They viewed themselves as the elite of the elite, and in a Marine Corps that prided itself on its abilities, the Raiders and Paratroops were a breed apart. At the start of the campaign, they have been assigned the landing beaches where the Japanese opposition was thought to be the heaviest, and the planners hadproved to be correct. Blooded at Gavutu and Tulagi, they were then shifted across Iron Bottom Sound to reinforce the beleaguered Marine garrison on Guadalcanal.
Among arrival there, the Raider and Parachute Battalions were sent out on a series of amphibious operations to locate and harness the Japanese troops who were now landing on Guadalcanal. Seeking a break in action after several operations, the combinedforce was ordered to an area on the southern face of the Marine perimeter, out of the way of the Japanese attacks on the island. It was, as their commander Colonel Edson remarked: "A quiet spot."
The first Japanese attempt to recapture Henderson Field having ended in disaster with the loss of the Ichiki Force at the Battle of the Tenaru, the Japanese High Command ordered additional forces to the island. The 35th Infantry Brigade, together with those elements of the Ichiki Force which had not yet reached, was to embark on the famed Tokyo Express of Admiral Tanaka, and land by the end of August. This force was consist of
35th Infantry Brigade
- 124th Infantry Regiment
2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment
2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment
Supporting Elements
The new Japanese commander for the island, Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi, decided upon a multi-pronged advance on the Marine defenses. Unlike the ill-fated Colonel Ichiki, who had landed east of the Marine positions and then run head-on into the the Marines, Kawaguchi would divert the Marines with attacks along the coastline from both the east and west, with his strike force moved inland, and hit the Marines by surprise from the south. That this route would require building a track through the jungle, and that most of the supporting weapons would have to be left behind, seems not to have bothered Kawaguchi. He felt (with some justification) that his troops, veterans of China, Borneo, and the Philippines, could overcome the Marines without their use. His final plan called for his force to be split as follows:
Landing at Tasimboko (east side)
- 35th Infantry Brigade Headquarters
- 124th Infantry Regiment
- Antitank Company
Infantry Gun Company
1st and 3rd Infantry Battalions
2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment
2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment (-)
(rear elements of the Ichiki Force)
Engineer Company
Landing at Kokumbona (west side)
- 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment
Landing as planned on August 30-31, the 35th Brigade went ashore on opposite sides of the Marine perimeter. Kawaguchi left behind the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment and 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment (-) with orders to guard his stores and equipment leftbehindatTasimboko, as well as carry out the planned diversion. The remainder of the force, stripped to infantry, started out on the march inland on September 2.
Six days later, on the morning of September 8, Kawaguchi's plan experienced a major setback. Under orders from the commander of the 1st Marine Division, Major General Vandergrift, the 1st Raider Battalion, supported by the 1st Parachute Battalion, carried out a raid on Tasimboko. With most of the Japanese troops having either moved inland, or up the coast toward the Marine lines, the raid overran the Japanese positions there in a sharp engagement. Among the items captured were the antitank, infantry, and battalion guns of the 124th Infantry, as well as food stores and other supplies. (The Marines reported being under fire from these weapons, which suggests their crews were in the area. The captured AT guns were reported as 47mm, the earliest known mention of these weapons.)
The Marines evacuated what items they could, and destroyed what they could not. The 1949 monograph mentions that "in the case of food, by unorthodox but effective means." (A nice way of mentioning that the Marines were ordered to urinate on the Japanese foodstuffs that they could not take with them.) It was after this raid that the Marine Raiders and Paratroopers were returned to their "quiet spot."
The ridge that they were holding was some 1700 yards south of Henderson Field, and one of the few geographic points in the area that was easy to identify. Japanese possession of the ridge would give them an ideal jumping-off point for the attack on Henderson Field, as well as a location from which they could open communications with their fleet and aircraft. As long as the Marines held the ridge, they could deny its usefulness to the enemy. Thus, the stage was set for the Japanese attack.
"A Quiet Spot": Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal September 12-14, 1942
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© Copyright 1993 by Greg Novak.
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