Break Out

After Major General Kawaguchi’s failed attack on Henderson Field, the commander of the 17th Army, Lieutenant General Harukichi Hyakutake, is beginning to plan his next assault. Lieutenant General Maruyama and his 2nd Infantry Division landed on Guadalcanal at the beginning …

1942-10-07

Guad09

After Major General Kawaguchi’s failed attack on Henderson Field, the commander of the 17th Army, Lieutenant General Harukichi Hyakutake, is beginning to plan his next assault. Lieutenant General Maruyama and his 2nd Infantry Division landed on Guadalcanal at the beginning of October. Along the Matanikau River, Maruyama has replaced the 124th Infantry under Colonel Oka with three battalions of the 4th Infantry Regiment under Major General Nasu. The Japanese have started preparing defenses on the eastern side of the river, from which artillery will be able to bombard Marine positions around Henderson Field. The 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, led by Lieutenant Ito, is to defend the eastern bank and the mouth of the river so that the rest of the Japanese forces can cross in preparation for their attack on Henderson Field. Vandegrift is still determined to wipe out the Japanese threat that remains west of the Matanikau. With Japanese forces building up, he hopes to keep the Japanese off balance and keep Henderson Field protected by launching an immediate attack. The Marines again settle on the same general plan that was used in the last two battles along the river. The 5th Marines will attack across the sandbar at the mouth of the river, while the 7th and 2nd Marines, along with support from Marine Scouts and Snipers (the Whaling Group), will cross upstream at ‘One Log Bridge’ and attack north. Unlike the previous defeat, these five battalions will be coordinated in a cohesive attack with planned air and artillery support. The 5th Marines have unexpectedly run into the Japanese on the eastern bank, so they move to surround the Japanese who have prepared a defensive line.

Guadalcanal

The Actions along the Matanikau—sometimes referred to as the Second and Third Battles of the Matanikau—were two separate but related engagements, which took place in the months of September and October 1942, among a series of engagements between the United States and Imperial Japanese naval and ground forces around the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal Island in the southwestern Pacific northeast of Australia, during the Guadalcanal campaign. These particular engagements—the first taking place between 23 and 27 September, and the second between 6 and 9 October—were two of the largest and most significant of the Matanikau actions.

Wikipedia: Actions along the Matanikau

Japanese

American