_In a White House ceremony, former Cpl Anthony Casamento, a machine
gun squad leader in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, was decorated by
President Jimmy Carter on 22 August 1980, 38 years after the battle for
Guadalcanal. Looking on are Casarnento’s wife and daughters and Gen
Robert H. Barrow, Marine Commandant._]
[Illustration: _Sgt Clyde Thomason, who was killed in action
participating in the Makin Island raid with the 2d Raider Battalion,
was the first enlisted Marine in World War II to be awarded the Medal
of Honor._
Department of Defense (USMC) Photo 310616
]
As Hanneken’s battalion executed a fighting withdrawal along the beach,
it began to receive fire from the jungle inland, too. A rescue force
was soon put together under General Rupertus: two tank companies,
the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and the 2d and 3d Battalions of the
164th. The Japanese troops, members of the _38th Division_ regiment and
remnants of Kawaguchi’s brigade, fought doggedly to hold their ground
as the Marines drove forward along the coast and the soldiers attempted
to outflank the enemy in the jungle. The running battle continued for
days, supported by Cactus air, naval gunfire, and the newly landed
155mm guns.
The enemy commander received new orders as he was struggling to hold
off the Americans. He was to break off the action, move inland, and
march to rejoin the main Japanese forces west of the perimeter, a tall
order to fulfill. The two-pronged attack scheme had been abandoned.
The Japanese managed the first part; on the 11th the enemy force found
a gap in the 164th’s line and broke through along a meandering jungle
stream. Behind they left 450 dead over the course of a seven-day
battle; the Marines and soldiers had lost 40 dead and 120 wounded.
Essentially, the Japanese who broke out of the encircling Americans
escaped from the frying pan only to fall into the fire. Admiral
Turner finally had been able to effect one of his several schemes for
alternative landings and beachheads, all of which General Vandegrift
vehemently opposed. At Aola Bay, 40 miles east of the main perimeter,
the Navy put an airfield construction and defense force ashore on 4
November. Then, while the Japanese were still battling the Marines near
Tetere, Vandegrift was able to persuade Turner to detach part of this
landing force, the 2d Raider Battalion, to sweep west, to discover and
destroy any enemy forces it encountered.
Lieutenant Colonel Evans F. Carlson’s raider battalion already had seen
action before it reached Guadalcanal. Two companies had reinforced the
defenders of Midway Island when the Japanese attacked there in June.
The rest of the battalion had landed from submarines on Makin Island
in the Gilberts on 17-18 August, destroying the garrison there. For his
part in the fighting on Makin, Sergeant Clyde Thomason had been awarded
a Medal of Honor posthumously, the first Marine enlisted man to receive
his country’s highest award in World War II.
In its march from Aola Bay, the 2d Raider Battalion encountered the
Japanese who were attempting to retreat to the west. On 12 November,
the raiders beat off attacks by two enemy companies and then
relentlessly pursued the Japanese, fighting a series of small actions
over the next five days before they contacted the main Japanese body.
From 17 November to 4 December, when the raiders finally came down out
of the jungled ridges into the perimeter, Carlson’s men harried the
retreating enemy. They killed nearly 500 Japanese. Their own losses
were 16 killed and 18 wounded.
The Aola Bay venture, which had provided the 2d Raider Battalion a
starting point for its month-long jungle campaign, proved a bust. The
site chosen for a new airfield was unsuitable, too wet and unstable,
and the whole force moved to Koli Point in early December, where
another airfield eventually was constructed.
The buildup on Guadalcanal continued, by both sides. On 11 November,
guarded by a cruiser-destroyer covering force, a convoy ran in carrying
the 182d Infantry, another regiment of the Americal Division. The ships
were pounded by enemy bombers and three transports were hit, but the
men landed. General Vandegrift needed the new men badly. His veterans
were truly ready for replacement; more than a thousand new cases of
malaria and related diseases were reported each week. The Japanese who
had been on the island any length of time were no better off; they
were, in fact, in worse shape. Medical supplies and rations were in
short supply. The whole thrust of the Japanese reinforcement effort
continued to be to get troops and combat equipment ashore. The idea
prevailed in Tokyo, despite all evidence to the contrary, that one
overwhelming coordinated assault would crush the American resistance.
The enemy drive to take Port Moresby on New Guinea was put on hold to
concentrate all efforts on driving the Americans off of Guadalcanal.
[Illustration: