thedrifter
09-06-02, 12:12 PM
by Joseph Leach
Shortly after defeating the Japanese at the battle of Midway, the United States decided to push into the strategically important area of the southwest Pacific. Now that Hawaii was deemed secure from immediate attack it was time to take the fight to the Japanese. Both American C.O.'s in the Pacific,General Douglas MacArthur (SW Pacific) and Admiral Chester Nimitz (Pacific Ocean) were offensive minded, aggressive leaders, and welcomed the directive that came from the Joint Chiefs on July 2, 1942. This directive called for parallel attacks on Rabaul Island, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands Chain. Plans were started for attacking in these areas immediately.
Just as fast the plans had to be looked at from a different angle, when air recon showed that the Japanese were moving troops from Tulagi to Guadalcanal and building an airfield on the latter. These islands were next to each other in the lower Solomon Chain. The Americans had been warned earlier by Australian Coast watchers that the Japanese were starting to occupy Guadalcanal,an island 90 miles by 25 miles and covered mostly by rain forests,mountains, and swamps. A Japanese airfield here would jeopardize all U.S.forces in the area. Guadalcanal had to be taken and taken right away. Normally the island would fall under the command of MacArthur,but for now the boundary between the two commands was moved, giving command of the operation to Nimitz.
Preparation and training started at a feverish pace. Nimitz assiagned three carrier groups (Saratoga, Wasp, and Enterprize) under the command of Admiral Fletcher to support the operation. Fletcher was in over-all command of the operation. Admiral Turner was in command of the landing force. This force consisted of the lst Marine division and a regiment of the 2nd Marine Division.(19,000 men) General Vandergrift commanded these troops. Lastly the operation was backed up by a joint force (TF44) of American and Australian cruisers and destroyers.
At 0900 hours on 8/7/42 (8 months to the day after the sneak attack on Pearl harbor) 11,000 Marines landed on Guadalcanal after a lengthy naval and air bombardment. The landing was not contested by the Japaese and the airfield was secured that first day. Tulagi was also hit by a force of 1,000 Marines and it was a different story. The Japanese resisted fiercely and in two days fighting the Marines killed just about all of them.
http://www.grunts.net/wars/20thcentury/wwii/guadalcanal/guadal1.gif
U.S. Marines land on the beaches of Guadalcanal
On the 2nd day things became more difficultt for the Marines on Guadalcanal. Fletcher withdrew the Carrier groups for fear of air attacks from Rabaul. Turner did the same with the transports. The Marines were now on their own in enemy territory. To make matters worse for them, Turner's transports held much needed supplies and equipment. In addittion to the supplies there were also 1,000 Marines still on the transports that would be sorely needed in the coming hours. The only naval force in the area were the patrolling ships of TF44. Vandergrift put the Marines in a five mile long defensive perimeter and started to finish building the airfield with the equipment he had, plus that which the Japanese left.
The Japanese Commander in the area, Admiral Mikawa, sent a naval force from Rabaul down between the islands of the Solomon Chain (known as "The Slot") on the night of the 8th and hit TF 44 by suprise. In two quick battles off savo Island the allied force lost the Canberra, Quincy, Astoria, Vincennes, and the Chicago with a great loss of life.
On the night of the 20th of August the Japanese that had been landed earlier hit the Marine line at the Tenaru River in a fanatical "Banzai" attack. The young Marines held their ground and slaughtered the attackers. When the sun came up the ground before the Marine line was littered with over 800 dead Japanese. These young Americans who had been civilians a short time ago had stood up to a professional, experienced army and beat them.
Their hardships and heroism was just starting though
August 20th was also the day the first Marine fighter planes landed on the now usable airfield. They quickly dubbed themselves "the Cactus Air Force." The field itself was named Henderson Field in honor of Major Lofton R. Henderson killed in the Battle of Midway.
The Japanese kept underestimating the strength of the Americans on Guadalcanal and kept putting their troops ashore piecemeal. They also kept up the pressure on the U.S. Navy which returned to the area. In ensuing sea battles the Enterprise was crippled by bombs. The Japanese lost a seaplane carrier(the Chitose) and over 70 planes. A Jap troop ship was also sunk, and the USS Saratoga was put out of action for 3 months by torpedoes. The Wasp and the battle ship North Carolina were also sunk. The loss of life inflicted upon the sailors engaged was extremely high.
The battle for the island continued with the Americans landing troops and supplies during daylight hours and the Japanese doing the same after dark. This procedure the Japanese used with ships (mostly destroyers) shuttling troops in at night became known to the Marines as "the Tokyo Expess." The night of the 21st of August was the scene of another "Banzai" attack against Henderson Field. l,000 Japanese ran screaming into the Marine positons and 800 were killed before morning.
The "Tokyo Express" dropped off another 6,000 troops and on the 13th of September 3,500 of them hit the south perimeter of the airfield. This area was defended by the lst Marine Raider Battallion under the command of Lt.Col. Merritt (Red Mike) Edson. They were dug in on a ridge and bore the brunt of wave after wave of "banzai" attacks. Edson was all over the field of battle, exhorting his men, and fighting right in the line wih them. At one point the Japanese breached his line and he ordered a pullback and then called in artillery strikes on their previous positions carchung the attackers in the open. This area became known as "Bloody Ridge."
Dawn broke over the bodies of l,000 Japanese lying in and around the Marine positions. The balance had fled back into the jungle. After the battle, Vandergrift sent large patrols into the jungle after the retreating enemy. There was almost a serious setback when a battallion of Marines were hit by a large body of Japanese and were pushed back to the beach. It looked like they'd be overrun until a destroyer responded and bombarded the attacking Japanese while the Marines were evacuated by landing crafts. It was during this operation that Coastguardsman Douglas Munro put himself in harms way while evacuating the Marines and received the Medal of Honor posthumously. He was the only member of the Coast Guard to receive this honor.
The tide began to turn against the Japanese when the "Cactus Air Force" started to operate. Now the Japanese no longer had control of the air and soon the skies would be clear of them altogether. Marine Captain John Smith became the first ace of the squadron and also won a Medal of Honor.
On the 18th of September the 7th Marines landed (4,200 strong) and Vandergrift became even more aggressive. Firefights were a daily occurrence now.The Japanese were still determined to kick the Americans off the island and were landing about a thousand men a night and the Marines kept on shooting them. The Japanese finally landed a full division on Guadalcanal under the command of General Masao Maruyama. Maruyama planned to hit the Americans in full force and put an end to them once and for all. He had his division split into 2 attacking forces. While one hit the Marines from the west the other would hit from the south. This latter force would hit the Marines on Bloody Ridge again. This battle would feature two of the Marine Corps legendary figures, Gunnery Sgt John Basilone and Lt.Col. Lewis "Chesty" Puller The young Marines serving with them would soon become war hardened veterans.
The all out attack that the marines expected hit them on the night of October 24th. The brunt of the assault came against the south perimeter, Bloody Ridge again, in wave after wave of "Banzai" attacks. This position was held by Puller's 1st Battallion, 7th Marines. At almost 10 PM the Japanese came screaming out of the jungle and into heavy machine gun fire. GySgt. John Basilone, set up in the middle of the line, fired a constant stream of bullets from one gun and kept the other guns supplied with ammo.He moved about the positions directing fire and had to run to the rear on several occassions to bring up more ammo. Several times he had to have his men crawl out in front of their position and drag the bodies of the dead Japanese away. They would pile up so high as to block the field of fire. The attacks continued all night(7 in all) as did the rain,and when it ended there were 1,300 hundred Japanese lying dead in front of the marines,a large percentage of them killed by Basilone's machine gunners.
Basilone received the Medal of Honor for his actions. Sadly to say, he was killed at the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. He could have stayed out of the action. He was offered a commssion and could have stayed Stateside on a bond tour but refused and went back to his fellow Marines.
By November the 182nd U.S. Army Infantry Regiment was landed to bolster the Marines. The "Tokyo Express" was still landing troops each night and the outcome was still to be decided. The war on the sea was just as savage as that on the land. In fact more Americans would be killed in sea battles in this campaign than would be on the land. Shortly after midnight on November 13th a fierce surface battle erupted north of Guadalcanal. It was one of the largest sea battls of the war. The U.S.Navy took another beating, losing the Juneau, Atlanta, and 4 destroyers. The San Francisco was badly damaged.
continued......
