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Introduction

World War II was the largest and most violent armed conflict in

the history of mankind. However, the half century that now separates

us from that conflict has exacted its toll on our collective knowledge.

While World War II continues to absorb the interest of military scholars and historians, as well as its veterans, a generation of Americans

has grown to maturity largely unaware of the political, social, and

military implications of a war that, more than any other, united us as a

people with a common purpose.

Highly relevant today, World War II has much to teach us, not

only about the profession of arms, but also about military preparedness, global strategy, and combined operations in the coalition war

against fascism. During the next several years, the U.S. Army will

participate in the nation’s 50th anniversary commemoration of World

War II. The commemoration will include the publication of various

materials to help educate Americans about that war. The works produced will provide great opportunities to learn about and renew pride

in an Army that fought so magnificently in what has been called “the

mighty endeavor.”

World War II was waged on land, on sea, and in the air over several

diverse theaters of operation for approximately six years. The following

essay is one of a series of campaign studies highlighting those struggles

that, with their accompanying suggestions for further reading, are

designed to introduce you to one of the Army’s significant military

feats from that war.

This brochure was prepared in the U.S. Army Center of Military

History by Charles R. Anderson. I hope this absorbing account of that

period will enhance your appreciation of American achievements during World War II.

M. P. W. Stone

Secretary of the Army
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Guadalcanal

7 August 1942–21 February 1943

On 7 December 1941, Imperial Japanese forces turned their war

on the Asian mainland eastward and southward into the Pacific with

simultaneous attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Wake, Guam,

Hong Kong, and the Malay Peninsula. The rapid southward advance

of Japanese armies and naval task forces in the following months

found Western leaders poorly prepared for war in the Pacific.

Nevertheless, they conferred quickly and agreed that, while maintaining the “German first” course they had set against the Axis, they also

had to blunt Japanese momentum and keep open lines of communication to Australia and New Zealand. As the enemy closed on those two

island democracies, the Allies scrambled to shore up defenses, first by

fortifying the Malay Barrier, and then, after Japanese smashed

through that line, by reinforcing an Australian drive north across New

Guinea. To make this first Allied offensive in the Pacific more effective, the Americans mounted a separate attack from a different direction to form a giant pincers in the Southwest Pacific. This decision

brought American forces into the Solomon Islands and U.S. Army

troops onto the island of Guadalcanal.

Strategic Setting

During a series of conferences dating from January 1941 the combined ground, sea, and air chiefs of staff of the United States and the

United Kingdom discussed strategies to defeat the Axis Powers and

listed the priorities that should guide their efforts toward that end.

Although they conferred as allies, the two Atlantic partners had to

refer to themselves as Associated Powers while the United States

remained neutral. As the major decision of these conferences, the

Associated Powers agreed on a Germany-first strategy: the anti-Axis

coalition would concentrate on the defeat of Nazi Germany and Italy

before turning its collective war-making power against Japan. Until

the European Axis partners surrendered, the Associated Powers would

mount only limited offensives in the Pacific to contain the Japanese.

Decisions supportive of the Germany-first priority included a division

of the world into areas of military responsibility reflecting the respec-
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tive military potential of the major powers in various geographical

areas. The British would concentrate their efforts in western Europe

and the Mediterranean theaters, while the United States would carry

the burden of limited offensives in the Pacific.

On 30 March 1942, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff made a further division of responsibility for the War and Navy Departments. The

U.S. Navy assumed operational responsibility for the vast Pacific

Ocean Areas and gave the new command to Admiral Chester W.

Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet since shortly after the

attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Army took operational control of the

Southwest Pacific Area, assigning the command to General Douglas

MacArthur, recently ordered from the Philippines to Australia.

MacArthur’s new command encompassed the seas and archipelagos

south of Formosa and the Carolines, east of the Malay Peninsula, and

west of New Caledonia, an area including the Philippines, the

Netherlands East Indies, Australia, and New Guinea. On 20 April the

Joint Chiefs established a subdivision of the Navy’s Pacific Ocean

Areas command—the South Pacific Area, under Vice Adm. Robert L.

Ghormley—which included New Zealand, important island bases at

the end of the South Pacific ferry route from Hawaii, and the

Solomons, a former British protectorate only 500 miles east of New

Guinea. Ghormley had the mission of blocking the Japanese before

they cut the South Pacific ferry route and severed Australia and New

Zealand from the United States. The line between MacArthur’s

Southwest Pacific Area command and Ghormley’s South Pacific Area

command divided the Solomons at a point 1,100 miles northeast of

Australia. Obviously, any operations in defense of Australia or New

Zealand and the South Pacific ferry route would depend on close

Army-Navy cooperation.

The Allies mounted their first attempt to stop the Japanese at the

Malay Barrier, a 3,500-mile-long line from the Malay Peninsula

through the Netherlands East Indies and ending in the British Solomon

Islands. The four nations contributing men and arms to the Malay

Barrier defense established the American-British-Dutch-Australian

Command (ABDACOM) to direct their effort. Though unsuccessful—

the Japanese punched through the Malay Barrier in January 1942—

ABDACOM gave the Allies valuable experience in coalition warfare

and combined operations.

As Japanese forces rolled on south and east toward Australia, it

became obvious to the Allies and especially to the United States, the

only nation still able to mount meaningful opposition in the Pacific,

that more than token forces would have to be deployed to accomplish
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even the modest goal of containing the enemy. A convoy sent to reinforce the Philippines but diverted to Australia when the Japanese

attacked Pearl Harbor had brought 4,600 air forces and artillery troops

to Australia. Four thousand of these men still awaited deployment.

In January Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall had dispatched another reinforcement to Australia—this one numbering

16,000 men—and placed it under command of Brig. Gen. Alexander

M. Patch. Combined with American forces already in Australia, this

force would form the nucleus of an infantry division and air wing.

The collapse of ABDACOM did not stop dispatch of American

forces to the South Pacific. In the early months of 1942 a number of

separate Army ground units shipped out for New Caledonia, and the

first complete division—the 37th Infantry Division, a National Guard

unit from Ohio—boarded transports for the Fiji Islands. In June the

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff began planning an independent American

offensive, and at the same time deployed Army Air Forces and Marine

Corps air squadrons to support the campaign. In late June and early

July the 1st Marine Division arrived at Wellington, New Zealand. The

increase in Army troop strength led the War Department to organize a

new command for the imminent operations: U.S. Army Forces in the

South Pacific Area, commanded by Maj. Gen. Millard F. Harmon.

While the Americans struggled to send enough men and arms to

protect Australia, the Japanese rapidly consolidated their gains in the

South Pacific. The Imperial Japanese Navy exercised theater control

in the South Pacific through its Southeastern Fleet, headquartered at

Rabaul. The Imperial Japanese Army organized its troops in the area

into the Seventeenth Army, commanded by Lt. Gen. Harukichi

Hyakutake. Imperial forces built naval port facilities, leveled land for

airfields, and fortified jungled hill masses to hold the islands they had

taken and to support subsequent operations on the march to Australia.

Each island group had at least one strongpoint; some had several.

Large bases were built in the Palaus and the Carolines and at Rabaul

in the Bismarcks. Smaller bases held the Marshalls and the Gilberts, in

addition to New Britain and New Ireland in the Bismarcks and Buka,

Bougainville, and Guadalcanal in the Solomons. By the middle of

1942 the American Joint Chiefs faced options of dubious merit: they

could find the Japanese in almost any direction they turned.

Naval action in the spring and summer of 1942 gave American

ground forces and opening into the South Pacific. In the Battles of the

Coral Sea in May and Midway in June, the U.S. Navy seriously damaged the Japanese fleet. In those two engagements the Japanese lost

five carriers and hundreds of aircraft and their pilots, while the
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American loss of two aircraft carriers was also significant. Although

the Coral Sea and Midway engagements did not give the Americans

undisputed access to the South Pacific, they did bring the naval balance of forces close enough that the Americans could realistically consider an amphibious operation.

In this more favorable tactical situation, the Joint Chiefs of Staff

in July proposed a two-pronged assault, one in a northwesterly direction up the Solomon Islands, and the other from Port Moresby on the

south coast of New Guinea north across that island. Of all enemy

strongpoints in the South Pacific, that on Guadalcanal appeared most

threatening because it lay closest to Australia and to the South Pacific

ferry route. If the Americans were going to blunt the Japanese advance

into the South Pacific, Guadalcanal would have to be the place, for no

other island stood between the Solomons and Australia.

Operations

Ninety miles long on a northwest-southeast axis and an average of

twenty-five miles wide, Guadalcanal presented forbidding terrain of

mountains and dormant volcanoes up to eight thousand feet high,

steep ravines and deep streams, and a generally even coastline with no

natural harbors. With the south shores protected by miles of coral

reefs, only the north central coast presented suitable invasion beaches.

There the invading Japanese forces had landed in July, and there the

Americans would have to follow. Once ashore, invaders found many

streams running north out of the mountains to inhibit east-west movement. A hot, humid climate supported malaria and dengue-carrying

mosquitoes and posed continuous threat of fungal infection and various fevers to the unacclimated. The Melanesian population of the

island was generally loyal to Westerners.

Prior to the American landing in early August, the Japanese had

not tried to fortify all terrain features, but concentrated on the north

plain area and prominent peaks. They had built an airfield at Lunga

Point and many artillery positions in nearby hills. At 1,514 feet,

Mount Austen stood as the most important objective to anyone trying

to hold or take the north coast. By August General Hyakutake had a

force of some 8,400 men, most in the 2d Division, to hold the island

and build airfields. Japanese naval superiority in the theater assured

him of sufficient troop inflow—the 38th Division would land later—to

realize his plans for a two-division corps.

In its early stages, the Guadalcanal Campaign was primarily a Navy

and Marine Corps effort. Directly subordinate to Admiral Nimitz,
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Admiral Ghormley commanded both Navy and Army units. On the

Navy side of the joint command, Maj. Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift

(USMC) commanded the 1st Marine Division, the assault landing force.

Army troops committed to Guadalcanal came under command of Maj.

Gen. Millard F. Harmon, as Commanding General, South Pacific.

On the morning of 7 August 1942, the 1st Marine Division followed heavy naval preparatory fires and landed across the north

beaches east of the Tenaru River. In a three-month struggle marked by

moderate battlefield but high disease casualties and accompanied by

sea battles that first interrupted and finally secured resupply lines, the

marines took the airfield and established a beachhead roughly six

miles wide and three miles deep.

On 13 October the 164th Infantry, the first Army unit on

Guadalcanal, came ashore to reinforce the marines and took a 6,600-

yard sector at the east end of the American perimeter. Commanded by

Col. Bryant E. Moore, the 164th had come through the South Pacific

ferry route in January to New Caledonia. There, the 164th joined the

182d Infantry and 132d Infantry Regiments, in addition to artillery,

engineer, and other support units, to form a new division called the

“Americal,” a name derived from the words America and New

Caledonia. Until the Americal commander, Maj. Gen. Alexander M.

