to the success of the landing force. With it,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: operational supplies could be flown in and wounded flown out,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: at least in the Marines' minds. Navy ships ceased to
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: be the only life for the defenders, while Vandergriff's marines
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: dug in east and west of Henderson Field. Japanese headquarters
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: in Rabaul planed what it considered an effective response to
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the American offensive. Misled by intelligence estimates that the Marines
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: numbered perhaps two thousand men, Japanese staff officers believed that
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: a modest force, quickly sent could overwhelm the invaders. On
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: twelve August, sink Pack determined that a sizeable Japanese force
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: was massing at Truck to steam to the Solomons and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: attempt to eject the Americans ominously. The group included the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: heavy carriers Shikaku and Zukaku and the light carrier Ryujo.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Despite the painful losses at Tsavo Island, the only significant
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: increase to American naval forces in the Solomons was the
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: assignment of a new battleship, the South Dakota BB fifty seven.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo had ordered Lieutenant General Hariyoshi
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Hayukitaki's eventeenth Army to attack the marine perimeter. For his
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: assault force, Hayaukataki chose the thirty fifth Infantry Brigade Reinforced,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: commanded by Major General Kiyataki Kawaguchi. At the time, Kawaguchi's
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: main force was in the Palaos Hayakataki selected a crack
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: infantry regiment, the twenty eighth, commanded by a Colonel Kyono Ichiki,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: to land first alerted for its mission while it was
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: at Guam, the Achiki detachment Assault Echelon one battalion of
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: nine hundred men was transported to the Solomons on the
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: only shipping available, six destroyers. As a result, the troops
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: carried just small amounts of ordnance and supplies. A follow
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: on echelon of one thy two hundred of Ichiki's troops
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: was to join the assault battalion on Guadalcanal while the
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Japanese landing force was headed for Guadalcanal. The Japanese already
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: on the island provided an unpleasant reminder that they too
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: were full of fight. A captured enemy naval rating taken
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: in the constant patrolling to the west of the perimeter
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: indicated that a Japanese group wanted to surrender near the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: village of Cocombona, seven miles west of Matanakao. This was
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the area that Lieutenant Colonel Getchi considered held most of
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the enemy troops who had fled the airfield on the
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: night of twelve August, a reconnaissance patrol of twenty five men,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: led by Gechi himself, left the perimeter by landing craft.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: The patrol landed near its objective, was ambushed and virtually
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: wiped out. Only three men managed to swim and wade
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: back to marine lines. The bodies of the other members
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: of the patrol were never found. To this day, the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: fate of the Gechi patrol continues to intrigue researchers. After
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the loss of Gechi and his men, vigilance increased on
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the perimeter. On the fourteenth a fabled character, the coast watcher,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Martin Clemens, came strolling out of the jungle into the
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: marine life. He had watched the landing from the hills
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: south of the airfield, and now brought his bodyguard of
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: native policemen with him. A retired sergeant major of the
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: British Solomon Islands Constabulary, Jacob C. Vuza, volunteered about this
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: time to search out Japanese to the east of the perimeter,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: where patrol sightings and contacts had indicated the Japanese might
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: have effected a landing. The ominous news of Japanese sightings
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: to the east and west of the perimeter were bounced
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: out by the joyous word that more marines had landed.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: This time the marines were aviators. On twenty August, two
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: squadrons of Marine Aircraft Group MAG twenty three were launched
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: from the escort carrier Long Island CVE one, located two
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: hundred miles southeast of Guadalcanal. Captain John L. Smith led
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: nineteen GRUM and four F four Wildcats of Marine Fighting
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Squadron VMF two twenty three onto Henderson's narrow runway. Smith's
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: fighters were followed by Major Richard C. Mangram's Marine Scout
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Bombing Squadron VMSB two thirty two with twelve Douglas SBD
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: three Dauntless dive bombers. From this point of the campaign,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the radio identification for Guadalcanal Cactus became increasingly synonymous with