Shortly after defeating the Japanese at the battle of Midway, the United States decided to push into the strategically important area of the southwest Pacific. Now that Hawaii was deemed secure from immediate attack it was time to take the fight to the Japanese. Both American C.O.'s in the Pacific,General Douglas MacArthur (SW Pacific) and Admiral Chester Nimitz (Pacific Ocean) were offensive minded, aggressive leaders, and welcomed the directive that came from the Joint Chiefs on July 2, 1942. This directive called for parallel attacks on Rabaul Island, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands Chain. Plans were started for attacking in these areas immediately.
Just as fast the plans had to be looked at from a different angle, when air recon showed that the Japanese were moving troops from Tulagi to Guadalcanal and building an airfield on the latter. These islands were next to each other in the lower Solomon Chain. The Americans had been warned earlier by Australian Coast watchers that the Japanese were starting to occupy Guadalcanal,an island 90 miles by 25 miles and covered mostly by rain forests,mountains, and swamps. A Japanese airfield here would jeopardize all U.S.forces in the area. Guadalcanal had to be taken and taken right away. Normally the island would fall under the command of MacArthur,but for now the boundary between the two commands was moved, giving command of the operation to Nimitz.
Preparation and training started at a feverish pace. Nimitz assiagned three carrier groups (Saratoga, Wasp, and Enterprize) under the command of Admiral Fletcher to support the operation. Fletcher was in over-all command of the operation. Admiral Turner was in command of the landing force. This force consisted of the lst Marine division and a regiment of the 2nd Marine Division.(19,000 men) General Vandergrift commanded these troops. Lastly the operation was backed up by a joint force (TF44) of American and Australian cruisers and destroyers.
At 0900 hours on 8/7/42 (8 months to the day after the sneak attack on Pearl harbor) 11,000 Marines landed on Guadalcanal after a lengthy naval and air bombardment. The landing was not contested by the Japaese and the airfield was secured that first day. Tulagi was also hit by a force of 1,000 Marines and it was a different story. The Japanese resisted fiercely and in two days fighting the Marines killed just about all of them.
http://www.grunts.net/wars/20thcentury/wwii/guadalcanal/guadal1.gif
U.S. Marines land on the beaches of Guadalcanal
On the 2nd day things became more difficultt for the Marines on Guadalcanal. Fletcher withdrew the Carrier groups for fear of air attacks from Rabaul. Turner did the same with the transports. The Marines were now on their own in enemy territory. To make matters worse for them, Turner's transports held much needed supplies and equipment. In addittion to the supplies there were also 1,000 Marines still on the transports that would be sorely needed in the coming hours. The only naval force in the area were the patrolling ships of TF44. Vandergrift put the Marines in a five mile long defensive perimeter and started to finish building the airfield with the equipment he had, plus that which the Japanese left.
The Japanese Commander in the area, Admiral Mikawa, sent a naval force from Rabaul down between the islands of the Solomon Chain (known as "The Slot") on the night of the 8th and hit TF 44 by suprise. In two quick battles off savo Island the allied force lost the Canberra, Quincy, Astoria, Vincennes, and the Chicago with a great loss of life.
On the night of the 20th of August the Japanese that had been landed earlier hit the Marine line at the Tenaru River in a fanatical "Banzai" attack. The young Marines held their ground and slaughtered the attackers. When the sun came up the ground before the Marine line was littered with over 800 dead Japanese. These young Americans who had been civilians a short time ago had stood up to a professional, experienced army and beat them.
Their hardships and heroism was just starting though
August 20th was also the day the first Marine fighter planes landed on the now usable airfield. They quickly dubbed themselves "the Cactus Air Force." The field itself was named Henderson Field in honor of Major Lofton R. Henderson killed in the Battle of Midway.
The Japanese kept underestimating the strength of the Americans on Guadalcanal and kept putting their troops ashore piecemeal. They also kept up the pressure on the U.S. Navy which returned to the area. In ensuing sea battles the Enterprise was crippled by bombs. The Japanese lost a seaplane carrier(the Chitose) and over 70 planes. A Jap troop ship was also sunk, and the USS Saratoga was put out of action for 3 months by torpedoes. The Wasp and the battle ship North Carolina were also sunk. The loss of life inflicted upon the sailors engaged was extremely high.
