_On the occasion of the visit of the Commandant, MajGen Thomas Holcomb,
some of Operation Watchtower’s major staff and command officers took
time out from the fighting to pose with him. From left, front row:
Col William J. Whaling (Whaling Group); Col Amor LeRoy Sims (CO, 7th
Marines); Col Gerald C. Thomas (Division Chief of Staff); Col Pedro
A. del Valle (CO, 11th Marines); Col William E. Riley (member of
Gen Holcomb’s party); MajGen Roy S. Geiger (CG, 1st Marine Aircraft
Wing); Gen Holcomb; MajGen Ralph J. Mitchell (Director of Aviation,
Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps); BGen Bennet Puryear, Jr. (Assistant
Quartermaster of the Marine Corps); Col Clifton B. Cates (CO, 1st
Marines). Second row (between Whaling and Sims): LtCol Raymond P.
Coffman (Division Supply Officer); Maj James C. Murray (Division
Personnel Officer); (behind Gen Holcomb) LtCol Merrill B. Twining
(Division Operations Officer)._]
This news of future events had little chance of diverting Vandegrift’s
attention when he flew back to Guadalcanal, for the Japanese were in
the midst of their planned offensive. On the 20th, an enemy patrol
accompanied by two tanks tried to find a way through the line held
by Lieutenant Colonel William N. McKelvy, Jr.’s 3d Battalion, 1st
Marines. A sharpshooting 37mm gun crew knocked out one tank and the
enemy force fell back, meanwhile shelling the Marine positions with
artillery. Near sunset the next day, the Japanese tried again, this
time with more artillery fire and more tanks in the fore, but again
a 37mm gun knocked out a lead tank and discouraged the attack. On 22
October, the enemy paused, waiting for Maruyama’s force to get into
position inland. On the 23d, planned as the day of the _Sendai_’s main
attack, the Japanese dropped a heavy rain of artillery and mortar fire
on McKelvy’s positions near the Matanikau River mouth. Near dusk, nine
18-ton medium tanks clanked out of the trees onto the river’s sandbar
and just as quickly eight of them were riddled by the 37s. One tank got
across the river, a Marine blasted a track off with a grenade, and
a 75mm halftrack finished it off in the ocean’s surf. The following
enemy infantry was smothered by Marine artillery fire as all battalions
of the augmented 11th Marines rained shells on the massed attackers.
Hundreds of Japanese were casualties and three more tanks were
destroyed. Later, an inland thrust further upstream was easily beaten
back. The abortive coastal attack did almost nothing to aid Maruyama’s
inland offensive, but did cause Vandegrift to shift one battalion, the
2d Battalion, 7th Marines, out of the lines to the east and into the
4,000-yard gap between the Matanikau position and the perimeter. This
move proved providential since one of Maruyama’s planned attacks was
headed right for this area.
Although patrols had encountered no Japanese east or south of the
jungled perimeter up to the 24th, the Matanikau attempts had alerted
everyone. When General Maruyama finally was satisfied that his men had
struggled through to appropriate assault positions, after delaying his
day of attack three times, he was ready on 24 October. The Marines were
waiting.
An observer from the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, spotted an enemy
officer surveying Edson’s Ridge on the 24th, and scout-snipers reported
smoke from numerous rice fires rising from a valley about two miles
south of Lieutenant Colonel Puller’s positions. Six battalions of the
_Sendai Division_ were poised to attack, and near midnight the first
elements of the enemy hit and bypassed a platoon-sized outpost forward
of Puller’s barbed-wire entanglements. Warned by the outpost, Puller’s
men waited, straining to see through a dark night and a driving rain.
Suddenly, the Japanese charged out of the jungle, attacking in Puller’s
area near the ridge and the flat ground to the east. The Marines
replied with everything they had, calling in artillery, firing
mortars, relying heavily on crossing fields of machine gun fire to cut
down the enemy infantrymen. Thankfully, the enemy’s artillery, mortars,
and other supporting arms were scattered back along the Maruyama Trail;
they had proved too much of a burden for the infantrymen to carry
forward.
[Illustration: