After the recent defeat at the Bloody Ridge, the Japanese Empire knew for the first time in
the Pacific War that they were finally losing the initiative. The US Marines had proven to be
resilient foes, and their invasion of Guadalcanal was looking like it could become the most decisive
battle of the war. If the Americans could be defeated, then their offensive ambitions could
be checked and the Japanese could continue with their designs in the South Pacific.
In that regard, General Hyakutake himself traveled to Guadalcanal to command another costly attempt
at securing the island. It is all or nothing for the Japanese commander on this episode of the
Pacific War, so join us as we travel to the Island of Death to cover the Battle for Henderson Field.
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Back on October 14, we’ll recall that the Japanese had carried out a violent and coordinated naval
bombardment of Henderson Field that had left the airfield almost completely unusable, thus severely
hampering the power of the Cactus Air Force. At the same time, more than 4500 troops with
stocks of ammunition and supplies had been landed during the high-speed convoy, even despite the
fierce and tenacious resistance of the exhausted American airmen that managed to destroy three of
the Japanese transports . Now bolstering a total of 20000 men , General Hyakutake
had evened the odds against the almost 23000 US soldiers at the disposal of General Vandegrift,
and was now in a perfect position to launch a new offensive to retake the island. Meanwhile,
Vandegrift estimated that the Japanese had landed a total of 15000 soldiers, and although he still
had more men, half of them were in no condition to undertake protracted actions. In that regard,
General Marshall decided to send 50 fighters and one division to secure the Guadalcanal
perimeter and the control of the sea adjacent to the island, although it would take some time for
them to arrive. Another man that asked for more reinforcements was Admiral Ghormley,
crying again that his forces were totally inadequate to meet the situation. In response,
Admiral Nimitz would send a total of 24 submarines to attack the Japanese at sea, but still he would
decide to replace the defeatist commander of the South Pacific Area with Admiral Halsey , who had
by now recovered from his illness. Upon assuming command on October 18, Halsey immediately scuttled
the Ndeni operation and moved the main fleet from Auckland to Noumea. His appointment would
definitely change the situation in the South Pacific , as we’ll see next week.
In the days after the bombardment of Henderson Field, the Japanese would
continue to hammer down the American defenses with a number of air raids, yet the invaders
would face severe anti-aircraft fire and strong resistance from the American airmen. Meanwhile,
the Japanese were predictably planning to carry out a deep penetration march south of the enemy
perimeter culminating in a surprise attack on what they believed was the undefended American rear.
Thus, while the artillery of Major-General Sumiyoshi Tadashi distracted the Americans
at the coast, the 2nd Division of General Maruyama would stealthily traverse the foot of Mount Austen
using a jungle march and vault the upper reaches of the Lunga to attack into the airfield divided
in three forces . Additionally, a battalion of the 228th Regiment was assigned to take Koli Point,
where the Japanese believed that the Americans were building another airfield. On October 12,
Hyakutake sent an engineer party to create the trail through which the 2nd Division would
advance, dubbed the Maruyama Road; and four days later, General Maruyama’s units would step off
along the trail into the jungle. On October 18, as the last elements of the division began the march,
General Nasu’s Left Wing Unit was reaching the Lunga River after a difficult advance. That night,
the Japanese would begin to cross the river in a chest-deep fording point, with darkness masking
their movement from American eyes . By October 20, the 2nd Division had successfully concentrated on
Clear Water Valley , and Maruyama was planning to launch his two-pronged attack in two days.
While the 2nd Division marched in preparation for the offensive, Sumiyoshi was deftly attracting the
attention of the US Marines. Accompanying his relentless bombardment, he sent Colonel Oka’s
124th Regiment to cross the Matanikau south of the one-log bridge towards Mount Austen and then
attack north into the American positions on the eastern bank of the river while Colonel Nakaguma
Nomasu’s 4th Regiment attacked along the coast and constructed demonstrations to simulate the
presence of the bulk of the Japanese forces. By October 20, Oka had crossed the Matanikau and
Nakaguma was east of Point Cruz attracting enemy fire from the mouth of the river.
As Maruyama’s movement hadn’t been discovered by the Marines, traversing totally uninhabited
areas where his passage neither disturbed native villages nor crossed native trails,
Sumiyoshi’s diversions were highly effective and thus the Americans started to get worried
about their vulnerable positions in the west. On October 21, however, the 2nd Division set off
through the jungles towards the line of departure , yet the riotous vegetation would prevent them
from reaching it in time and would force them to leave their artillery behind. Arriving on
the evening of October 22, Maruyama would be forced to delay his attack for 24 hours while
his men continued to move long after dark towards the assembly area. To retain American attention
during the delay, Sumiyoshi would send Oka to seize the high ground east of the Matanikau.
On October 23, as Maruyama’s forces rushed towards the assembly area to meet the deadline of
the attack, Hyakutake ordered Sumiyoshi to secure the right bank of the river as early as possible,
and he also prepared the Koli Detachment to sail at noon. With Nakaguma’s forces already
in position, the attack against the forces led by Lieutenant-Colonel William McKelvy was prepared
to start immediately. Oka’s unit, however, had encountered exceedingly difficult terrain and
had gotten lost while marching east; and the advance of the 2nd Division was also met with
many problems. Without visual reference or patrol reports, Maruyama’s forces were blindly struggling
through the dense jungles to reach the American airfield, and they would again fail to meet the
deadline of the attack. Upon analyzing some aerial photographs of the area, General Kawaguchi also
believed that if he shifted his thrust to the east, he would encounter weak defenses there,
thus improving his chances of success. On his own initiative, he then took a battalion of his Right
Wing Unit and began to move east, chopping their own new trails in an absolutely trackless jungle.
Yet Maruyama found this unacceptable, and he quickly ordered Kawaguchi to stick to the original
plan of attack. When Kawaguchi refused in his characteristic manner, he was promptly relieved
of his command, getting replaced by Colonel Shoji. Despite this, the 2nd Division would fail to get
to the assembly area in time, and Hyakutake would have to postpone the attack for another day.
Sumiyoshi then tried to alert his forces about this as fast as possible,
but Nakaguma’s attack had already started on the afternoon of October 23. As the sunlight dwindled,
Japanese artillery fire suddenly swelled into a heavy barrage on the Matanikau horseshoe before
the Japanese light tanks began their assault in pairs. Despite their strong fire power,
all nine tanks were quickly destroyed by McKelvy’s Marines and by the strong bombardment of the 11th
Marines’ 40 howitzers. Nakaguma’s soldiers were also heavily pummeled by the American artillery,
and they would suffer many losses as their attack foundered without gaining any ground . At the same
time, Vandegrift had to depart in the morning for a meeting with Halsey on Noumea, so Generals
Geiger and Rupertus would have to take temporary command of the American forces on Guadalcanal.
At this point, Sumiyoshi’s expertly-executed deceptions were starting to pay off, as the
American southern front was denuded of one of its battalions , which was instead sent to reinforce
McKelvy’s position. At first light on October 24, after sighting Oka’s unit marching north to
join the attack, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines of Lieutenant-Colonel Herman Hanneken was thus
deployed to a high ridge facing Oka’s advance. But more importantly, the battalion of Colonel
Puller was left alone to guard a sector of 2500 yards, with their main position on the already
blood-soaked Edson’s Ridge. Instead of spreading his three companies evenly from east to west,
Puller decided to remove one platoon from each company to deploy them over the already-fortified
Bloody Ridge while the rest of his forces dispersed along the three remaining sectors.
Later that day, the Americans would receive their first reports of enemy presence to the south,
but it was already too late to change their dispositions. In the meantime,
Maruyama’s forces had finally reached their designated positions by early afternoon,
scheduling the assault to start at 19:00. Yet the heavy rain and cloudy evening would see a
total darkness descend on the battlefield, and for several hours, the Japanese advanced on the
saturated jungle without engaging the defenders. Exhausted and in complete confusion, Shoji’s
Right Wing would stray into a northeasterly course and would fail to join the attack.
Only one of its battalions would get to make a small and unsuccessful attack against Puller’s
Company A, and for some unknown reason, the 17th Army would receive false reports that
Shoji had swiftly seized the airfield during this action . Meanwhile, Nasu’s Left Wing
passed in close proximity to an American outpost and eventually plunged into battle . The leading
company tenaciously managed to press through between two enemy machine-gun emplacements,
yet a string of heavy barbed wire would see their advance completely stopped. In their
erratic behavior , they would be rapidly cut down by the American artillery and machine-gun fire.
The 9th Company that was coming behind them then sheered considerably to the left,
charging straight into the firing lanes of Puller’s Company C. Within about five minutes,
the entire company was laying lifeless in front of the efficient defenders. An hour after midnight,
American artillery also began to fall on Nasu’s path, causing devastating casualties
and sending many men to flee into the jungle. At this point, Puller decided to further
reinforce his four positions with his immediate reserves of the 3rd Battalion, 164th Regiment;
and he would also ask Geiger and Rupertus for more reinforcements. Yet Puller’s artillerymen
were fighting like hell hounds, and only some men from the 3rd Battalion, 29th Regiment would manage
to get through the American barrage by dawn. The Japanese would then get stopped by a barbed wire,
suffering many losses against the American bayonets, though some 100 soldiers would get
to intrude into the positions of the defenders, successfully carving a salient deep into Puller’s
line. To aid their comrades, another Japanese battalion soon tried to join the struggle but
it would be quickly checked at the edge of the jungle. This finally forced Nasu to order
the withdrawal around 07:30, leaving the 100 men deep within enemy lines to be swiftly eradicated
by the Marines. October 25 also dawned to see Admiral Mikawa’s ships converging on Guadalcanal
to blockade the Americans by sea and to escort the Koli Detachment, with the alleged capture of
Henderson Field setting their plans in motion. After being informed that the situation at the
airfield was unknown, however, Mikawa decided to send his two assault units to launch a naval
bombardment of Henderson Field and to call off the invasion of Koli Point. At the same time, Wildcats
were continuously roaring off to engage wave after wave of Zeros and enemy bombers coming both from
Rabaul and from the Japanese carriers nearby, and the airmen would also successfully stop the
enemy naval bombardment by 14:00, destroying the light cruiser Yura and damaging other vessels.
In the meantime, Geiger and Rupertus were redeploying their forces to better counter
the enemy: the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines was sent to close the gap between the Matanikau
horseshoe and the perimeter; Puller’s battalion resettled into the western 1400 yards of the
sector while the 3rd Battalion, 164th Regiment of Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Hall occupied the
eastern 1100-yard segment facing the jungle; and the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines was placed
behind this line as a last reserve. Meanwhile, Maruyama wanted to resume the attack after dark,
placing his 16th Regiment under the command of Nasu’s depleted unit and directing them to support
the men that had made a breakthrough earlier that day, as he still believed that they held on.
Starting at 20:00, Nasu thus restarted his attack, sending the remnants of his 29th Regiment to storm
Puller’s and Hall’s positions in small groups while the 16th Regiment assaulted the boundary
between the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 164th Regiment around midnight.
But as the main column advanced through a narrow trail, two 37mm guns started to wreak havoc among
the Japanese ranks, inflicting over 250 casualties in this terrible carnage. Losses for the invaders
were heavy all along the front, and only a few soldiers would manage to infiltrate the American
defenses, although they would be quickly dealt with by Hall’s Marines and Puller’s reserves.
Most of the Japanese commanders were also killed during this struggle, including General Nasu,
who was mortally wounded by rifle fire and died early the next morning. Yet again, Shoji
would fail to join the attack, as he had received false reports of an American outflanking movement
around his right flank leading him to instead, cover his right flank from an imaginary attack
By early morning, it was clear that Maruyama’s attack had turned into
another unmitigated disaster. More than 1500 Japanese soldiers had been added to the black
list of Edson’s Ridge when Hyakutake decided to halt the attack at 08:00 on October 26.
In contrast, Puller and Hall lost only 45 dead and about 83 wounded in the two days of fighting.
Yet at the same time, Oka was finally launching his attack on the Matanikau front.
Suffering heavy artillery fire for 40 minutes, Hanneken’s men strung tightly across the ridge
as they finally saw Oka’s column approaching shortly before midnight. At 03:00 on October 26,
the Japanese struck all along the front with the main attack directed against the western flank.
The invaders were met by a rain of mortar fire that inflicted many losses , but despite this,
the 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment would manage to dislodge Hanneken’s Company F from the crest.
A strong counterattack unit was then hastily assembled, and they would go on to surprisingly
repel the enemy with a shower of grenades before they could consolidate their grip. By 06:00, the
situation had been stabilized and Oka was forced to retreat. The Japanese had further suffered
more than 700 casualties during the Matanikau actions, while McKelvy and Hanneken only lost
16 killed and 43 wounded. The defeat of this third offensive would administer a severe psychological
blow to the 17th Army as Maruyama limped back to Kokumbona, successfully arriving with his
Left Wing by November 4. Shoji , meanwhile, would be sent east to occupy Koli Point,
also arriving there on November 4 after an arduous and exhausting march through the wilderness.
Vandegrift’s forces had once again held their ground against overwhelming odds and against
the full might of the Imperial Army; yet they were not fully in control of their own fates,
as simultaneously with the struggle ashore, the navies squared off for another carrier battle
at sea, so don’t forget to join us next week as we cover the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in
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