Patch, and other units of the division arrived, the 164th would fight

with the marines.

The newest American unit on Guadalcanal, the 164th moved into

the southeast corner of the perimeter. On the night of 23 October,

Moore and his troops heard the Japanese begin their attempt to retake

the Lunga Point airfield, renamed Henderson Field by the marines.

Two nights later the Japanese hit the 164th, running out of the dark

jungles yelling “Banzai,” throwing grenades, and firing every weapon

they could carry. Despite armor, artillery, air, and naval support, the

Japanese could achieve no more than temporary breakthroughs at isolated points. The men of the 164th put up a much stiffer defense than

the Japanese expected of a green unit, and with the marines repulsed

the enemy with heavy losses while losing 26 killed, 52 wounded, and

4 missing. Once the enemy attack failed, Vandegrift had four experienced regiments manning a secure line.

General Vandegrift now moved into the second phase of his operations on Guadalcanal: pushing out his perimeter far enough so that

Japanese artillery could not reach Henderson Field and overrunning

the Seventeenth Army headquarters at Kokumbona, nine miles west of

the airfield. On the morning of 1 November, following naval, air, and

field artillery fire, Marine units began the attack both east and west.
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Visale

Tenaro

Cape Esperance

Doma Cove

Pt Cruz

Lunga Pt

Koli Pt

Mt Austen

RED

BEACH

Beaufort

Bay

A

S e a l a r k C h a n n e l

SOLOMON SEA

Kokumbona Tenaru

Verahue

Marovovo

On the 4th the Army’s 1st Battalion, 164th Infantry, joined the western

attack, while the 2d and 3d Battalions, 164th, moved to the eastern

front. The Army battalions assisted in a major victory during 9–12

November when they trapped against the sea 1,500 enemy troops who

had just landed at Koli Point. Soldiers and marines killed half the

enemy force in a two-day fight; the rest escaped into the jungle toward

Mount Austen, six miles southwest of Henderson Field.

Vandegrift suddenly stopped his attacks in mid-November when

he learned the Japanese would soon attempt a major reinforcement via

the “Tokyo Express,” the almost nightly run of supply-laden destroyers to the island. As expected, the enemy transports came, bearing the

38th Division for General Hyakutake. In the four-day naval Battle of

Guadalcanal, the U.S. Navy so seriously damaged the task force that
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Aola Bay

ELEVATION IN FEET

0 1500 3000 4500 and Above

Landing Site

Airfield

0 15

Miles

GUADALCANAL

7 August 1942

the enemy never again tried a large-unit

reinforcement. Only 4,000 troops, of

10,000, reached land, and the 38th

Division had to function as a large but

underequipped regiment.

The attack toward Kokumbona

resumed on 18 November with the

164th Infantry, two battalions of the

newly arrived 182d Infantry, and a

Marine regiment. After advancing only

one mile against strong opposition, the

attack stalled on the 25th. The 164th

Infantry alone lost 117 killed and 625

wounded or sick. Rather than continue

the costly push into the jungle,

American commanders decided to await

reinforcements.

But rather than receiving reinforcements, the Americans lost effective

combat units in December. Vandegrift’s

battle-hardened but disease-wracked 1st

Marine Division boarded ships for a

much-deserved reconstitution, leaving

General Patch in command of all

American units on the island. Despite

this temporary reduction, Patch wanted

to mount a limited offensive before the

enemy strengthened positions any further. He planned to take Mount Austen

to secure both Henderson Field and his left flank for the next push

toward Kokumbona. Forces available for the Mount Austen operation

included the complete Americal Division, the 147th Infantry, two

Marine regiments, and four field artillery battalions.

Patch gave the mission of taking Mount Austen to the 132d

Infantry, which had arrived on the island on 8 December. With its 3d

Battalion in the lead, the 132d kicked off the assault the morning of the

17th. The battalion had plenty of artillery support on call but was easily

pinned down in the foothills by rifle and machine-gun fire. On the 19th

the battalion commander led a patrol forward in an attempt to locate

enemy positions; he found one machine-gun position which killed him

and scattered his patrol. The 132d thrashed through the jungle for five

more days before locating the main enemy strongpoint, called the Gifu
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position after a Japanese prefecture. Inside the Gifu, five hundred troops

manned over forty log-reinforced bunkers arranged in a horseshoe on

the west side of Mount Austen. During the last ten days of 1942 the

132d hammered Gifu repeatedly, making little progress at a cost of 34

killed and 279 other casualties, mostly sick. Finally, on 1–2 January

1943, the 1st and 3d Battalions attacked from the north while the 2d

Battalion swung around and attacked from the south to overrun most of

the Gifu strongpoint and secure the west slopes of Mount Austen. Now

the Americans could move against Kokumbona without fear of enemy

observation or fire from the rear. In the 22-day battle for Mount Austen

the 132d Infantry had killed between 400 and 500 Japanese but in the

process lost 112 killed and 268 wounded.

During the last weeks of 1942 and the first weeks of 1943 the

Americans strengthened their toehold on Guadalcanal by reorganizing

and bringing in fresh troops. On 2 January General Harmon activated

Change of command on Guadalcanal, December 1942. Maj.

Gen. Alexander M. Patch, center, succeeds Maj. Gen. Alexander

A. Vandegrift (USMC), right. Col. R. Hall Jeschke (USMC)

briefs them. (USMC photograph)
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a new headquarters, XIV Corps, and assigned General Patch to its

command. The 25th Infantry Division and the rest of the 2d Marine

Division joined the Americal Division on the island to fill out a threedivision corps in preparation for a January offensive. Patch now

planned to destroy the Japanese on Guadalcanal rather than simply to

push them farther away from the Henderson Field perimeter. With the

newly arrived units, he could expect to make more progress than in the

previous two months. Japanese troop strength on the island had

peaked at 30,000 in November, but then fell to about 25,000 in

December. With supplies from the Tokyo Express steadily falling and

malaria casualties rising, General Hyakutake had no choice but to

scale down his objectives.

On 10 January XIV Corps began its first offensive of the new

year, with Patch pointing almost all of his units west. Maj. Gen. J.

Lawton Collins’ 25th Division took over the Gifu–Mount Austen area

and moved west across the Matanikau River against a hill mass called

Galloping Horse after its appearance from the air. The 2d Marine

Division tied in with Collins’ right flank and advanced west along the

coast toward Kokumbona. Most of the Americal Division took over

the Henderson Field perimeter, except the 182d Infantry, one battalion

of the 132d Infantry, and division artillery, all of which supported the

corps attack.

Col. William A. McCulloch’s 27th Infantry led the assault on

Galloping Horse at first light on 10 January. In support, six field

artillery battalions tried an innovation Collins hoped would deny the

enemy the usual warning given when rounds fired from the nearest

battery struck before those of the main concentration, allowing troops

in the open to seek cover and move equipment. Called “time on target,” the technique depended on careful firing sequencing so that all

initial projectiles from whatever direction and distance landed at the

same time. Thereafter the batteries would fire into the kill zone continuously but at irregular intervals through an extended period, thirty

minutes in this case. The technique seemed to be effective, for soldiers

later advancing through such zones found little opposition.

The 1st and 3d Battalions led off the 27th Infantry attack, hitting

the Galloping Horse at the forelegs and tail. In the early hours the battalions had more trouble with the steep cliffs, deep ravines, and thick

jungle of the island. As they moved up the slopes of objectives they

found stiff enemy resistance from hidden bunkers. Expecting fire from

rifles, machine guns, and small mortars, the Americans were somewhat surprised that the Japanese had managed to muscle the much

heavier 37-mm. and 70-mm. pieces atop the sharp hills. The 1st
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Visale

Marovovo

Verahue

Tenaro

Cape Esperance

Doma Cove

Tenamba R

Tambalego R

Segilau R

Umasani R

Bonegi R

Nueha R

2/132

1 FEB

7 FEB

9 FEB

8 FEB

I Co/147th Inf Regt

JAPANESE EVACUATION

8 FEB

NIGHTS OF 1–2, 4–5, 7–8 FEB

Battalion made better progress than the 3d, but by the second day both

units experienced another problem: a shortage of water. The

Americans had expected that the many streams on mountainous

Guadalcanal would provide water inland and were surprised to find

most stream beds dry. The need to transport water threatened to slow

operations seriously.

At the end of the second day the 3d Battalion slumped into a night

position more than 800 meters short of the head of Galloping Horse,
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Kokumbona

Tenaru

Mt Austen

ELEVATION IN FEET

0 1500 3000 4500 and Above

Front Line

0 3

Miles

XIV CORPS ADVANCE

10 January–9 February 1943

Pt Cruz

Lunga Pt Koli Pt

Poha R

Matanikau R

Lunga R

Tenaru R

Nalimbiu

Il

R

u R

Airfield

24 JAN

XIV

CORPS

18 JAN

10 JAN

exhausted by enemy resistance and water shortage. Colonel

McCulloch pulled the unit back for a rest and moved the 2d Battalion

up to continue the advance along the body of the Horse. Company E

soon stalled against a ridgeline between Hills 52 and 53. For the men

involved, the battle now evolved into intense struggles between fire

teams and individuals in the hot jungle and steep ravines.

Capt. Charles W. Davis saw only one way to end the stalemate.

Taking four men and all the grenades they could carry, he led his party
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in a crawl up to the enemy strongpoint. The Japanese threw grenades

first, but they failed to explode. Davis and his men threw theirs, then

charged before the enemy could recover from the blasts. Firing rifles

and pistols into the position, Davis and his men finished off the stubborn enemy, and Company E swept up the ridge. For his initiative

Davis was awarded the Medal of Honor.

As if in reward, a heavy rain began shortly after Company E took

the ridge. Their thirst relieved, the men of the 27th Infantry prepared to

take the rest of the Galloping Horse. After Colonel McCulloch put the

fire of three artillery battalions on Hill 53, the head of the Horse, company-size assaults from two directions swept forward through the feeble

resistance of starving and sickly Japanese. By the afternoon of 13

January McCulloch’s men held the entire Galloping Horse hill mass.

On the same day the 27th Infantry assaulted Galloping Horse, the

1st and 3d Battalions of another 25th Division regiment, the 35th,

swung around the Gifu strongpoint and moved west against another

hill mass, the Sea Horse. The regimental commander, Col. Robert B.

McClure, opened the attack by sending his 3d Battalion toward Hill

43, the head of the Sea Horse. For the first seven hours of the attack

The Galloping Horse,

a major Japanese

strongpoint. (DOD

photograph)
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the troops had more trouble with the terrain than the enemy, until

Company K tried to cross a stream between the head and body of the

Sea Horse. Anxious to continue the advance, the Americans waded

into the water before posting adequate fire cover. With the company

split over the two sides of the stream, Japanese machine gunners

began firing on the inviting target below. Fortunately for the

Americans, two men in the company saved the situation. Sgt. William

G. Fournier and T5g. Lewis Hall turned a machine gun on the enemy,

now mounting an infantry rush on the disorganized Americans, and

broke up the attack before receiving mortal wounds. For saving

Company K from disaster, Fournier and Hall were awarded posthumous Medals of Honor.

