_2dLt Mitchell Paige, third from left, and PltSgt John Basilone,
extreme right, received the Medal of Honor at a parade at Camp
Balcombe, Australia, on 21 May 1943. MajGen Vandegrift, left, received
his medal in a White House ceremony the previous 5 February, while Col
Merritt A. Edson was decorated 31 December 1943. Note the 1st Marine
Division patches on the right shoulders of each participant._]
On the 2d, the attack continued with the reserve 3d Battalion moving
into the fight and all three 5th Marines units moving to surround
the enemy defenders. On 3 November, the Japanese pocket just west
of the base at Point Cruz was eliminated; well over 300 enemy had
been killed. Elsewhere, the attacking Marines had encountered spotty
resistance and advanced slowly across difficult terrain to a point
about 1,000 yards beyond the 5th Marines’ action. There, just as the
offensive’s objectives seemed well in hand, the advance was halted.
Again, the intelligence that a massive enemy reinforcement attempt was
pending forced Vandegrift to pull back most of his men to safeguard
the all-important airfield perimeter. This time, however, he left a
regiment to outpost the ground that had been gained, Colonel Arthur’s
2d Marines, reinforced by the Army’s 1st Battalion, 164th Infantry.
Emphasizing the need for caution in Vandegrift’s mind was the fact that
the Japanese were again discovered in strength east of the perimeter.
On 3 November, Lieutenant Colonel Hanneken’s 2d Battalion, 7th Marines,
on a reconnaissance in force towards Koli Point, could see the
Japanese ships clustered near Tetere, eight miles from the perimeter.
His Marines encountered strong Japanese resistance from obviously
fresh troops and he began to pull back. A regiment of the enemy’s
_38th Division_ had landed, as Hyakutake experimented with a Japanese
Navy-promoted scheme of attacking the perimeter from both flanks.
[Illustration: