Today, another chapter opens up in Guadalcanal: it is to be the final chapter of the campaign,
the last American offensive, the final Japanese defeat.
As we saw previously, the Japanese had approved plans for the evacuation of this Island of
Death, but it would take time to prepare for such an operation.
In the meantime, the Japanese forces on Guadalcanal were starving, their strength waning with
each passing day and their position getting more and more untenable by the minute.
A formidable army, now reduced to tatters.
And to add to all their grievances, General Patch was about to launch another offensive
against the battered and depleted Japanese units, aiming to remove their presence from
this island.
Thus, join us as we delve once more into the last offensive of the Guadalcanal Campaign
with the battles of the Galloping Horse and the Sea Horse.
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It is a new year for the Guadalcanal Campaign, and with it, we are nearing its conclusion.
By the start of January, the 8th Fleet was planning to resume their express runs to resupply
the Guadalcanal stranded forces, with Rear-Admiral Koyanagi Tomiji becoming the new commander
of the Reinforcement Unit.
This time, the drums were wrapped around with kapok to make them buoyant even if strafed,
and float planes from the R Area Air Force would be used to find the wakes of the PT
boats to avoid them.
The first express run of the year, on January 2, would thus see 540 drums and 250 rubber
bags of supplies successfully recovered.
At the same time, Yamamoto was planning to expedite reinforcements to Lae, Salamaua,
Madang and Wewak to bolster the Japanese defense of New Guinea and, seeing the situation deteriorate
more and more in Buna-Gona, he was also planning to order General Yamagata’s forces to withdraw
to Salamaua and thus abandon the meaningless defense of the Sanananda-Giruwa area.
In the meantime, despite the success of the new Japanese express runs, the Slot started
to bore traffic in the other direction for the first time in the campaign.
With many air raids hitting the airfields at Buin, Munda and Rabaul, Task Force 67 under
Rear-Admiral Walden Ainsworth was ordered to launch a surface-ship bombardment of Munda.
On January 4, after landing the last echelon of the 25th Division, Ainsworth carefully
turned with three cruisers and two destroyers towards Munda.
In a period of 48 minutes, the American vessels would shower the Japanese airfield with over
4000 shells, though the damage inflicted wasn’t as devastating as it was expected.
In retaliation, the Japanese launched air strikes over Ainsworth’s forces, scoring
a major hit over the New Zealander light cruiser Achilles.
By January 9, the Japanese plans for the evacuation of Guadalcanal and the division of operational
responsibilities for the subsequent defense of the Solomons had been laid out accordingly.
The initial plans were for one infantry battalion to be forwarded to Guadalcanal to form the
core of the rearguard and for 23 days’ provisions to be stockpiled by January 15, so as to allow
the 17th Army to begin a phased withdrawal to the western end of the island on January
25.
Meanwhile, the Russell Islands would be secured as a staging area and an intense air superiority
campaign would begin about January 28.
There would be three lifts on the evacuation, mainly featuring destroyers, although some
men would be transported by landing craft to the Russells for later withdrawal and submarines
would further be available to pick anyone who failed to get aboard a destroyer or landing
craft.
The Japanese also designed an elaborate program of feints to keep the Americans guessing as
to their real intentions, with a planned night air raid against Port Darwin and with a diversion
operation to shell Canton Island.
The target date of completion for Operation KE was February 10, and it was expected that
half the destroyers committed to the operation would be sacrificed, an opinion shared by
both General Imamura and Admiral Yamamoto; yet although Imamura and many others believed
that around 80% or more of the IJA forces on the island could be rescued, Yamamoto thought
that only one third of them could be feasibly saved.
Maybe it was because of these fears that Yamamoto chose to retain at Truk the two modern fast
battleships, Yamato and Musashi, as well as the fleet carrier Zuikaku.
Nonetheless, Admiral Kondo’s Advanced Force and Admiral Mikawa’s 8th Fleet had been
mobilized to support Operation KE; and the strength of the 11th Air Fleet, now under
the command of Vice-Admiral Kusaka Jinichi, had been augmented to 376 land-based aircraft
thanks to the reinforcements of the 6th Air Division and a detachment of Zuikaku, plus
sixty float planes from the R Area Air Force for a grand total of 436 aircraft.
In contrast, the Americans had been concentrating their forces and resources for a planned last
offensive on Guadalcanal.
By January’s end, Admiral Halsey had at his disposal a vast amount of both fast and
slow warships , with his carriers providing him an air strength of 339 planes ; the American
air command had been restructured by General Harmon to allow the creation of the 13th Air
Force , numbering 92 Army aircraft by January 22; and the Cactus Air Force, now under the
command of Brigadier-General Francis Mulcahy, counted with 81 of the 423 land-based Navy
and Marine aircraft assigned to the South Pacific by January 28.
Finally, with the arrival of the 25th Division and the 6th Marine Regiment, General Patch
would be able to establish the 14th Corps , totaling around 50000 men for the oncoming
final offensive.
In comparison, the depleted Japanese forces probably could muster between 14 to 16 thousand
men, so they would be completely outnumbered during the evacuation.
Yet the failure of American intelligence to unmask Japanese intentions offset much of
these material disparities.
As the Japanese altered their secret communications on January 1, the concentration of resources
and forces for the evacuation of Guadalcanal looked to the Allied cryptanalysts as the
preparation for a new offensive in the South Pacific.
This would effectively force Patch to retain the Americal Division and the 147th Regiment
for the defense of the airfield sites and the defensive perimeter, so only the 2nd Marine
Division and the 25th Division could be employed for the January offensive.
Patch’s initial objective was a line extending south from the beach across Hill 53 and generally
about 3000 yards west of the current positions of the 14th Corps.
The plan was for the 2nd Marine Division to push west along the shore while the 25th Division
cleared the Gifu redoubt and then continued west inland towards Kokumbona.
The 25th Division of Major-General Joseph Lawton Collins also had the mission to clear
two distinct terrain compartments: the “Sea Horse”, formed by Hills 43 and 44 in the
wedge between the southeast and southwest forks of the Matanikau; and the “Galloping
Horse” , a much larger bare hill mass between the southwest and northwest forks of the river.
Collins planned to seize the Galloping Horse from the north with the 27th Regiment and
to envelop the Sea Horse with the 35th Regiment while a battalion of the latter contained
the Gifu.
If successful, his two regiments would then push to a point south of the Horse’s Head
on Hill 53, thus creating three great pockets that could easily be reduced.
As Patch prepared to launch his offensive, reports reached General Hyakutake about the
imminence of an American attack.
The Japanese plan of defense was for each unit to stand unflinchingly at its post until
both forces became intermingled so as to prevent the Americans from employing their superior
firepower in artillery and air support against the battered defenders.
At night, however, the Japanese would sally out to interdict the enemy supply lines in
all-or-nothing attacks to delay the inevitable defeat until Operation KE could be launched.
In the coast, General Maruyama’s depleted 2nd Division continued to defend the narrow
coastal corridor, while to the south, General Sano’s 38th Division was still stretched
across the Japanese line to Mount Austen.
By January 9, the two regiments of General Collins had reached their jump-off points
, successfully relieving the exhausted American forces in the area and immediately preparing
for the commencement of the offensive.
In the area of Colonel Robert McClure’s 35th Regiment, the 2nd Battalion had been
sent to contain the Gifu while the 3rd Battalion was sent after the Sea Horse via a wide envelopment
to the south that forced the Americans to take a 7000-yard circuitous route through
the jungles around Mount Austen.
Further west, Colonel William McCulloch of the 27th Regiment directed his 1st Battalion
to move form Hill 66 up the forelegs of the Galloping Horse while the 3rd Battalion jumped
off from Hill 55 to move south up the hind legs and then west with the ultimate goal
of taking the Horse’s Head.
On the morning of January 10, General Patch’s offensive finally started as the 3rd Battalion,
35th Regiment moved out on an azimuth of 210 degrees towards a high wooded hill south of
Hill 43.
After a particularly rough march that required some impromptu navigational adjustments, the
attackers began to close in on Hill 43 from the south, defeating a supply party of Colonel
Oka and digging in by nightfall about 700 yards from the summit.
Meanwhile, after launching a heavy air bombardment of Hill 53 and a devastating artillery bombardment
of the Hill 57 area, Colonel McCulloch’s forces also started their assault on the Galloping
Horse.
Whereas the 1st Battalion faced very slight resistance from three machineguns and could
thus secure Hill 57 with ease, the 3rd Battalion would face the brunt of Major Nishiyama Haruka’s
forces.
After occupying Hill 51 without opposition, the 3rd Battalion launched the double envelopment
of Hill 52 with two companies , yet they were soon forced to a halt by the strong enemy
machine-gun fire.
As the rugged and elevated terrain rendered impossible an envelopment to the left, another
company was sent to make a deeper envelopment to the right.
Finally, the 3rd Battalion would renew its assault in the early afternoon, benefitting
from another devastating air attack with depth charges over the Japanese positions to rapidly
destroy six machineguns, thus successfully occupying Hill 52.
The next morning, after an artillery preparation, the 3rd Battalion continued its advance towards
the Horse’s Head but was again stopped at a ravine raked with machine-guns.
Soon, as the battalion hadn’t been adequately supplied and the lack of water induced an
“inertia” in the men, the 3rd began to suffer many losses to heat exhaustion and
the enemy's mortar and machine-gun attacks.
This effectively forced McCulloch to send his reserve 2nd Battalion to continue the
offensive.
At the same time, to the east, McClure’s 3rd Battalion, reinforced with the men of
the 1st Battalion, rapidly drove through several Japanese machine-gun positions and took Hill
43 by early afternoon.
The 35th Regiment then continued on towards Hill 44 facing very slight opposition and
successfully secured the Sea Horse by nightfall, therefore cutting off the Japanese forces
at the Gifu.
The following day, McClure then extended his attack west towards the Galloping Horse, but
was eventually halted by a Japanese strongpoint after only 600 yards.
It would take him several days and an extensive use of his mortars and artillery to finally
smash the Japanese strongpoint by January 15.
That same day, the Japanese survivors from the Sea Horse, including Oka and most of his
1st Battalion, would manage to slip through the encirclement and escape to friendly lines.
In the meantime, McCulloch’s 2nd Battalion launched its attack from Hill 52 on the morning
of January 12.
With another enveloping maneuver, the Americans would manage to secure the southern meandering
of Hill 57 on the right and a feature called Exton’s Ridge on the left, also getting
halfway down Simm’s Ridge, though Nishiyama’s stubborn defenders would again prevent a rapid
American victory, even cutting the battalion’s communications during the night after a successful
infiltration.
On January 13, the American assault resumed, with one company swinging wide to the right
to stealthily approach the Horse’s Head under the cover of the jungles and with another
company pressing down Simm’s Ridge but yet again facing stiff resistance.
As the Americans were checked at the ridge, Captain Charles Davis valiantly led an attack
that managed to clear the south end of the ridge and that had an electrifying effect
on the rest of the battalion.
Thus, Simm’s Ridge was rapidly captured, and by noon, the Horse’s Head had fallen
into American hands.
In the next few days, the reserve 161st Regiment would then be deployed to hunt for the remainder
of Nishiyama’s battalion in the nearby gorge of the southwest Matanikau fork, but still
200 survivors including Nishiyama would escape to friendly lines by January 19.
Meanwhile, on the coastal sector, the 2nd Marine Division, temporarily under the command
of Brigadier-General Alphonse DeCarre, was about to start its offensive.
DeCarre aligned his front with the exhausted 2nd Marines on the left and the 8th Marines
on the beach, planning to attack in echelon from left to right or, in terms of the ground,
from the head of the ravine downward, to nullify the defensive advantages of the Japanese,
who had machine-guns expertly sited to place fire seaward perpendicular to the path of
any unit attempting to move west.
On the morning of January 13, after a barrage of Marine artillery and mortars, the 2nd Marines
thus began its attack from Hill 66 against the positions of the 1st Battalion, 228th
Regiment . Despite suffering a fulminating mortar attack,
the 2nd Marines would successfully secure Hill 66 while the 8th Marines concurrently
plunged into a vicious battle in the ravine.
By nightfall, two companies were wired in on their objective, but the Japanese continued
to show stiff resistance.
The Marines would then renew their echelon attack on January 14, only accomplishing little
movement on the center, so DeCarre decided to relieve the battered 2nd Marines with the
fresh 6th Marines.
The next day, as the 8th Marines encountered heavy resistance on the northern slopes of
Hills 83 and 84, a tank-supported attack was attempted on the coast, yet it too would fail
to smash the Japanese line.
On the left, however, the 6th Marines started to press north to flank the Japanese in front
of the 8th Marines, something that could bring the complete collapse of the 2nd Division
line.
Therefore, General Maruyama decided to send Colonel Tamika Harukazu to lead a withdrawal
of about 1300 yards to the reserve positions.
Some soldiers from the 4th and 16th Regiments would manage to withdraw orderly and unpressed
by January 16, but most of them would get trapped as the 6th Marines turned north and
drove to the coast.
The following day, the Marines would annihilate the trapped Japanese forces on the pocket
with a fierce bombardment, inflicting a total of 645 casualties on the invaders.
By January 18, Maruyama thus counted with only 3800 men to defend his new line; and
in the next few days, DeCarre would reshuffle his units and mop up his newly-gained territory.
We know you’re now wondering what happened to the tenacious Gifu defenders, but that’s
something we’ll cover in the next episode, along with the final reduction of Sanananda,
and the end of the Battle of Buna-Gona, so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed
the bell button to see them.
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