October 3, 1942

Two bombings at night. Seven bombs each time. A raid at dawn but they were intercepted. We lost four to their two. Major Smith was shot down. He said they'd all pay. Another raid and he got four planes. We got five altogether. Seven bombers, three Zeros strafed field. Sgt. Kruse at HQ got one with 50 cal.

"Old Kruse was a Marine private when I first met him with 12 or 15 years service. He'd been kicked out of the Marine Corps on a bad conduct discharge, and re-instated back into the service. Anyway, Frank had a whole bunch of hash marks and one Pfc. stripe (laughs).

One time we had a tent there that was supposed to be full of Japanese beer or Saki. I took a truck one day with two or three of my people...and I went down there and there was a Marine sentry walking around with a rifle in his hands and he said "Wait til I get on the other side, then duck under and get some". So he went on around and we zipped under this tent and grabbed three or four or five cases of whatever and away we went. And we get out there somewhere and we run across Frank Kruse.

So old Frank says "Garrett, what you got... what you got over there..." and I say "Hey Frank, we got a bunch of Japanese beer." He had some Japanese liquor or Saki or something - we didn't know what we had. And he said "Hey, I'll give you a bottle of this for a case of that..." I said "Hell no Frank, you think I'm crazy?" Anyway we went on to the battery and you know these bottles were all written in Japanese; they were brown bottles, looked like beer bottles. Turned out to be vinegar. I wonder if its possible it might have been wine that went bad? I have never thought of that...but I sure wished I had taken Frank Kruse up on his offer (laughs)."

October 15, 1942

First shelling since cruiser on September 13. This time was worse as shells were falling everywhere. Few casualties. Three waves of bombers - 25 in the first, nine in the second, eight in the third.

* For several days, Japanese naval and air units unleashed heavy attacks on Guadalcanal. The battleships Kongo and Haruna bombarded U.S. positions on the island for 90 minutes with 14 inch guns and inflicted great damage. Henderson Field was knocked out temporarily. Only 42 aircraft were left operational and aviation fuel was down to critical levels. It is estimated the Japanese battleships fired 973 rounds. This was the worse shelling the Marines endured during World War II.

Communications building destroyed during shelling of Henderson Field

"All of the Cactus Air Force guys slept in the woods right behind our position. And during shellings and things you know we had large bunkers; eight or nine men could lay down in side by side and it was covered over by logs and sand bags and things like that. Of course, I don't think they would of held up to a direct hit or anything. Those pilots would come out and would get in our fox holes with us during naval shellings and night bombing raids. And there's something about combat that's mysterious in the sense that...you can be laying in a fox hole and go into uncontrollable shaking or shivering and its contagious. It'll just go right down the line. And if, say you're the one that started it - or I'm the one that started it - you'll hear somebody say "Garrett you bastard" (laughs)...and I'm shaking like hell and everybody else is shaking like hell too...its a quivering sort of state; I guess its nervous tension."

 

Captain Donald L. Dickson, USMCR --------------------------- Capt Donald L. Dickson said of his watercolor: "I wanted to catch on paper the feeling one had as a shell comes whistling over. ... There is a sense of being alone, naked and unprotected. And time seems endless until the shell strikes somewhere."

October 16, 1942

Short shelling in night. Japs are landing on beach 20 miles distance. Six transports and four destroyers. One of our PBY's kept us awake most of night but got a Jap ship. 22 bombers came over at 12:40am. An alert at four. They say our fleet is out there. 'Maytag Charlie' came over three times with one, two, and seven bombs. Shelling that lasted 1 1/2 hours. Seven dive bombers came in morning. Raining too.

* Japanese reinforcements (about 4,000 men) landed at Tassafaronga point on Guadalcanal. U.S. supplies also reached the island, mostly aboard transport planes.

 

"We were shelled by cruisers beginning at midnight because they had to stay out of range of our planes. About dark they would head full speed ahead in our direction to shell, then later would cut off about 3am to give them time to get out of range before daylight. Therefore we saw a lot of activity between midnight and 3am, in regards to shelling. We had a daytime shelling from naval ships - they might have been, I guess, destroyers. We could see the shells and the Japs shelling our forces. Of course, we were inshore and we thought it was our forces shelling the Japs. But we could see the shells tumbling end over end, which is something you wouldn't hardly believe unless you'd seen it...but its true because I saw it."

October 25, 1942

Battle started at 12:30. Lots of noise from planes all morning. Watched nine go down - three parachutes. More coming. At 1pm, five dive bombers dived our wrecked planes. We lost two, got 21.

*Japanese forces attempted to cross the Matanikou River. This day marked the beginning of the Battle of the Matanikou.

This arial view shows the series of ridges fought over and defended by Col. 'Chesty' Puller's 7th Marines in October and the Battle of the Matanikou. The dough-nut shaped ridge to the rear is Bloody Ridge, the site of Col. 'Red Mike' Edson's defense of the previous month, with Henderson Field in the distance.

During the first night Sgt. John Basilone defended his central position with a small handful of Marines. After charging down a jungle trail, holding his machine gun by its tripod and killing six of the enemy, he set up his weapon on a slight ridge then repaired two other machine guns which had been disabled by the Japanese. Rolling from gun to gun, Basilone kept up a murderous fire in the face of repeated assaults by a determined foe. As the enemy worked their way around to his rear, he would pause and shoot behind his position with his pistol. By morning, having fired off 26,000 rounds, his guns were burnt out. " Manilla John" Basilone received the Medal of Honor for his action. Although sent state-side, he requested and received permission to rejoin his unit. He was killed by a mortar burst shortly after landing on Iwo Jima.

On the second day of the battle, Sgt. Mitchell Paige won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Hurling genades then cradling a 30 cal. water cooled machine gun in his arms, Paige lead a charge on Japanese positions in the jungle at the foot of the ridge. After sitting down, he noticed his forearms were blistered from wrist to elbow.

Five Japanese tanks sit dead in the water near the mouth of the Matanikou River, destroyed by Marine 37mm gunfire

October 29, 1942

All quiet on southern front. Slow drizzling rain all day. Another false alarm. Made water run and picked up Jap washing machine.

"One day, soon after the drive on the Matanikou, we go back to the battery - me and several troops from my section - went back to pick up whatever ammunition was left behind. I said "Harry, lets make one last bucket of coffee". So we lit a fire, and put the proper amount of water in there and the coffee was going good...it was like four o'clock in the afternoon, somewhere in that neighborhood...and we heard a creaking noise. It was a noise I didn't identify, and in combat one of the scariest things a man can do is holler "uh oh". Sombody says "uh oh", and you're saying "what is it, what is it, what is it!" And I'm listening to that weird noise and somebody says "uh oh" and takes off just running and those hard steel heels are just hitting that deck "bloom, bloom, bloom" and we were on the edge of a clear field - we were back in the trees next to the airstrip - so we all just follow...we all run like crazy, run out into the opening and here comes a tree just tumbling down - blom! Right on our tent! The tree had been cut through enough with naval shelling - shrapnel - that it was ready to fall, and when the wind hit it right, it just come right on over. When we heard one of our group running...they just stampeded, and I went with them. But some of us didn't know why we were running and I'm not sure the guy who was running did either. But that was frightening - that puts your heart up in your throat. You know, when somebody's out there shooting, that's a different kind of fear...this was sudden fright."

October 31, 1942

Started drive and at dark was four hours ahead of schedule. Sgt Kruse was hit and killed by 'One Lung'. Plenty hot, plus Jap artillery. Reached position after dark and then had to bring up ammo.
 

'Here Lies a Devil Dog'

" Sgt. Kruse was killed on the same grassy hill from which he had single handedly shot down an attacking Jap Zero with a 50 cal. machine gun on October 3rd, just three weeks before. 'One Lung' or 'Washing Machine Charley' came in and dropped a bomb on him. I heard 'Charley' was finally shot down at Rabaul by ground fire. They were shooting at our planes just as 'Charley' was coming in - he got caught in the spotlights and was shot down by his own guys."

*This was the beginning of the push on Kokumbona. Japanese were trapped on the beaches as Marines crossed the Matanikou driving west.

(Photo Missing)

"The surrounded Japanese, with their backs to the ocean, were mopped up in three successive bayonet assaults." - The Old Breed