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the island. The marine planes became the first elements of
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: what would informally be known as Cactus Air Force. Wasting
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: no time, the marine pilots were soon in action against
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: the Japanese naval aircraft which frequently attacked Guadalcanal. Smith shot
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: down his first Enemy zero fighter on twenty one August.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Three days later, VMF two twenty three's Wildcats intercepted a
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: strong Japanese aerial attack force and down sixteen enemy planes.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: In this action, Captain Marion E. Carl, a veteran of Midway,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: shot down three planes. On the twenty second, coastwatchers alerted
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Cactus to an approaching air attack, and thirteen of sixteen
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: enemy bombers were destroyed. At the same time, Mangram's dive
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: bombers damaged three enemy destroyer transports attempting to reach Guadalcanal.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: On twenty four August, the American attacking aircraft, which now
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: included Navy scout bombers from the Saratoga Scouting Squadron VS five,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: succeeded in turning back a Japanese reinforcement convoy of warships
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: and destroyers. On twenty two August five Bell P four
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: hundred air cobras of the Army's sixty seven Fighter Squadron
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: had landed at Henderson, followed within the week by nine
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: more air cobras. The Army planes, which had serious altitude
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and climb rate deficiencies, were destined to see most action
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: in ground combat support roles. The frenzied action in what
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: became known as the Battle of the Eastern Solomons was
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: matched ashore. Japanese destroyers had delivered the vanguard of the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Achiki force at Tavu Point, twenty five miles east of
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: the marine perimeter. A long range patrol of marines from
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Company A, first Battalion, First Marines ambushed a sizeable Japanese
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: force near Tavu on nineteen August. The Japanese dead were
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: readily identified as army troops, and the debris of their
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: defeat included fresh uniforms and a large amount of communication gear. Clearly,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: a new phase of the fighting had begun. All Japanese
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: encountered to this point had been naval troops alerted by patrols.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: The Marines, now dug in along the Alu River, often
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: misnamed the Tenaru on marine maps, were ready for Colonel Achiki.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: The Japanese commander's orders directed him to quickly recapture and
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: maintain the airfield at Guadalcanal, and his own directive to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: his troops emphasized that they would fight to the last
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: breath of the last man, and they did. Two full
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: of his mission to wait for the rest of his
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: regiment ensure that he faced only a few thousand men
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: over all, a cheeky march from Tavu to the Marines
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: lines before he attacked. On the night of the twentieth,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: a bloody figure stumbled out of the jungle with a
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: warning that the Japanese were coming. It was Sergeant Major Vuza,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: captured by the Japanese who found a small American flag
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: secreted in his loincloth. He was tortured in a failed
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: attempt to gain information on the invasion force. Tied to
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: a tree, bayoneted twice through the chest, and beaten with
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: rifle butts, the resolute Vuza chewed through his bindings to escape.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Taken to Lieutenant Colonel Edwin A. Pollock, whose second Battalion,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: First Marines held the Ailu's Mouth defenses, he gasped a
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: warning that an estimated two hundred fifty to five hundred
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Japanese soldiers were coming behind him. The resolute Vuza rushed
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: immediately to an aid station and then to the division hospital.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Miraculously survived his ordeal and was awarded a Silver Star
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: for his heroism by General Vandergriff and later a legion
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: of men. Vandergriff also made Vuza an honorary sergeant major
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: of U S Marines At zero one thirty on twenty
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: one August at Chiki's troops stormed the Marines lines in
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: a screaming, frenzied display of the spiritual strength which they
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: had been assured would sweep aside their American enemy. As
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the Japanese charged across the sandbar astride the Islu's mouth,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Pollock's Marines cut them down. After a mortar preparation, the
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Japanese tried again to storm past the sandbar. A section
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: of thirty seven millimeters guns sprayed the enemy force with
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: deadly canister. Lieutenant Colonel Leonard B. Creswells, First Battalion, First
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Marines moved upstream on the Islu. At daybreak, waded across
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the sluggish, fifty foot wide stream and moved on the
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: flank of the Japanese. Wildcats from VMF two twenty three
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: strafed the beleaguered enemy force. Five light tanks blasted the
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: retreating Japanese by seventeen hunds. As the sun was setting,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: the battle ended. Colonel Achiki, disgraced in his own mind
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: by his defeat, burned his regimental colors and shot himself
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: close to eight hundred of his men joined him in death.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: The few survivors fled eastward towards Tavu Point Rear. Admiral
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Riizo Tanaka, whose reinforcement for us of transports and destroyers
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: was largely responsible for the subsequent Japanese troop build up
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: on Guadalcanal, recognized that the unsupported Japanese attack was sheer
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: folly and reflected that this tragedy should have taught us
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the hopelessness of bamboo spear tactics. Fortunately for the Marines,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: a Chiki's over confidence was not unique among Japanese commanders.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Following the First Marine's tangle with the Achiki detachment, General
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Vandergriff was inspired to write the Marine commandant, Lieutenant General
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Thomas Holcombe, and report, these youngsters are the darnedest people
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: when they get started you ever saw. And all the
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Marines on the island, young and old, tyro and veteran,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: were becoming accomplished jungle fighters. They were no longer trigger
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: happy as many had been in their first days ashore,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: shooting at shadows and imagined enemy. They were waiting for targets,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: patrolling with enthusiasm, sure of themselves. The misnamed Battle of
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: the Tenaru had cost Colonel Hunt's regiment thirty four killed
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: in action and seventy five wounded. All the division's marines
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: now felt they were bloodied. With the men on Tulagi,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Galvutu and Tanambogo and those of the Ilu had done.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Was proved that the first Marine Division would hold fast
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: to what it had won, While the divisions marines and
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: sailors had earned a breathing spell as the Japanese regroup
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: for another onslaught. The action in the air over the
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Solomons intensified. Almost every day. Japanese aircraft arrived around noon
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: to bomb the perimeter. Marine fighter pilots found the twin
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: engine Betty Bomber's easy targets. Zero fighters were another story.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Although the Wildcats were a much sturdier aircraft, the Japanese
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: zero superior speed and better maneuverability gave them a distinct
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: edge in a dog fight. The American planes, however, when
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: warned by the coast watchers of Japanese attacks, had time
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: to climb above the oncoming enemy and preferably attacked by
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: making firing runs during high speed dives. Their tactics made
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: the airspace over the Solomons dangerous for the Japanese. On
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: twenty nine August, the carrier Ryujo launched aircraft for a
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: strike against the air strip. Smith's Wildcats shot down sixteen
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: with a loss of four of their own. Still, the
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Japanese continued to strike at Henderson Field without let up.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Two days after the Ryujo raid, enemy bombers inflicted heavy
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: damage on the airfield, setting aviation fuel ablaze and incinerating
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: parked aircraft. VMF two twenty three's retaliation was a further
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: bag of thirteen attackers. On thirty August, two more mag
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: twenty three squadrons VMF two twenty four and VMSB two
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: thirty one flew into Henderson. The air reinforcements were more
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: than welcome. Steady combat attrition, frequent damage in the air
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: and on the ground, and scant repair facilities and parts
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: kept the number of aircraft available a dwindling resource. Plainly,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: General Vandergriff needed infantry reinforcements as much as he did
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: additional aircraft. He brought the now combined raidar and Parachute Battalions,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: both under Edson's command, and the second Battalion, fifth Marines
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: over to Guadalcanal from Tulagi, This gave the division commander
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: a chance to order out larger reconnaissance patrols to probe
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: for the Japanese. On twenty seven August, the first Battalion,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: fifth Marines made a short to shore, landing near Cocombona
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: and marched back to the beachhead without any measurable results.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: If the Japanese were out there beyond me to Nacao,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and they were, they watched the Marines and waited for
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: a better opportunity to attack. End of chapter two read
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: by Aaron Bennett