_Marine engineers repair a flood-damaged Lunga River bridge washed out
during a period when 8 inches of rain fell in 24 hours and the river
rose 7 feet above normal._]
The departure of the enemy naval force marked a period in which
substantial reinforcements reached the island. The headquarters of the
2d Marines had finally found transport space to come up from Espiritu
Santo and on 29 and 30 October, Colonel Arthur moved his regiment
from Tulagi to Guadalcanal, exchanging his 1st and 2d Battalions for
the well-blooded 3d, which took up the Tulagi duties. The 2d Marines’
battalions at Tulagi had performed the very necessary task of scouting
and securing all the small islands of the Florida group while they had
camped, frustrated, watching the battles across Sealark Channel. The
men now would no longer be spectators at the big show.
On 2 November, planes from VMSB-132 and VMF-211 flew into the Cactus
fields from New Caledonia. MAG-11 squadrons moved forward from New
Caledonia to Espiritu Santo to be closer to the battle scene; the
flight echelons now could operate forward to Guadalcanal and with
relative ease. On the ground side, two batteries of 155mm guns, one
Army and one Marine, landed on 2 November, providing Vandegrift with
his first artillery units capable of matching the enemy’s long-range
150mm guns. On the 4th and 5th, the 8th Marines (Colonel Richard H.
Jeschke) arrived from American Samoa. The full-strength regiment,
reinforced by the 75mm howitzers of the 1st Battalion, 10th Marines,
added another 4,000 men to the defending forces. All the fresh troops
reflected a renewed emphasis at all levels of command on making sure
Guadalcanal would be held. The reinforcement-replacement pipeline was
being filled. In the offing as part of the Guadalcanal defending force
were the rest of the Americal Division, the remainder of the 2d Marine
Division, and the Army’s 25th Infantry Division, then in Hawaii. More
planes of every type and from Allied as well as American sources were
slated to reinforce and replace the battered and battle-weary Cactus
veterans.
The impetus for the heightened pace of reinforcement had been provided
by President Roosevelt. Cutting through the myriad demands for American
forces worldwide, he had told each of the Joint Chiefs on 24 October
that Guadalcanal must be reinforced, and without delay.
On the island, the pace of operations did not slacken after the
Maruyama offensive was beaten back. General Vandegrift wanted to clear
the area immediately west of the Matanikau of all Japanese troops,
forestalling, if he could, another buildup of attacking forces. Admiral
Tanaka’s Tokyo Express was still operating and despite punishing
attacks by Cactus aircraft and new and deadly opponents, American motor
torpedo boats, now based at Tulagi.
On 1 November, the 5th Marines, backed up by the newly arrived
2d Marines, attacked across bridges engineers had laid over the
Matanikau during the previous night. Inland, Colonel Whaling led
his scout-snipers and the 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, in a screening
movement to protect the flank of the main attack. Opposition was fierce
in the shore area where the 1st Battalion, 5th, drove forward toward
Point Cruz, but inland the 2d Battalion and Whaling’s group encountered
slight opposition. By nightfall, when the Marines dug in, it was clear
that the only sizable enemy force was in the Point Cruz area. In the
days bitter fighting, Corporal Anthony Casamento, a badly wounded
machine gun squad leader in Edson’s 1st Battalion, had so distinguished
himself that he was recommended for a Navy Cross; many years later, in
August 1980, President Jimmy Carter approved the award of the Medal of
Honor in its stead.
[Illustration: