Carlson's patrol

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Carlson's patrol Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II Native Solomon Islanders guide US 2nd Marine Raiders in pursuit of Japanese forces on Guadalcanal in November 1942 Date November 6 – December 4, 1942 Location Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands Result Allied victory Belligerents Allied forces including:  United States British Solomon Islands Protectorate  Empire of Japan Commanders Alexander Vandegrift, Evans Carlson Harukichi Hyakutake, Toshinari Shōji Strength 700[1] 2,500[2] Casualties and losses 16 killed[3] 488 killed[4]

v • d • e Guadalcanal Campaign Tulagi – Savo I. – Tenaru – Eastern Solomons – Edson's Ridge – Matanikau Actions – Cape Esperance – Henderson Field – Santa Cruz Is. – Matanikau Offensive – Koli Point – Carlson's patrol – Naval Guadalcanal – Tassafaronga – Mt. Austen – Rennell I. – Ke

v • d • e Solomon Islands campaign 1st Tulagi – Guadalcanal – Blackett Strait – Cartwheel – Operation Vengeance – New Georgia – Kula Gulf – Kolombangara – Vella Gulf – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Naval Vella Lavella – Treasury Is. – Choiseul – Bougainville – Rabaul air raids – Cape St. George – Green Is.

Carlson's patrol, also known as The Long Patrol or Carlson's long patrol, was an operation by the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion under the command of Evans Carlson during the Guadalcanal Campaign against the Imperial Japanese Army from November 6 to December 4, 1942. In the operation, the 2nd Raiders attacked forces under the command of Toshinari Shōji, which were escaping from an attempted encirclement in the Koli Point area on Guadalcanal and attempting to rejoin other Japanese army units on the opposite side of the U.S. Lunga perimeter.

In a series of small unit engagements over 29 days, the 2nd Raiders killed almost 500 Japanese soldiers while suffering only 16 killed. The raiders also captured a Japanese artillery cannon that was delivering harassing gunfire on Henderson Field, the Allied airfield at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal.

[edit] Background

[edit] Guadalcanal campaign

Main article: Guadalcanal campaign

On August 7, 1942, Allied forces (primarily US Marines) landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida Islands in the Solomon Islands. Their mission was to deny the Japanese use of the islands as bases for threatening the supply routes between the U.S. and Australia, and to secure the islands as starting points for a campaign to isolate the major Japanese base at Rabaul while also supporting the Allied New Guinea campaign. The landings initiated the six-month-long Guadalcanal Campaign.^[5]

The Japanese were taken by surprise, and by nightfall on August 8 the 11,000 Allied troops, under the command of Lieutenant General Alexander Vandegrift, secured Tulagi and nearby small islands as well as an airfield under construction at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. The Allies later renamed the airfield Henderson Field. To protect the airfield, the US Marines established a perimeter defense around Lunga Point. Additional reinforcements over the next two months later increased the number of US troops at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal to more than 20,000.^[6]

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. Units of the 17th Army began to arrive on Guadalcanal on August 19 to drive Allied forces from the island.^[7]

Map of Guadalcanal and nearby islands. The Lunga Point and Koli Point areas are in the north (upper center) of the island.

The first Japanese attempt to recapture Henderson Field failed when a 917-man force was defeated on August 21 in the Battle of the Tenaru. The next attempt took place from September 12 through September 14, ending in the defeat of the 6,000 soldiers under the command of Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi at the Battle of Edson's Ridge. Kawaguchi and the surviving Japanese troops then regrouped west of the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal.^[8]

[edit] Battle for Henderson Field

Main article: Battle for Henderson Field

Between October 1 and October 17, the Japanese delivered 15,000 troops to Guadalcanal, giving Hyakutake 20,000 total troops to employ for his planned offensive. After his staff officers observed the American defences around Lunga Point, Hyakutake decided that the main thrust of his planned attack would be from south of Henderson Field. His 2nd Division (augmented by troops from the 38th Division), under Lieutenant General Masao Maruyama was ordered to march through the jungle and attack the American defences from the south near the east bank of the Lunga River. The 7000-member 2nd Division was split into three units; the Left Wing Unit under Major General Yumio Nasu containing the 29th Infantry Regiment, the Right Wing Unit under Kawaguchi consisting of troops from the 230th Infantry Regiment (from the 38th Infantry Division), and the division reserve led by Maruyama comprising the 16th Infantry Regiment.^[9]

Map of the battle, October 23 - October 26. While other Japanese forces attack in the west at the Matanikau (left), Maruyama's 2nd division attacks the Lunga perimeter from the south (right)

On October 23, Maruyama's forces struggled through the jungle to reach the American lines. Kawaguchi, on his own initiative, began to shift his right wing unit to the east, believing that the American defenses were weaker in that area. Maruyama, through one of his staff officers, ordered Kawaguchi to keep to the original attack plan. When he refused, Kawaguchi was relieved of command and replaced by Colonel Toshinari Shōji, commander of the 230th Infantry Regiment. That evening, after learning that the left and right wing forces were still struggling to reach the American lines, Hyakutake postponed the attack to 19:00 on October 24. The Americans remained completely unaware of the approach of Maruyama's forces.^[10]

Finally, late on October 24, Maruyama's forces reached the U.S. Lunga perimeter. Over two consecutive nights Maruyama's forces conducted numerous unsuccessful frontal assaults on positions defended by troops of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines (1/7) under Lieutenant Colonel Chesty Puller and the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 164th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hall. U.S. Marine and Army rifle, machine gun, mortar, artillery and direct canister fire from 37 mm anti-tank guns "wrought terrible carnage" on the Japanese.^[11] More than 1,500 of Maruyama's troops were killed in the attacks while the Americans lost about 60 killed. Shōji's right wing units did not participate in the attacks, choosing to remain in place to cover Nasu's right flank against a possible attack in that area by U.S. forces that never materialized.^[12]

At 08:00 on October 26, Hyakutake called off further attacks and ordered his forces to retreat. Maruyama's left wing and division reserve survivors were ordered to retreat back to the Matanikau River area while the right wing unit under Shōji was told to head for Koli Point, 13 miles (21 km) east of the Lunga River. Shōji and his troops began arriving at Koli Point on November 3.^[13]

[edit] Aola Bay and the Koli Point action

Carlson's raiders come ashore at Aola Bay on November 4

At 05:30 on November 4, two companies from the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson, landed by boat at Aola Bay, 40 miles (64 km) east of Lunga Point. Carlson's raiders, along with troops from the US Army's 147th Infantry Regiment, were to provide security for 500 Seabees as they attempted to construct an airfield. The Aola Bay airfield construction effort had been approved by William Halsey, Jr., commander of Allied forces in the south Pacific area, acting on a recommendation by Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner, US naval commander of amphibious forces for the south Pacific.^[14]

The 2nd Marine Raider Battalion was a unique unit in the Marine Corps. The battalion's original organisation and tactics were based around Communist Chinese precepts Carlson had witnessed while serving as an observer with the Communists during the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937–38. These precepts included promoting equality between officers and enlisted men and making decisions through collective consensus. Unlike the 1st Marine Raider Battalion, which focused on commando tactics, the 2nd Battalion trained to operate as a guerrilla force. The training included an emphasis on infiltration tactics and often involved tactical exercises conducted at night. The battalion was organised into six self-contained rifle companies and a headquarters company. Before landing at Guadalcanal elements of the battalion had seen action as part of the garrison of Midway Atoll during the Battle of Midway in May 1942 and the near disastrous Makin Island raid in August.^[15]

In early November, Vandegrift, fearing that the Japanese were planning an assault on the Lunga perimeter from the east using Shōji's forces plus additional reinforcements, launched an operation against the Japanese units at Koli Point. Beginning on November 4, two battalions of US Marines and two battalions of US Army troops attacked and attempted to encircle Shōji's men at Gavaga Creek near the village of Tetere in the Koli Point area.^[16]

As the American troops were attempting to destroy Shōji's force, Vandegrift ordered Carlson's raiders to march overland from Aola Bay toward Koli Point to cut off any of Shōji's forces that escaped the encirclement attempt. On November 5, two transport ships headed for Espiritu Santo to pick up three companies from Carlson's battalion while Carlson prepared his two companies already on Guadalcanal to march overland towards Koli Point. Carlson arranged for rear echelon personnel at Aola to resupply his patrol with rations every four days at a prearranged point on the coast. A patrol with native carriers would meet the boat and manpack the supplies inland to Carlson's patrol base.^[17]

[edit] Patrol

[edit] Initial actions

Map of Carlson's patrol, from Aola to the Lunga perimeter

At first light on November 6, Carlson and his command group, two of his companies, and a group of native scouts and carriers commanded by Major John Mather of the Australian Army and Sergeant Major Jacob C. Vouza of the Solomon Islands Police Force set out from Aola on the patrol. The group marched along a jungle trail northwest to the Reko River, arriving on November 7. At the Reko, Carlson learned that the local Christian mission had recently been raided by Japanese troops who had killed two of the missionaries before moving west. Pushing across the river with one platoon of troops, Carlson encountered a small group of Japanese who shot and severely wounded the native scout leading the Marine column. Returning fire, the Marines killed two Japanese soldiers and drove off another three or four. Carlson's main body then arrived and the column bivouacked for the night.^[18]

On November 8, the column continued through the jungle to the northwest, striking the coast at the Kena River, and overnighted at the village of Tasimboko, 15 miles (24 km) from Aola Bay. The next day they crossed the Berande and Balasuna rivers and reached the village of Binu, 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Tasimboko, in the afternoon. At Binu, about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Koli Point, Carlson established his base camp and prepared to block the movement of any Japanese forces from Koli to the east and south.^[19]

The other three raider companies arrived at Aola on November 8. On November 9, they moved by landing craft to Tasimboko and, on November 10 marched overland, guided by native scouts, towards Binu. On the way, the raiders encountered a small group of Japanese soldiers and killed three of them before arriving at Binu in the afternoon of the same day.^[20]

In the meantime, Hyakutake ordered Shōji to abandon his positions at Koli and rejoin Japanese forces at Kokumbona in the Matanikau area. Although American forces had almost completely encircled Shōji's troops along Gavaga Creek at Koli, a gap existed by way of a swampy creek in the southern side of the American lines. Taking advantage of this route, Shōji's men began to escape. The Americans closed the gap in their lines on November 11, but by then Shōji and between 2,000 and 3,000 of his men had escaped into the jungle to the south.^[21]

On November 11, Carlson sent four of his battalion's companies, "C", "D", "E", and "F", to fan out and patrol the area to the north and west of Binu. The remaining company, "B", stayed behind to provide security for the Binu base camp. At 10:00, Company C, which had marched directly west towards the village of Asamana, encountered a large body of Shōji's troops camped near the Metapona River and were quickly pinned-down by rifle, machinegun, and mortar fire. Carlson responded by directing Companies D and E to come to C's aid, attacking the Japanese forces from two different directions.^[22]

A Marine officer briefs raider troops during the patrol

As Companies D and E moved in C's direction, both encountered large concentrations of Shōji's soldiers and, by 12:30, were involved in intense firefights. At 15:00, Company D commander Captain Charles McAuliffe, with nine of his men, unexpectedly marched into the Binu base camp. McAuliffe reported to Carlson that soon after he had made contact with the Japanese forces, he and one of his squads had become cut off from the rest of his company. After extricating themselves with difficulty, McAuliffe and the men with him had decided to retreat back to the base camp. McAuliffe reported that, as far as he knew, the rest of his company had been annihilated. A short time later, however, the rest of D Company arrived at the base camp, led by Gunnery Sergeant George Schrier, after successfully disengaging from the firefight. Carlson summarily relieved McAuliffe for what he later described as "total ineptitude for leadership in battle" and placed Captain Joe Griffith in command of Company D.^[23]

Along with Company F, which had returned to the base camp, Carlson proceeded to the area where Company C was engaged, arriving at 16:30. Carlson ordered Company F to attack the Japanese positions facing Company C at 17:15. In the meantime, the Japanese troops departed the area, which Company F soon confirmed. Leaving Company F at the scene, Carlson returned to Binu with Company C, arriving at 22:00. Company E arrived at Binu about the same time and reported that they had caught a Japanese company crossing a river in the open and killed many of them before withdrawing. Carlson then took Company B and returned to the area that Company F was guarding, arriving at daybreak on November 12. The Marines had suffered 10 killed in the day's actions and estimated that they had killed 120 Japanese soldiers.^[24]

Carlson and the two companies, with Company B leading, marched west towards the village of Asamana on the Metapona River. While crossing the river, the Marines captured two Japanese soldiers and killed a third who happened by in a native boat, then attacked and occupied Asamana, surprising and killing several Japanese soldiers in the village. Signs in Japanese in the village indicated that it was being used as a rallying location for Shōji's forces. Occupying defensive positions around the village and river crossing, the raiders killed 25 Japanese soldiers that approached the village during the remainder of the day.^[25]

Carlson's raiders cross an open field during the patrol

The next day, when a company-sized column of Japanese soldiers approached Asamana, the raiders called in 75mm artillery fire from the 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, killing many of the Japanese and causing the rest to scatter and retreat away from the village. Carlson and the Marines with him returned to Binu on November 14 to rest and reprovision. In the same day, a patrol from the raiders Company F wiped out a 15-man Japanese encampment discovered by the native scouts.^[26]

On November 15, Carlson's battalion changed their base camp from Binu to Asamana. By this time, however, Shōji's units were no longer in the area, having continued their march deep into the interior of Guadalcanal enroute to the Matanikau. Raider patrols around Asamana over the next two days found and killed a few scattered Japanese stragglers.^[27]

[edit] New mission

Carlson's battalion was ordered to move to the upper Tenaru River and patrol around the Lunga River, south of the Lunga perimeter, to locate the trail the Japanese had used to position their men and materiel for their assaults during the Battle for Henderson Field. Carlson's raiders were also to seek out and destroy several Japanese artillery pieces that had been delivering harassing fire against Henderson Field for several weeks. The raiders set up the new base camp about 2 miles (3 km) southeast of the Lunga perimeter on November 20 and rested and replenished until November 24.^[28]

On November 25, Carlson's Company A arrived from Espiritu Santo and joined the raiders. On November 27, the battalion relocated 4 miles (6 km) further up the Tenaru River and established two auxiliary patrol bases 2 miles (3 km) upstream and downstream, respectively.^[29]

Japanese cannon captured by the raiders

On November 28, Companies B and D patrolled across the Lunga River and bivouacked in the Mount Austen area, southwest of the Lunga perimeter. The same day, Companies A and F patrolled further south between the Lunga and the Tenaru. On November 30, the raiders found a Japanese 75mm mountain gun and 37mm anti-tank gun emplaced on a ridge about 4 miles (6 km) south of the Lunga perimeter. As one squad of six Marines from Company F patrolled near the where the guns were discovered, they entered a hidden Japanese camp and found themselves among about 100 Japanese soldiers resting under shelters with their weapons stacked around trees in the center of the camp. In the resulting melee, the raider squad killed about 75 of the Japanese. The rest escaped.^[30]

The raiders rested on December 1 and received some provisions by airdrop. On December 2, Carlson fanned out his patrols around the Lunga River. Company B discovered 10 Japanese camped by the river and killed all of them. None of the other companies encountered any Japanese, but one discovered another 75 mm mountain gun. Late in the day, Carlson received orders to terminate the patrol and take his troops into the Lunga perimeter the next day.^[31]

On December 3, Carlson sent Companies C, D, and E east towards the Tenaru river while Companies A, B, and F headed west towards Mount Austen. Companies C, D, and E reached the lower Tenaru and entered friendly lines at Lunga Point without incident. Companies A, B, and F, however, encountered a Japanese patrol near the summit of Mount Austen. In a close-quarters fight in the jungle, 25 Japanese were killed and 4 Marines were seriously wounded, 1 of whom died later.^[32]

The next day, Companies A, B, and F set out with the intention of entering the Lunga perimeter near the Matanikau River. Along the way, the Marine column was ambushed by a Japanese machinegun team that killed four raiders. Seven Japanese were killed in this skirmish. The patrol encountered no further opposition and entered friendly lines at Lunga Point by mid-afternoon.^[33]

[edit] Aftermath

Solomon Island native scouts display Japanese weapons and flags captured during the patrol

