Battle of the Tenaru

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Battle of the Tenaru
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II

Dead Japanese soldiers, killed assaulting United States Marine positions, lie on the sandbar at the mouth of Alligator Creek, Guadalcanal after the battle on August 21, 1942.
Date August 21, 1942
Location Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands
Result Allied victory
Belligerents
Allied forces including:
Flag of the United States United States,
Flag of the United Kingdom British Solomon Islands Protectorate		 Flag of the Empire of Japan Empire of Japan
Commanders
Alexander Vandegrift,
Clifton B. Cates		 Harukichi Hyakutake,
Kiyonao Ichiki †
Strength
3,000[1] 917[2]
Casualties and losses
41–44 killed[3][4] 774–777 killed,
15 captured[5][6]
v • d • e
Guadalcanal Campaign
v • d • e
Solomon Islands campaign

The Battle of the Tenaru (or Battle of the Ilu River) took place August 21, 1942, on the island of Guadalcanal, and was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, between Imperial Japanese Army and Allied (mainly United States (U.S.) Marine) ground forces. The battle was the first major Japanese land offensive during the Guadalcanal campaign.

In the battle, U.S. Marines, under the overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, successfully repulsed an assault by the "First Element" of the "Ichiki" Regiment, under the command of Japanese Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki. The Marines were defending the Lunga perimeter, which guarded Henderson Field, which was captured by the Allies in landings on Guadalcanal on August 7. Ichiki's unit was sent to Guadalcanal in response to the Allied landings with the mission of recapturing the airfield and driving the Allied forces off of the island. Underestimating the strength of Allied forces on Guadalcanal, which at that time numbered about 11,000 personnel, Ichiki's unit conducted a nighttime frontal assault on Marine positions at Alligator Creek on the east side of the Lunga perimeter. Ichiki's assault was defeated with heavy losses for the Japanese attackers. After daybreak, the Marine units counterattacked Ichiki's surviving troops, killing many more of them. In total, all but 128 of the original 917 of the Ichiki Regiment's First Element were killed in the battle.

The battle was the first of three separate major land offensives by the Japanese in the Guadalcanal campaign. After Tenaru, the Japanese realized that Allied forces on Guadalcanal were much greater in number than originally estimated and thereafter sent larger forces to the island for their subsequent attempts to retake Henderson Field.

Contents

[edit] Background

On August 7, 1942, Allied forces (primarily U.S.) landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida Islands in the Solomon Islands. The landings on the islands were meant to deny their use by the Japanese as bases for threatening the supply routes between the U.S. and Australia, and secure the islands as starting points for a campaign with the eventual goal of isolating the major Japanese base at Rabaul while also supporting the Allied New Guinea campaign. The landings initiated the six-month-long Guadalcanal campaign.[7]

Taking the Japanese by surprise, the Allied landing forces accomplished their initial objectives of securing Tulagi and nearby small islands, as well as an airfield under construction at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal, by nightfall on August 8.[8] That night, as the transports unloaded, the Allied warships screening the transports were surprised and defeated by a Japanese warship force of seven cruisers and one destroyer, commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa. Three U.S. and one Australian cruisers were sunk and one other U.S. cruiser and two destroyers were damaged in the Battle of Savo Island. Turner withdrew all remaining Allied naval forces by the evening of August 9 without unloading all of the heavy equipment, provisions, and troops from the transports, although most of the divisional artillery was landed, consisting of 32 75 mm and 105 mm howitzers. Only five days worth of rations were landed.[9][10]

The Marines ashore on Guadalcanal initially concentrated on forming a defense perimeter around the airfield, moving the landed supplies within the perimeter, and finishing the airfield. Vandegrift placed his 11,000 troops on Guadalcanal in a loose perimeter around the Lunga Point area. In four days of intense effort, the supplies were moved from the landing beach into dispersed dumps within the perimeter. Work began on the airfield immediately, mainly using captured Japanese equipment. On August 12, the airfield was named Henderson Field after Major Lofton Henderson, a Marine aviator who had been killed at the Battle of Midway. Captured Japanese stock increased the total supply of food to 14 days worth. To conserve the limited food supplies, the Allied troops were limited to two meals per day.[11][12]

Japanese Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki, commander of the 28th Infantry Regiment.
Japanese Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki, commander of the 28th Infantry Regiment.

In response to the Allied landings on Guadalcanal, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters assigned the Imperial Japanese Army's 17th Army, a corps-sized command based at Rabaul and under the command of Lieutenant-General Harukichi Hyakutake, with the task of retaking Guadalcanal from Allied forces. The 17th Army, currently heavily involved with the Japanese campaign in New Guinea, had only a few units available to send to the southern Solomons area. Of these units, the 35th Infantry Brigade under Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi was at Palau, the 4th (Aoba) Infantry Regiment was in the Philippines, and the 28th (Ichiki) Infantry Regiment, under the command of Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki, was at sea enroute to Japan from Guam.[13] The different units began to move towards Guadalcanal immediately, but Ichiki's regiment, being the closest, arrived first.[14]

An aerial reconnaissance of the U.S. Marine positions on Guadalcanal on August 12 by one of the senior Japanese staff officers from Rabaul sighted few U.S. troops in the open and no large ships in the waters nearby, convincing Imperial Headquarters that the Allies had withdrawn the majority of their troops. In fact, none of the Allied troops had been withdrawn.[15] Hyakutake issued orders for an advance unit of 900 troops from Ichiki's regiment to be landed on Guadalcanal by fast warship to immediately attack the Allied position and reoccupy the airfield area at Lunga Point. The remaining personnel in Ichiki's regiment would be delivered to Guadalcanal by slower transport later. At the major Japanese naval base at Truk, that was the staging point for delivery of Ichiki's regiment to Guadalcanal, Colonel Ichiki was briefed that 2,000–10,000 U.S. troops were holding the Guadalcanal beachhead and that he should, "avoid frontal attacks."[16]

Ichiki and 916 of his regiment's 2,300 troops, designated the "First Element" and carrying seven days' supply of food, were successfully delivered to Taivu Point, about 35 kilometers (22 mi) east of Lunga Point, by six destroyers at 01:00 on August 19.[17] Leaving about 100 personnel behind as a rear guard, Ichiki marched west with the remaining 800 men of his unit and made camp before dawn about 14 kilometers (9 mi) east of the Lunga perimeter. The U.S. Marines at Lunga Point received intelligence that a Japanese landing had occurred and took steps to find out exactly what was happening.[18]

[edit] Battle

[edit] Prelude

British Solomons Island's Protectorate district officer and coastwatcher Martin Clemens (center standing) with members of the Solomon Islands police force, who served as scouts and guides for Allied forces throughout the Guadalcanal campaign.
British Solomons Island's Protectorate district officer and coastwatcher Martin Clemens (center standing) with members of the Solomon Islands police force, who served as scouts and guides for Allied forces throughout the Guadalcanal campaign.

Reports to Allied forces from patrols of Solomon Islanders, including retired Sergeant Major Jacob C. Vouza of the Native Constabulary, under the direction of Martin Clemens, a coastwatcher and officer in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate Defence Force (BSIPDF), along with Allied intelligence from other sources, indicated that Japanese troops were present east of Lunga Point. To investigate further, on August 19, a Marine patrol of 60 men and four native scouts, commanded by U.S. Marine Captain Charles H. Brush, marched east from the Lunga Perimeter.[19][20] At the same time, Ichiki sent forward his own patrol of 38 men, led by his communication's officer, to reconnoiter Allied troop dispositions and establish a forward communications base. Around 12:00 on August 19 at Koli Point, Brush's patrol sighted and ambushed the Japanese patrol, killing all but five of its members, who escaped back to Taivu. The Marines suffered three dead and three wounded.[21] Papers discovered on the bodies of some of the Japanese officers in the patrol revealed that they belonged to a much larger unit and showed detailed intelligence of U.S. Marine positions around Lunga Point.[22] The papers did not, however, detail exactly how large the Japanese force was or whether an attack was imminent.[23]

Now anticipating an attack from the east, the U.S. Marine forces, under the direction of General Vandegrift, prepared their defenses on the east side of the Lunga perimeter. Several official U.S. military histories identify the location of the eastern defenses of the Lunga perimeter as emplaced on the Tenaru River. The Tenaru River, however, was actually located further to the east. The river forming the eastern boundary of the Lunga perimeter was actually the Ilu River, called Alligator Creek by the local inhabitants. Alligator Creek was not really a river but a tidal lagoon separated from the ocean by a sandbar about 7 to 15 meters (25–50 ft) in width and about 30 meters (100 ft) long.[24] Along the west side of Alligator Creek, Colonel Clifton B. Cates, commander of the 1st Marine Regiment, deployed his 1st and 2nd battalions.[25][26] To help further defend the Alligator Creek sandbar, Cates deployed 100 men from the 1st Special Weapons Battalion with two 37mm anti-tank guns equipped with canister shot.[27] Marine divisional artillery, consisting of both 75mm and 105mm guns, pre-targeted locations on the east side and sandbar areas of Alligator Creek, and forward artillery observers emplaced themselves in the forward Marine positions.[28] The Marines worked all day on August 20 to prepare their defenses as much as possible before nightfall.[29]

Learning of the annihilation of his patrol, Ichiki quickly sent forward a company to bury the bodies and followed with the rest of his troops, marching throughout the night of August 19 and finally halting at 04:30 on August 20 within a few miles of the U.S. Marine positions on the east side of Lunga Point. At this location, he prepared his troops to attack the Allied positions that night.[30]

[edit] Action

Map of the battle of August 21.
Map of the battle of August 21.

Just after midnight on August 21, Ichiki's main body of troops arrived at the east bank of Alligator Creek and were surprised to encounter the Marine positions, not having expected to find U.S. forces located "so far from the airfield."[31] Nearby U.S. Marine listening posts heard "clanking" sounds, human voices, and other noises before withdrawing to the west bank of the creek. At 01:30 Ichiki's force opened fire with machine guns and mortars on the Marine positions on the west bank of the creek, and a first wave of about 100 Japanese soldiers charged across the sandbar towards the Marines.[32] Marine machine gun fire and canister rounds from the 37 mm cannons killed most of the Japanese soldiers as they crossed the sandbar. A few of the Japanese soldiers reached the Marine positions, engaged in hand to hand combat with the defenders, and captured a few of the Marine front-line emplacements. Also, Japanese machine gun and rifle fire from the east side of the creek killed several of the Marine machine-gunners.[33] A company of Marines, held in reserve just behind the front line, attacked and killed most, if not all, of the remaining Japanese soldiers that had breached the front line defenses, ending Ichiki's first assault about an hour after it had begun.[34][35] At 02:30 a second wave of about 150 to 200 Japanese troops again attacked across the sandbar and was again almost completely wiped out. At least one of the surviving Japanese officers from this attack advised Ichiki to withdraw his remaining forces, but Ichiki declined to do so.[36]

As Ichiki's troops regrouped east of the creek, Japanese mortars bombarded the Marine lines.[37] The Marines answered with 75 mm and mortar artillery barrages into the areas east of the creek.[38] About 05:00, another wave of Japanese troops attacked, this time attempting to flank the Marine positions by wading through the ocean surf and attacking up the beach into the west bank area of the creek bed. The Marines responded with heavy machine gun and artillery fire along the beachfront area, again causing heavy casualties among Ichiki's attacking troops and causing them to abandon their attack and withdraw back to the east bank of the creek.[39][40] For the next couple of hours, the two sides exchanged rifle, machine gun, and artillery fire at close range across the sandbar and creek.[41]

In spite of the heavy losses his force had suffered in both night assaults, Ichiki's troops remained in place on the east bank of the creek, either unable or unwilling to withdraw.[42] At daybreak on August 21, the commanders of the U.S. Marine units facing Ichiki's troops conferred on how best to proceed, and they decided to counterattack.[43] The 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, under Lieutenant Colonel Lenard B. Cresswell, crossed Alligator Creek upstream from the battle area, enveloped Ichiki's troops from the south and east, cutting off any avenue for retreat, and began to "compress" Ichiki's troops into a small area in a coconut grove on the east bank of the creek.[44] Aircraft from Henderson Field strafed Japanese soldiers that attempted to escape down the beach and, later in the afternoon, five Marine light tanks attacked across the sandbar into the coconut grove. The tanks swept the coconut grove with machine gun and canister cannon fire, as well as rolling over the bodies, both alive and dead, of any Japanese soldiers unable or unwilling to get out of the way. When the tank attack was over, Vandegrift wrote that, "the rear of the tanks looked like meat grinders."[45]

Dead soldiers from Ichiki's forces lie partially buried on the sandbar of Alligator creek after the battle.
Dead soldiers from Ichiki's forces lie partially buried on the sandbar of Alligator creek after the battle.

By 17:00 on August 21, Japanese resistance had ended. Colonel Ichiki was either killed during the battle, or committed ritual suicide (seppuku) shortly thereafter, depending on the account. As curious Marines began to walk around looking at the battlefield, some injured Japanese troops shot at them, killing or wounding several Marines. Thereafter, Marines shot or bayonetted all of the Japanese bodies that they encountered, although about 15 injured and unconscious Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner.[46][47] About 30 of the Japanese troops escaped to rejoin their regiment's rear echelon at Taivu Point.[48]

[edit] Aftermath

For the U.S. and its allies, the victory in the Tenaru battle was psychologically significant in that Allied soldiers, after a series of defeats to Japanese army units throughout the Pacific and east Asia, now knew that they could defeat Japanese troops in a land battle.[49] The battle also set another precedent that would continue throughout the war in the Pacific, which was the reluctance of defeated Japanese soldiers to surrender and their efforts to continue killing Allied soldiers, even as the Japanese soldiers lay dying on the battlefield. On this subject Vandegrift remarked, "I have never heard or read of this kind of fighting. These people refuse to surrender. The wounded wait until men come up to examine them...and blow themselves and the other fellow to pieces with a hand grenade."[50]

By August 25, most of Ichiki's survivors reached Taivu Point and radioed Rabaul to tell 17th Army headquarters that Ichiki's detachment had been "almost annihilated at a point short of the airfield." Reacting with disbelief to the news, Japanese army headquarter's officers proceeded with plans to deliver additional troops to Guadalcanal to reattempt to capture Henderson Field.[51] The next major Japanese attack on the Lunga perimeter occurred at the Battle of Edson's Ridge about three weeks later, this time employing a much larger force than had been employed in the Tenaru battle.

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[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 14–15, Jersey, Hell's Islands, p. 209. There were approximately 900 Marines in each of the three participating battalions plus additional support troops such as the special weapons unit and the divisional artillery.
  2. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 147 & 681.
  3. ^ Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 71. Smith says 38 were killed in the battle in addition to the three killed in the Brush patrol.
  4. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 156 & 681. Frank says 41 were killed in the battle in addition to the three killed in the Brush patrol.
  5. ^ Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 73. Smith says 128 of the original 917 total complement of the 1st echelon survived, meaning 774 were killed after subtracting the 15 captured from the total lost in the battle.
  6. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 156 & 681. Frank says 777 were killed.
  7. ^ Hogue, Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, p. 235–236.
  8. ^ Morison, Struggle for Guadalcanal, pp. 14–15.
  9. ^ Zimmerman, The Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 49–56.
  10. ^ Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 11 & 16.
  11. ^ Shaw, First Offensive, p. 13.
  12. ^ Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 16–17.
  13. ^ Miller, The First Offensive, p. 96
  14. ^ Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 88, Evans, Japanese Navy, p. 158, and Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 141–143. The Ichiki regiment was named after its commanding officer. The Aoba regiment took its name from Aoba Castle in Sendai, because most of the soldiers in the regiment were from Miyagi prefecture (Rottman, Japanese Army, p. 52). Although some histories state that Ichiki's regiment was at Truk, Raizo Tanaka, in Evans' book, states that he dropped off Ichiki's regiment at Guam after the Battle of Midway. Ichiki's regiment was subsequently loaded on ships for transport elsewhere but were rerouted to Truk after the Allied landings.
  15. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 143–144.
  16. ^ Evans, Japanese Navy, p. 161, Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 98–99 and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 31.
  17. ^ Evans, Japanese Navy, p. 161, Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 145, Jersey, Hell's Islands, p. 204, 212, Morison, Struggle for Guadalcanal, p. 70, and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 43. The First Element troops were mainly from the 28th's 1st Battalion under a Major Kuramoto and were mostly from Asahikawa, Hokkaidō. At Taivu Point was a Japanese outpost with about 200 naval personnel who assisted with the unloading of Ichiki's forces from the destroyers.
  18. ^ Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 99–100 and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 29 & 43–44.
  19. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 148, Jersey, Hell's Islands, p. 205.
  20. ^ Zimmerman, The Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 62.
  21. ^ Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 100, Jersey, Hell's Islands, p. 205, and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p.47. The U.S. and Japanese soldiers killed in this engagement are included in the total casualty figures for the Tenaru battle. Captain Yoshimi Shibuya was the leader of the Japanese patrol. One of the five Japanese survivors later died of his wounds at Taivu Point.
  22. ^ Zimmerman, The Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 62
  23. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 149.
  24. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 150.
  25. ^ Hammel, Carrier Clash, p. 135.
  26. ^ Zimmerman, The Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 67.
  27. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 151
  28. ^ Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 102.
  29. ^ Hammel, Carrier Clash, p. 135.
  30. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 149 & 151, and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 48.
  31. ^ Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 58.
  32. ^ Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 102, Hough, Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, p. 290, and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 58–59.
  33. ^ Jersey, Hell's Islands, p. 210, Hammel, Carrier Clash, p. 137.
  34. ^ Zimmerman, The Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 68.
  35. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 153.
  36. ^ Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 62–63.
  37. ^ Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 103.
  38. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 153, and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 63.
  39. ^ Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 103–104.
  40. ^ Hammel, Carrier Clash, p. 141.
  41. ^ Zimmerman, The Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 69.
  42. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 154 and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 66.
  43. ^ Hough, Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, p. 290.
  44. ^ Zimmerman, The Guadalcanal Campaign, p. 69.
  45. ^ Gilbert, Marine Tank Battles, p. 42–43, Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 106, Jersey, Hell's Islands, p. 212, and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 66. Some sources state that only four tanks were involved.
  46. ^ Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 71–72. Smith states that most Japanese survivors of the battle insist that Ichiki was killed in action, not by suicide. After the battle, a wounded Japanese officer, apparently feigning death, shot and seriously wounded an inspecting Marine with a small pistol before being killed by another Marine, Andy Poliny. Poliny believes that this was Ichiki.
  47. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 156. Frank states that the official Japanese Defense Agency history of the battle says that Ichiki committed suicide in the seppuku manner. However, one Japanese survivor's account states that Ichiki was last seen advancing towards the U.S. Marine lines.
  48. ^ Hough, Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, p. 291 and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 43 and 73. Since 100 troops were left behind as a rear guard and 128 of the unit survived the battle, that means that about 30 escaped from the engagement back to the rear guard area.
  49. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 157.
  50. ^ Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 107
  51. ^ Frank, Guadalcanal, p. 158 and Smith, Bloody Ridge, p. 74.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • Leckie, Robert (2001 (reissue)). Helmet for my Pillow. ibooks, Inc.. ISBN 1-59687-092-3.  First-person account of the battle by a member of the 1st Marine Regiment.
  • Richter, Don (1992). Where the Sun Stood Still: The Untold Story of Sir Jacob Vouza and the Guadalcanal Campaign. Toucan. ISBN 096116963X. 
  • Rottman, Gordon L.; Dr. Duncan Anderson (consultant editor) (2005). Japanese Army in World War II: The South Pacific and New Guinea, 1942–43. Oxford and New York: Osprey. ISBN 1-84176-870-7. 
  • Tregaskis, Richard (1943). Guadalcanal Diary. Random House. ISBN 0-679-64023-1. 
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