Goettge’s Patrol

The 5th Marines have captured a Japanese warrant officer named Tsuneto Sakado. He divulged that a group of demoralized Okinawan and Korean laborers and Japanese engineers from Henderson Field are in a camp west of the Matanikau River. Colonel Goettge, …

1942-08-12

Guad01

The 5th Marines have captured a Japanese warrant officer named Tsuneto Sakado. He divulged that a group of demoralized Okinawan and Korean laborers and Japanese engineers from Henderson Field are in a camp west of the Matanikau River. Colonel Goettge, the intelligence officer who interviewed Sakado, has led a detachment of the 5th Marine Regiment to patrol the area and obtain the group’s surrender. Goettge was warned by Colonel Whaling to land west of Point Cruz, but the patrol has accidentally landed east of the point where Japanese resistance is still reported. While Colonel Goettge is leading a group to recon the jungle, the remaining Marines have set up a defensive perimeter around the landing site and are attacked by a strong Japanese force led by Lt. Soichi Shindo

Guadalcanal

Prior to the Marine invasion of the Solomon Islands in Operation Watchtower, Goettge, Division D-2 augmented Marine Intelligence when he traveled to Australia spending a week in Melbourne and a few days in Sydney gathering information on the Islands from people who lived and worked there. In addition to information gleaned from interviews Goettge brought eight Australians to where the First Marine Division was forming in Wellington, New Zealand. The Marines landed on Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942, and within several days rounded up a number of Japanese Navy laborers, who had been assigned to construct the airfield at Lunga Point. Most were malnourished and sick from tropical illnesses. A Japanese warrant officer was among the prisoners and, after being plied with alcohol, told the Marines that there were a number of Japanese west of the Matanikau River. These soldiers were reportedly sick, demoralized, and willing to surrender. At about the same time, Marines near the Matanikau perimeter reported seeing a white flag flying from a tree. It is possible that this was actually a normal Japanese flag with the Hinomaru disc insignia obscured.

Wikipedia: Frank Goettge Patrol

Japanese

American