As Carlson's battalion was ending its patrol, Shōji and his surviving troops were reaching friendly positions west of the Matanikau. In addition to the losses sustained from attacks by Carlson's raiders, a lack of food and tropical diseases felled many more of Shōji's men. By the time Shōji's forces reached the Lunga River in mid-November, about halfway to the Matanikau, only 1,300 men remained with the main body. When Shōji reached the 17th Army positions west of the Matanikau, only 700 to 800 survivors were still with him. Seriously weakened by their ordeal, Shōji's men played little part in the remainder of Japan's ultimately unsuccessful effort to retake Guadalcanal from the Allies.^[34]

During the 29 days of the patrol, Carlson's raiders hiked approximately 150 miles (241 km) to cover a straight line distance of about 40 miles (64 km) from Aola Bay to the Matanikau River. Carlson claimed that his troops killed 488 Japanese soldiers and captured or destroyed large amounts of equipment, including 2 howitzers and various small arms and ammunition.^[35]

The 2nd Raiders suffered 16 killed and 17 wounded (plus 2 wounded native guides). Non-battle casualties totaled 225, of which 125 suffered from malaria, 29 from dysentery, and 71 from ringworm or jungle rot. Most of the remaining raiders were also suffering some type of physical ailment. On December 17, the raiders departed Guadalcanal by ship and arrived back at their home camp on Espiritu Santo on December 20. At Espiritu Santo, the unit continued to be effected by the lingering tropical diseases many had contracted during the Guadalcanal patrol. In the second week of March 1943, the 2nd Raiders were declared unfit for combat duty, although this finding was never announced in an official document. The 2nd Marine Raiders did not participate as a unit in a combat operation until the Bougainville campaign beginning on November 1, 1943. In spite of the high fallout from disease, Carlson's troops generally felt that they had performed well as a unit during the patrol and had accomplished their mission.^[36] Cleland E. Early, a lieutenant in Carlson's Company E, described the long Guadalcanal patrol and the effect on his unit: "Enduring the living conditions was worse than the combat. My platoon went in with 30 men, one corpsman and one officer. When we came out we had one officer, one corpsman, and 18 enlisted, all of whom had malaria, worms, diarrhea, jungle rot and high morale.^[37]

[edit] Notes

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Carlson's Patrol

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[edit] References

[edit] Books

• Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1. 
• Frank, Richard (1990). Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-58875-4. 
• Griffith, Samuel B. (1963). The Battle for Guadalcanal. Champaign, Illinois, USA: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06891-2. 
• Jersey, Stanley Coleman (2008). Hell's Islands: The Untold Story of Guadalcanal. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 1-58544-616-5. 
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (1958). The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942 – February 1943, vol. 5 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-58305-7. 
• Peatross, Oscar F.; John P. McCarthy and John Clayborne (editors) (1995). Bless 'em All: The Raider Marines of World War II. Review. ISBN 0965232506. 
• 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. 
• Rottman, Gordon; Dr. Duncan Anderson (consultant editor) (2005). US Special Warfare Units in the Pacific Theatre 1941-45. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 1841767077. 
• Smith, George W. (2003). Carlson's Raid: The Daring Marine Assault on Makin. Berkley Trade. ISBN 978-0-425-19019-7. 

[edit] Web

• Hoffman, Jon T. (1995). The Long Patrol (brochure). From Makin to Bougainville: Marine Raiders in the Pacific War. Marine Corps Historical Center. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
• Hough, Frank O.; Ludwig, Verle E., and Shaw, Henry I., Jr.. Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal. History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II. Retrieved on 2006-05-16.
• Miller, John Jr. (1949). Guadalcanal: The First Offensive. United States Army in World War II. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
• Shaw, Henry I. (1992). First Offensive: The Marine Campaign For Guadalcanal. Marines in World War II Commemorative Series. Retrieved on 2006-07-25.
• Zimmerman, John L. (1949). The Guadalcanal Campaign. Marines in World War II Historical Monograph. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.

[edit] Further reading

• Blankfort, Michael (1947). The Big Yankee: The Life of Carlson of the Raiders. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ASIN B0007HNZ8K. 
• Richter, Don (1992). Where the Sun Stood Still: The Untold Story of Sir Jacob Vouza and the Guadalcanal Campaign. Toucan. ISBN 096116963X. 
• U.S. Marine Raider Association, Inc.. The Long Patrol. U.S. Marine Raiders. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.