After Company K regrouped, the 3d Battalion attack picked up

momentum. By nightfall on 10 January the Americans had half the

Sea Horse surrounded, and Colonel McClure began relieving 3d

Battalion companies with those from the 1st Battalion. The next day

the attack resumed against weak resistance. When the Japanese

massed machine-gun fire on the 3d Battalion, the 1st Battalion

rejoined the attack, and the two units drove the enemy completely off

the Sea Horse by late afternoon on the 11th. In four days of combat

25th Division troops had taken two important objectives in their

January offensive. To consolidate his gains in the Galloping

Horse–Sea Horse area, General Collins brought forward his last

maneuver regiment—the 161st Infantry. During the third week of

January the fresh regiment fought several sharp firefights to clear isolated stream beds and ravines between the major objectives now in

American hands.

While its two companion battalions in the 35th Infantry moved

against the Sea Horse, the 2d Battalion had stayed a mile back to complete the difficult job begun by the 132d Infantry in December: clearing the Gifu area. By 10 January the battalion estimated it was facing

a lone enemy strongpoint held by one hundred troops with ten

machine guns. Two days later, with the Japanese defenders surrounded

but offering still more resistance, the regiment doubled the estimate of

enemy strength in the objective. After three attempts to break into the

area, Colonel McClure relieved the 2d Battalion commander on the

16th and prepared new thrusts at the strongpoint. Besides heavier

artillery barrages, the Americans added psychological operations to

their arsenal. For three days from the 15th the 25th Division intelligence staff beamed Japanese-language surrender appeals into the Gifu.

But the Japanese were determined to fight to the death, and the

Americans resumed the yard-by-yard struggle against their well-pre-
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pared enemy. On the 21st three Marine light tanks joined the assault

and tipped the balance of combat power. The next day the tanks

punched through the northeast side of the strongpoint and roared on

out the south side, along the way knocking out eight machine-gun

positions and opening a 200-yard hole in the enemy line. Still unwilling to surrender, the Japanese mounted a desperate attack the night of

22–23 January. The 2d Battalion troops turned back the enemy with

heavy losses and the next morning mopped up the Gifu.

Three days after the 27th Infantry and 35th Infantry assaulted the

Galloping Horse and Sea Horse, the marines kicked off their advance

along the coast. In its first operation as a complete unit, the 2d Marine

Division moved west on a two-regiment front on 13 January. After

gaining over 800 yards at a cost of six killed and sixty-one wounded,

the marines stalled on the 14th under heavy enemy machine-gun and

mortar fire from ravines to their left. Adding tanks the next day

helped little, but a new weapon—flamethrowers—proved more effective in driving enemy crews away from weapons. By the 17th the

marines had regained their momentum. In five days of combat they

killed 643 Japanese and took 71 machine guns, 3 artillery pieces, and

a large quantity of rifles and ammunition. The next day they stopped a

mile west of Point Cruz to await further orders from General Patch.

By 18 January XIV Corps had pushed two miles west of the

Matanikau River and over four miles inland. In taking the major

objectives of Galloping Horse, Sea Horse, the Gifu, and the coastal

strip beyond Point Cruz, the XIV Corps killed 1,900 Japanese while

losing fewer than 200 killed and 400 wounded. Enemy survivors not

yet immobilized by malaria or starvation were reeling back toward

their last stronghold on Guadalcanal, Seventeenth Army headquarters

at Kokumbona.

To complete the destruction of Japanese forces on Guadalcanal,

General Patch planned a follow-up offensive to begin on 2 January.

The renewed attack involved a reorientation of XIV Corps toward a

point on the coast three miles west of the new perimeter: the village of

Kokumbona. To bring his forces to bear on Kokumbona, Patch

planned to swing the 25th Division from a direct westerly axis to a

northwesterly heading. Then, as that division neared the coast, the 2d

Marine Division and other Army units between it and the 25th would

have to reduce their front. Thus, by the time the Americans reached

Kokumbona, XIV Corps would be pushing a spearpoint only two regiments wide into Japanese defenses.

Because every division in his corps had suffered substantial losses

from combat and malaria, Patch also had to reorganize his remaining
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regiments. The result was the Composite Army-Marine (CAM)

Division, consisting of two Army regiments, the 147th and 182d, and

one Marine, the 6th, plus artillery battalions from both the Americal

and 2d Marine Divisions. Other support would come from Navy

destroyers offshore and the 2d Marine Air Wing. The remaining regiments from the Americal and 2d Marine Divisions would man the

American perimeter east of the Matanikau River. The CAM Division

would advance west along the coast on a 3,000-yard front while the

25th Division executed its more involved swing to the northwest

toward Kokumbona.

Finally, early in January, even before his renewed offensive began,

Patch assembled a small force in an effort to ensure that no Japanese

escaped Guadalcanal to fight another day. Consisting of Company I,

147th Infantry, reinforced by one platoon from Company M and antitank, heavy weapons, and engineer detachments and commanded by

Capt. Charles E. Beach, the unit had the mission of cutting off a possible enemy withdrawal over a 20-mile-long native trail to the Beaufort

Japanese bunker and foxhole in the Gifu position. (DA photograph)
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Bay area. Part of Beach’s force sailed aboard Navy landing craft

around the western end of the island, while the remainder took a trail

network into the hills; the unit assumed its blocking force position on

the trail by mid-January.

After a heavy artillery and naval gunfire bombardment, XIV

Corps moved out toward Kokumbona at 0630 on 22 January. On the

corps left, the 25th Division’s 161st Infantry soon bogged down in

deep jungle. On the corps right, the CAM Division ran into a heavy

enemy machine-gun concentration after moving only 1,000 yards.

Only the 27th Infantry (25th Division), between the 161st Infantry and

the CAM Division, made good progress, covering nearly two miles in

less than three hours.

Shortly after his division had begun its attack, General Collins

noticed the Japanese offered much less opposition than expected in his

27th Infantry sector. Showing the initiative that would later bring him a

corps command and after the war lift him to the chief of staff’s office,

Collins jumped in a jeep, raced to the front, and changed his plan of

attack. Despite the danger of allowing one regiment to advance far

ahead of its neighbor—the enemy could easily surround the forward

unit—Collins perceived the Japanese were incapable of taking advantage of his vulnerability, and he told Colonel McCulloch to push 27th

Infantry as far and as fast as possible. The 27th had already outrun its

communications wire and would soon leave its artillery support fan, but

Collins still saw no reason to wait. With signalmen frantically laying

new wire and artillerymen scrambling to displace batteries forward, the

men kept going. By nightfall the 27th Infantry had gained over three

miles and occupied the high ground overlooking Kokumbona.

Along the coast the CAM Division began its attack at the same

time with a three-regiment front: the 6th Marines on the beach, the

147th Infantry in the center, and the 182d Infantry abreast of 25th

Division on the left. For the first 1,000 yards terrain posed the main

problem, but soon the marines came under heavy machine-gun and

antitank fire from an estimated 250 Japanese on Hills 98 and 99.

On the morning of the 23d McCulloch’s 27th Infantry pushed out

of the jungle to the beach immediately east of Kokumbona, a move

which trapped the enemy pocket holding up the CAM Division column. Then, while the CAM Division hammered the trapped Japanese,

two 27th Infantry columns, one from the east, the other from the

south, broke into Kokumbona in midafternoon. The Japanese, now

more interested in escaping farther west of the village, offered little

resistance, and by late afternoon the Americans were examining hastily abandoned Seventeenth Army documents and equipment. The next
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day CAM Division troops killed over two hundred enemy and captured three 150-mm. guns, a light tank, and other weapons in claiming

Hills 98 and 99 and moving into Kokumbona.

Anxious to destroy the remaining Japanese before they could prepare defensive fortifications similar to those of Gifu, General Collins

sent the 27th Infantry in pursuit beyond Kokumbona. By late afternoon on the 25th McCulloch’s men had fought through rearguard

actions of varying effectiveness to reach the Poha River, a mile west

of Kokumbona. Now the campaign became a race between Japanese

survivors trying to reach possible evacuation at Cape Esperance, seventeen miles west of the Poha River, and XIV Corps attempting to trap

and annihilate them. McCulloch’s victorious but exhausted 27th

Infantry stopped at the Poha while the CAM Division moved through

to join the chase. Alternating the lead attack position, the 147th

Infantry, the 182d Infantry, and the 6th Marines progressed from one

to three miles a day through weak resistance. By 8 February these

units had reached Doma Cove, nine miles beyond the Poha River and

the same distance short of Cape Esperance.

Despite the fact that Captain Beach’s Beaufort Bay trail-blocking

Lack of unloading equipment on beaches caused supply problems inland. (DA photograph)
22

force had seen no Japanese since January, General Patch still saw the

possibility of an enemy escape from the west end of the island. In a

second effort to deny the enemy that option, Patch assembled a task

force around the 2d Battalion, 132d Infantry, and sent it around the

west end of the island by Navy landing craft to Verahue, ten miles

southwest of Cape Esperance. Commanded by Col. Alexander M.

George, the force began moving north along the coast on 2 February

with the intention of meeting the CAM Division sometime in the next

few days. Though the Japanese discovered George’s troops and surmised their mission, they offered little opposition; George’s men had

more trouble pushing their supply trucks through mud and jungle. But

on 7 February a Japanese rifleman found a prime target, wounding

Colonel George. Lt. Col. George F. Ferry took over, and by the 8th his

men stood less than two miles from Cape Esperance. The next day the

1st Battalion, 161st Infantry, swept over six miles west through fast

dissolving opposition while Ferry’s battalion moved over three miles

up from the southwest. The two units met at Tenaro on Cape

Esperance but found only a few stragglers. Abandoned enemy equipment and landing craft on the beach explained the empty trap: the

Japanese had evacuated most of those who had reached Cape

Esperance, about 13,000 troops in all, according to prisoners of war.

Analysis

Victory on Guadalcanal brought important strategic gains to the

Americans and their Pacific allies but at high cost. Combined with the

American-Australian victory at Buna on New Guinea, success in the

Solomons turned back the Japanese drive toward Australia and staked

out a strong base from which to continue attacks against Japanese

forces, especially those at Rabaul, the enemy’s main base in the South

Pacific. Most important for future operations in the Pacific, the

Americans had stopped reacting to Japanese thrusts and taken the initiative themselves. These gains cost the Americans 1,592 killed in

action and 4,183 wounded, with thousands more disabled for varying

periods by disease. Entering the campaign after the amphibious phase,

the two Army divisions lost 550 killed and 1,289 wounded. For the

Japanese, losses were even more traumatic: 14,800 killed in battle,

another 9,000 dead from disease, and about 1,000 taken prisoner. On

Guadalcanal General Hyakutake’s troops gave American fighting men

a chilling introduction to the character of the Japanese soldier: willing

to fight to the death rather than surrender. Both navies lost twenty-four

ships during the campaign but with a smaller industrial base to replace
23

them, Japanese losses were more significant. Even more costly to

Japan was the loss of over six hundred aircraft and pilots.

