page_title: Guadalcanal Campaign
section_title: Actions along the Matanikau
hierarchical_section_title: Guadalcanal Campaign / Actions along the Matanikau
caption_attribution_description: English: A U.S. Marine patrol crosses the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal in September 1942.
context_page_description: The Guadalcanal Campaign was fought between August 7, 1942, and February 9, 1943, in the Pacific theatre of World War II. This campaign, which was a decisive and strategically important campaign of World War II, was fought on the ground, at sea, and in the air between Allied forces against Imperial Japanese forces. The fighting took place on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands, and was the first major offensive launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.
  On August 7, 1942, Allied forces, mainly from the United States, started landings on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomons with the aim to make supply routes between the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand safer.
  The Battle of Guadalcanal was one of the first long campaigns in the Pacific.
context_section_description: Vandegrift was aware that Kawaguchi's troops had retreated to the area west of the Matanikau and that numerous groups of Japanese troops were in the area between the Lunga Perimeter and the Matanikau River. Vandegrift decided to attack the scattered groups of Japanese troops east of the Matanikau.
  He also wanted to prevent the main group of Japanese soldiers from strengthening their positions so close to the main Marine defenses at Lunga Point.
  The first U.S. Marine attack between 23 and 27 September used soldiers from three U.S. Marine battalions. The attack on Japanese forces west of the Matanikau, was defeated by Kawaguchi's troops under Akinosuke Oka's command. During the fight, three Marine companies were surrounded by Japanese forces and they had many dead and wounded. They escaped with help from the destroyer USS Monssen (DD-436) and landing craft piloted by U.S. Coast Guard personnel.
  In the second attack between 6 and 9 October a larger force of Marines crossed the Matanikau River, attacked newly landed Japanese forces from the 2nd Infantry Division under the command of generals Masao Maruyama and Yumio Nasu. The Marines inflicted caused a lot of deaths and wounding for the Japanese 4th Infantry Regiment.
  The second attack forced the Japanese to retreat from their positions east of the Matanikau. This caused problems with Japanese plans to do a major attack on the U.S. Lunga defenses.
  Between 9 and 11 October the U.S. 1st Battalion 2nd Marines attacked two small Japanese outposts about 30 miles (48 km) east of the Lunga perimeter at Gurabusu and Koilotumaria near Aola Bay. The attacks killed 35 Japanese at a cost of 17 Marines and three U.S. Navy personnel.
caption: A U.S. Marine patrol crosses the Matanikau River in September 1942.
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