The battle for the island continued with the Americans landing troops and supplies during daylight hours and the Japanese doing the same after dark. This procedure the Japanese used with ships (mostly destroyers) shuttling troops in at night became known to the Marines as "the Tokyo Expess." The night of the 21st of August was the scene of another "Banzai" attack against Henderson Field. l,000 Japanese ran screaming into the Marine positons and 800 were killed before morning.
The "Tokyo Express" dropped off another 6,000 troops and on the 13th of September 3,500 of them hit the south perimeter of the airfield. This area was defended by the lst Marine Raider Battallion under the command of Lt.Col. Merritt (Red Mike) Edson. They were dug in on a ridge and bore the brunt of wave after wave of "banzai" attacks. Edson was all over the field of battle, exhorting his men, and fighting right in the line wih them. At one point the Japanese breached his line and he ordered a pullback and then called in artillery strikes on their previous positions carchung the attackers in the open. This area became known as "Bloody Ridge."
Dawn broke over the bodies of l,000 Japanese lying in and around the Marine positions. The balance had fled back into the jungle. After the battle, Vandergrift sent large patrols into the jungle after the retreating enemy. There was almost a serious setback when a battallion of Marines were hit by a large body of Japanese and were pushed back to the beach. It looked like they'd be overrun until a destroyer responded and bombarded the attacking Japanese while the Marines were evacuated by landing crafts. It was during this operation that Coastguardsman Douglas Munro put himself in harms way while evacuating the Marines and received the Medal of Honor posthumously. He was the only member of the Coast Guard to receive this honor.
The tide began to turn against the Japanese when the "Cactus Air Force" started to operate. Now the Japanese no longer had control of the air and soon the skies would be clear of them altogether. Marine Captain John Smith became the first ace of the squadron and also won a Medal of Honor.
On the 18th of September the 7th Marines landed (4,200 strong) and Vandergrift became even more aggressive. Firefights were a daily occurrence now.The Japanese were still determined to kick the Americans off the island and were landing about a thousand men a night and the Marines kept on shooting them. The Japanese finally landed a full division on Guadalcanal under the command of General Masao Maruyama. Maruyama planned to hit the Americans in full force and put an end to them once and for all. He had his division split into 2 attacking forces. While one hit the Marines from the west the other would hit from the south. This latter force would hit the Marines on Bloody Ridge again. This battle would feature two of the Marine Corps legendary figures, Gunnery Sgt John Basilone and Lt.Col. Lewis "Chesty" Puller The young Marines serving with them would soon become war hardened veterans.
The all out attack that the marines expected hit them on the night of October 24th. The brunt of the assault came against the south perimeter, Bloody Ridge again, in wave after wave of "Banzai" attacks. This position was held by Puller's 1st Battallion, 7th Marines. At almost 10 PM the Japanese came screaming out of the jungle and into heavy machine gun fire. GySgt. John Basilone, set up in the middle of the line, fired a constant stream of bullets from one gun and kept the other guns supplied with ammo.He moved about the positions directing fire and had to run to the rear on several occassions to bring up more ammo. Several times he had to have his men crawl out in front of their position and drag the bodies of the dead Japanese away. They would pile up so high as to block the field of fire. The attacks continued all night(7 in all) as did the rain,and when it ended there were 1,300 hundred Japanese lying dead in front of the marines,a large percentage of them killed by Basilone's machine gunners.
Basilone received the Medal of Honor for his actions. Sadly to say, he was killed at the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. He could have stayed out of the action. He was offered a commssion and could have stayed Stateside on a bond tour but refused and went back to his fellow Marines.
By November the 182nd U.S. Army Infantry Regiment was landed to bolster the Marines. The "Tokyo Express" was still landing troops each night and the outcome was still to be decided. The war on the sea was just as savage as that on the land. In fact more Americans would be killed in sea battles in this campaign than would be on the land. Shortly after midnight on November 13th a fierce surface battle erupted north of Guadalcanal. It was one of the largest sea battls of the war. The U.S.Navy took another beating, losing the Juneau, Atlanta, and 4 destroyers. The San Francisco was badly damaged.
continued......