U.S. Army-Navy coordination began poorly due in part to different views of the campaign’s purpose. Ground commanders saw the

campaign as an amphibious operation with the normal division of joint

responsibilities. That is, naval forces would secure the seas around the

objective for as long as it took ground forces to clear Guadalcanal of

enemy. But higher Navy commanders viewed the operation as more of

a raid than a formal amphibious campaign. They reserved the right to

react to enemy naval operations as they saw fit without offering uninterrupted fire support to forces ashore, and they acted on that view by

leaving Guadalcanal waters twice, in August and October. Later,

Army and Navy commanders in the theater arrived at methods of

operation generally satisfactory for the initial effort in a major war.

For Army tactical leaders, Navy support proved most valuable when

ground units operated close enough to the coast that destroyers’ guns

could reach into the jungled ravines so well fortified by the Japanese.

Navy and Marine air support was always welcome but not always well

aimed. On one occasion a dive bomber dropped ordnance on an

infantry unit advancing toward Galloping Horse. Fortunately, such

incidents proved the rare exception in close air support missions.

Intelligence about the island of Guadalcanal and Japanese forces

on the island proved inadequate throughout the campaign. Before the

effort began, the best information on terrain and soil conditions came

from missionaries and planters expelled by the Japanese. But the recollections of these sincere but untrained observers were often of dubious quality, most of them more impressionistic than factual. As a

result, ground commanders had to fight on Guadalcanal without accurate maps.

Once the fighting began, information continued to come from a

jerrybuilt system of the most and least sophisticated methods available. At one end of the spectrum was the highly developed effort to

intercept and to decipher enemy naval radio traffic. At the other was a

network of “coastwatchers,” native and Western informers in the jungle notifying the Americans by radio of Japanese ship and troop

movements. In between, Generals Harmon, Vandegrift, and Patch

could apply a number of military methods, including aerial photographic reconnaissance. On Guadalcanal the coastwatchers performed

valuable service, but they could not be permanently integrated into

military and naval intelligence systems. While no one doubted the

courage of the coastwatchers, their communications with the ground

commanders were indirect and intermittent, and they often had little
24

more than an extremely localized view of the situation.

Even in their estimates of the situation on the ground, the four

American division commanders in the campaign frequently underestimated the forces they faced, either in size or strength of fortification.

The most grievous example occurred at the Gifu, where an enemy

pocket originally estimated at 100 men with 10 crew-served weapons

turned out to contain over 500 with 52 large weapons. The defenders

ultimately held off five American battalions for a month, delaying the

advance west long enough for the Japanese to evacuate 13,000 men

from the island.

In their first combat experience, XIV Corps infantrymen carried

out their missions with the mix of enthusiasm, hesitation, and incompetence characteristic of inexperienced troops. In the early stages of

the campaign the troops allowed the Japanese to pin them down too

often with light weapons. Compounding the error, commanders on the

scene showed reluctance to resume the attack without a heavy artillery

barrage. While this pattern of behavior may have faithfully conformed

to contemporary doctrine, it played to a particular strength of the

enemy. Artillery delays used up daylight hours, and the Japanese soon

learned that American commanders did not like to initiate assaults in

the last two or three hours before sunset. In contrast, the Japanese

seemed to relish the onset of darkness and relied extensively on night

movement to mount counterattacks and to position assault units and

supporting arms for the next day. Until American soldiers stopped

viewing sunset as the end of the tactical day and gained more expertise in night operations, they would continue to take unnecessary losses at the hands of their more experienced enemy.

Sloppy execution of routine infantry techniques cost some units

unnecessary casualties. While approaching the Sea Horse on 10

January, Company K of the 35th Infantry began crossing a stream

before properly checking the site or placing covering weapons on the

flanks. With half the company on one bank and half on the other, the

Japanese fired on the disorganized and vulnerable unit. Careful application of the basic principles of tactical movement, a responsibility of

company grade officers and NCOs, would have prevented this disaster. Instead, it took two posthumous Medal of Honor performances

to save the day for this company.

On another occasion a badly handled communication cost the 25th

Division valuable time. During attacks on the Gifu strongpoint on 15

January, the executive officer of the 2d Battalion, 35th Infantry,

ordered one platoon of Company G to withdraw. The order rapidly

spread by word of mouth, and soon the entire battalion withdrew, cost-
25

ing the unit a full day’s advance.

The jungle environment of Guadalcanal forced Americans to fight

at very close quarters, a difficult but realistic adjustment to make, for

subsequent campaigns in the Pacific would present the same conditions. Enemy positions usually were not visible until attacking troops

had closed within fifty feet. The Japanese proved masters of using natural materials found in the jungle to build strong, as well as nearly

invisible, fortified positions. Units which thought they had discovered

one or two machine-gun positions often found themselves attacking

half a dozen or more. And once a network of positions was identified,

the bunkers—some with reinforcing logs up to two feet in diameter—

proved impermeable to all but direct hits by the largest caliber ordnance. Nevertheless, XIV Corps troops did not hesitate to attack such

positions and in so doing innovated effective techniques against them,

including flamethrowers to reach into narrow openings.

Fire support in various forms—air, naval, and field artillery—

remained plentiful throughout the campaign, although in the early

weeks air squadrons were occupied with enemy aircraft. Japanese survivors expressed surprise at the duration of preparatory fires. Even a

“A New Air Strip Being Laid Down” by Aaron Bohrod. (Army

Art Collection)
26

single battalion attacking a minor position on the way to a major

objective could call for as much as half an hour’s fire. Especially

effective in disorienting enemy troops was time-on-target artillery fire,

which made extremely difficult the detection of American battery

locations, essential for counterbattery fire missions. But American

infantrymen found that plentiful artillery support did not translate into

an immediate reduction in enemy opposition. Elimination of enemy

bunkers required direct hits, a low percentage result for most types of

fire support, including air strikes even when pilots could see targets.

As assaults moved deeper inland, the terrain of Guadalcanal began to

affect fire support. Artillery fire frequently overshot enemy positions

in deep ravines or on steep hillsides. A field expedient proved partially

effective: propping antitank weapons and pack howitzers against steep

slopes to achieve higher angles of fire.

One type of fire support—tanks—did not play a major role on

Guadalcanal. Although the few tanks present occasionally proved

valuable in reducing enemy bunkers, neither Marine nor Army forces

had enough tanks on the island to mount sizable tank-infantry assaults.

Nor did the terrain of Guadalcanal permit the maneuver of armored

columns. Army commanders and troops would have to find more level

battlefields to learn armor infantry coordination. Another type of

tracked vehicle—the bulldozer—performed more valuable service for

the XIV Corps in the long run by assisting the engineers in airfield and

road construction.

Supply proved a major problem throughout the campaign,

although the character of the issue changed as the battle continued. In

the early stages of the campaign the perennial military problem of supply volume threatened to limit operations. But once the Army-Marine

invasion force secured the Henderson Field perimeter and began to

move inland, the delivery of supplies became the larger difficulty.

Without port facilities, supplies reached the troops only after a series

of time consuming and labor-intensive equipment transfers. Supplies

were first unloaded from Navy ships offshore into lighters for the trip

to the beach. There American service support personnel transferred

the tonnage to trucks that hauled it inland to several dumps on roads

under construction. From the dumps supplies had to be hand carried,

by both Americans and native laborers, to using units. As the fighting

moved farther inland the distance between dumps and front line

lengthened and road building could not progress as fast as assault units

advanced, especially when Japanese forces began to withdraw to their

evacuation points.

American troops temporarily solved the distribution problem by
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using the many streams and rivers on the island. Loading supplies into

small boats, some of them captured Japanese craft, Americans pushed

the craft through the water as close to the tactical units as possible.

Not described in any field manual, the transport expedient called forth

a linguistic innovation: “pusha-maru,” combining an English verb and

the Japanese suffix attached to ships’ names.

Several troublesome aspects of Army performance on

Guadalcanal could not be addressed by more training or troop innovation. Improvements in some areas would have to wait on technological

and organizational developments. Ship-to-shore logistics did not keep

up with operations ashore because of a shortage of amphibian tractors

and landing craft equipped with drop-down bow ramps. Reserving

such craft for assault echelons forced the laborious series of unloadings and reloadings that delayed receipt of essential supplies at the

fighting fronts. Solution of this multifaceted problem called for a high

degree of joint cooperation, for it touched on Navy procedures of

embarkation and debarkation as well as Army methods of land transportation and road building. An improved technological base for combat operations in the Pacific held the promise of significantly reducing

the cost in time and casualties of taking enemy-held islands.

The greatest single factor reducing troop effectiveness on

Guadalcanal was disease, particularly malaria. For every man who

became a casualty in combat, five fell to malaria. Until a more effective prophylaxis became available, tropical diseases would continue to

degrade the efficiency of ground operations in tropical areas.

The Guadalcanal Campaign also made clear that whether subsequent fighting in the Pacific took place in an Army or a Navy theater,

success would depend on a high degree of interservice cooperation.

The early stages of the campaign were dominated by Navy-Marine

components of the interservice team. But as the battle continued,

Army units assumed the burden of interservice coordination and, in

the end, secured the American victory on the ground. The campaign

also made clear the scale of operations the Americans would have to

mount to take sizable island outposts from the Japanese: between fifty

and one hundred thousand troops, at least half a dozen air squadrons

of high-altitude bombers, dive bombers, and fighters, and between two

and three hundred Navy ships and smaller craft of all types. In coming

months fresh Army divisions would form new interservice teams and,

applying techniques demonstrated by the XIV Corps, continue the

island march to Japan.
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Further Readings

The Guadalcanal Campaign is one of the most extensively written

about of all in World War II, with more than one volume published in

each of several categories: official histories, journalistic views, and

personal accounts. The authoritative treatment remains John Miller, jr.

Guadalcanal: The First Offensive (1949), a volume in the series

United States Army in World War II. Two accounts published during

the war have attracted readers from three generations: Richard

Tregaskis, Guadalcanal Diary (1943) and Ira Wolfert, Battle for the

Solomons (1943). More recent works include Robert Edward Lee,

Victory at Guadalcanal (1981), Herbert C. Merillat, Guadalcanal

Remembered (1982), and Richard B. Frank, Guadalcanal (1990).

PIN : 070548–000

CMH Pub 72–8

Cover: Americal Division troops on Guadalcanal.

(DA photograph)