Guadalcanal 72 Years On

[kham]

est 164th occupies Koli point. Marines have had trouble crossing the flooded Nalimbu, tonight they catch up with the 164th.

A SBD on dawn patrol attacks a sub near Lunga point. It gets away. This is a *midget* submarine deployed from the mothership I-20.

est F4Fs try attacking the return leg of a TE run They get some 100 pound bomb hits but F4Fx3 are shot down.

est Army/Marines at Koli move E. towards Metapona river.

est Bougainville: Coastwatcher Jack Read retreats. He's been ordered to maintain radio silence while the J. are chasing him.

The first Marine Navajo codetalkers to see action landed on 'canal today.

est The midget sub from this morning torps the TR Majaba! Majaba had already unloaded. She is damaged badly enough that she is beached near the mouth of the Tenaru river. (Majaba is eventually repaired) The midget sub escapes to the recently established midget sub base in NW 'canal. IJN midget subs had a hard time in the 'canal campaign. A total of 8 were sunk.

[kham]

est Gen Geiger (H. air boss), suffering from PTSD, is relieved by Louis Woods It took 2 months and 4 days to wear down Geiger. Tough job! Woods' promotion changes him "from a kindly old Colonel to a blood-thirsty Brigadier General" - Woods. Blood-thirsty is handy since, with Rabaul's 11th air fleet shattered, H. will be going on offense in the lower Solomons.

est Long Patrol: small firefight at Reko river. 2 J. killed, a native scout wounded.

est DDx5 takes 500 troops on a TE run. En route they are attacked by H. bombers and PT boats but no DDs are hit and the troops make it to 'canal late tonight.

est The weather has cleared up around Bougainville. Jack Read sees *Twelve* fast transports headed to 'canal. This is a big deal. He breaks radio silence and gets the word out. The transports are carrying the 38th Division. ('canal is their *eventual* destination - right now they're going to Shortlands.)

est Incoming TE, DDx11, sighted by H. recon. (Looks like 2 separate TE runs tonight. Or a book (or me) got a date wrong.)

Adm. Fitch is grabbing AC from all over the Pacific. SBDx6, P-39x12 arrive H. Fitch also sets up a B-26 squadron for torpedo bombing. They can attack out of Espiritu Santo on short notice and may refuel at H.

est The main body of the IJA 38th division arrives at Shortlands - staging area for 'canal runs.
(Amazing how, month after month, this campaign keeps escalating.)

est SBDx7, TBFx3, attack the incoming (DDx11) TE. P-39x12 provide air cover (F4Fx22 show up later) DDs Naganami, Takanami somewhat damaged by near-misses, 17 casualties (US thought they were heavily damaged) IJN taking desperate measures to provide aircover - using float Zeros and float bi-planes (lighly armed recon planes) 6 Float Zeros tangle with Joe Foss and his section of F4Fx7. All 6 Float Zeros shot down. All 6 J. pilots parachuted. All 6 cut themselves loose from their chutes and fall to their deaths. 1 F4F shot down, 2 run out of gas and ditch - pilots rescued.
Joe Foss goes after a couple of the float biplanes.

[kham]

est The DDx11 TE run delivers 1,100 troops
est Koli: Marines cross Metapona river. They get word that IJA artillery on the beach has been firing at USN DDs the previous night.

est Enterprise is being repaired. As of right now, the estimate is that she won't be able to perform air operations until Nov 21.

est At a staff meeting, regarding the Battle of Santa Cruz, Nimitz notes the rotten performance of US DD torpedoes. At same meeting, Nimitz notes IJN intentions and what ships are available on both sides.

Here are the actual IJN numbers CVx2, BBx4, CAx5, DDx30 --- Halsey has 3 TFs available ...Near 'canal there is a CA, DDx3 escorting TRs CAx3, DDx5 very close to that. the 3rd TF, BBx2, DDx4, is at Noumea - 700 miles away

Adm. Ugaki is reading IJA reports on 'canal. "We can't believe or trust what the army says."
The November offensive is the latest IJN/IJA joint effort. They don't work well together.
After studying last month's battles, the J. conclude they could have captured H. last month. They're confident the 38th (Nagoya) division will succeed this month.
est Long Patrol: the other half of Carlson's battalion arrives at Aola. They'll catch up with him soon.
est Koli: Marines/Army keep moving E.
They reach Gavaga creek - about 2,000 yards E. of Metapona. The only good crossing point is at the mouth - an ideal ambush site.

est Halsey visits 'canal He sees how ragged the Marines are and vows to speed up replacements. Next up, Americal Division's 182nd Regt.

[kham]

est Yamamoto sends operational order for new attack on H. It is intercepted and decoded by HYPO. Ref #1, heavy air attacks. Rabaul's air power hasn't been renewed. Yamamoto is ignoring reality. (**what a shock )
Rabaul and Buin airfields have few Zeros left. They are unable to protect J. shipping in the Slot. IJN tried setting up a seaplane Zero base at E. Bougainville but those were shot down by the first week of Nov.

est As US forces poke around near Gavaga creek hidden IJA open fire. US forces suffer 4 dead, 2 MIA, 30 injured - including Puller. Much to his disgust, Puller is evacuated the next day. --- Army/Marine will send some units inland to surround the J.

est Marines call in air support to pound J. defending Gavaga. When the AC attack, the J. blunder. J. use tracer rounds in their MGs to help aim at the AC... that gives away their well concealed positions to the Marines across the creek! Marines use massive fire power to kill off many MG positions.

TF 67 departs Noumea - will transport 2 batts of 182nd Inf and Marine replacements. TRx4, CA, DDx3 - Adm. Turner commands. The IJA 38th Division and the US Army's 182 Regt. will arrive at 'canal at almost the same time.

Halsey Dines.

est While 1 Marine batt. pins the IJA at Gavaga, another batt moves inland and crosses the creek 1,000 yards S. They creep through the jungle and get to the other side of the IJA position.

est Sub I-21 torps Transport Edgar Allen Poe near Noumea. Poe is towed to Noumea and partially repaired. USN deploys a scarce ASW hunter-killer group to this area to try and get the J. sub problem under control.

est Another TE run. PT boats intercept but don't accomplish anything besides making the DD Captains nervous. One of the PTs is hit by a 5" shell that passes through without detonating. Tokyo Express finishes landing 228th Regt of 38th division They've landed between Kokumbona and Cape Esperance over the last week or 2. Just like the 230th, they're waiting for their heavy equipment before they start the Nov offensive.

est Gen. Tadayoshi Sano, commander 38th division, is at Tassafaronga after arriving on the TE a few hours ago. Some of his division is on 'canal - the other 12,000* men and 10,000 tons of supplies are on 12 IJA fast transports at Shortlands. They'll be leaving soon - preceded by a double Battleship bombardment to keep H. bombers from destroying them. *(10,000, 12,000, 14,400. Every source has a different count on how many troops are on those transports. "Many")

[kham]

est CL, DDx8 depart Truk for Shortlands to link up with Abe's bombardment force

esd Coastwatcher Paul Mason is keeping an eye on Shortlands. He reports *61* ships including CAx6 and DDx33(!)

TF 62.4 departs Espiritu Santo with 182nd Regt., support personnel, lots of ammo, supplies. TRx4, CLAA, DDx4 (Adm. Norman Scott)

est Intel gives accurate estimate of Y's plan from 3 days ago (14,500 troops, BB bombardment and so on) Strength, intentions and schedule!

est Lt. Yunck makes it to Kuper's house at Santa Isabel. Impatient, he suggests they go to Rekata bay and hijack an IJN plane. Kuper doubles his effort to get this maniac rescued. Yunck is canoed away on Nov 16.

est Long Patrol: The 3 companies of raiders that arrived at Aola yesterday take a barge to Tasimboko. They'll march to Binu after that.
Koli: Marine's 2/7 has made it all the way around to the other side of the IJA at Gavaga. They start probing to find the IJA perimeter.

[kham]

est Long Patrol: Carlson sets up a camp at Binu - SW of Koli point. This is positioned to cut off a J. retreat from Koli. Koli (near Gavaga): Marine's 2/7 probe finds a small J. force which flees. They keep probing. The Marine's 2/7 probes have found the main force at Gavaga. The IJA are dug in at the top of a steep creek bank.
est Given plenty of time to setup, US artillery and bombers are reducing the IJA pocket at Gavaga
est Marine's 2/7 unable to force their way across the creek. J. punish the attempt - Marines take 48 casualties. 2/7 is down to 300 men. (a typical Army/Marine battalion is about 850 men. Unless they're fresh off the boat, there are no full strength units on 'canal)

est Army/Marines have mostly surrounded the J. near Gavaga creek. There's a gap in the S. the US can't close due to the difficulty in moving through the swamp there.
est The Army's 2nd batt, 164th, is pushing through the jungle and still hasn't made it to their positions. The other Army batt has been sent back to H.

IJN Sub I-15 - surfaced near San Cristobal (SE of 'canal) APD Southard - supply run to Aola Bay. Southard spots I-15, opens fire. I-15 fires two torpedoes at Southard then dives. Both torps miss Southard. Southard starts depth charging I-15. Southard is still attacking I-15 (2hrs)

TF 67.4 departs Espiritu Santo - job is to defend TF 67 and 62.4 then block the bombardment of H. predicted by Sigint. TF 67.4 has CAx2, CLx2, DDx6 (Adm. Callaghan)
Halsey asks MacArthur to use his long range bombers to attack Buin and other staging areas in S. Bougainville ...between Nov 11-14 and for extra recon on approaches to Guadalcanal.
Southard is *still* attacking I-15 (4hrs...)

[kham]

est Nimitz to Halsey (referring to Yamato's plan mentioned 4 days ago (BB bombardment, TRs and such)): ..."While this looks like a big push, I am confident that you with your forces will take their measure."
Halsey's forces - CV (still under repair - can it leave port?), BBx2 (1 slightly damaged), CAx4, CL/CLAAx4, DDx22 (most are already at sea)

est The situation in Koli is under control so US will resume offensive towards Kokumbuna. Marines push W. from Point Cruz.

Southard is **still** attacking I-15 (Wrong ocean, but you get the idea.)
The Enemy below

I-15 forced to surface! From 2,000 yards Southard opens fire. HIT! I-15 sinks with no survivors. (Picture from 1939)

[kham]

est Adm Turner hears about the I-15 sinking. He decides the evasive route he had planned to take with the convoy won't work. With subs everywhere, he decides to use the shortest route so as to spend the least amount of time in range of enemy subs.
TF 62.4 (Scott) spotted by IJN recon plane. Rabaul spreads the word about the location and composition of this TF. HYPO intercepts and lets Scott know what Rabaul had said. Therefore, the IJN know an possible interception surface warship force is in the area AND Scott knows that the J. know. JN change bombardment plan* to allow for the possibility of an intercept - USN *KNOWS* they've changed their plan. *HYPO gets this too.

est 15 Zeros try a fighter sweep over H. F4Fx31 scramble to meet them. Only 2 F4Fs find the Zeros. Nobody shoots down anybody.

est Gavaga: Marching through unfamiliar jungle has the Marines and Army baffled. Most units, trying to completely surround the IJA pocket, are not where command expects them to be. Not much gets done today on this front. A battalion of the 164th tries to close the gap S. of the J. pocket near Gavaga creek. They fail and their commander is fired.

[kham]

est Long Patrol: On the way to Binu, the 3 companies of Raiders from Tasimboko kill 3 J. stragglers. Carlson's whole force assembles at Binu today.

est SBDx5, F4Fx17 attack incoming TE of DDx5. No hits.

Gavaga: The IJA get out while the getting is good. Exploiting the gap to the south, 1,000 quietly leave during the night.

est TE drops off more men. Between Nov 2-10 TE runs have delivered 9,000 men of the 38th to 'canal.

[kham]

TF 62.4 is off Lunga point. More reinforcements and supplies for H.
F4Fx8 depart H. They're going to the float plane base at Rekata Bay and strafe every plane they can find. Why? To suppress IJN recon of incoming USN ships around 'canal. --- The raid is effective.

est Very bad weather shuts down US infantry action W. of Matanikau today.

The Enterprise goes to sea even though the forward elevator is still not working. Things are that serious. She can manipulate planes at half speed so she'll be sluggish in flight ops. Problematic if she comes into conflict with Junyo/Hiyo. Among the escorts for Ent are the BBs Washington and S. Dakota. SD still has damaged main gun turret - has just 2/3rds of big guns working.

Gap S. of Gavaga sealed - J. are trapped. However, only the ones that are too wounded to travel are left. The Army batt. moves in and finds just those wounded. --- ***J. give up on the area East of H.*** And that is that for the IJA's Koli Point adventure for November. --- Americans lost 40 killed, 2 MIA, 120 wounded. J. had 350 killed. The rest of the Shoji's force get to march across the foothills of Mt. Austen headed to Kokumbona. Carlsen's Raiders will "escort" them.

Coastwatchers tip off an incoming Zero/Val raid. IJN tries a serious air raid to keep supplies from H. before the big IJN ships pay a visit. Thanks to the coastwatcher warning, the TRs and escorts had time to get in a defensive formation. 9 Vals and 18 Zeros from CV Hiyo* attack TRx4 off Lunga. *originally from Hiyo - they're based on Bougainville today. USN didn't know this so they're worried an IJN CV is in the area. Enterprise now expects a chance at carrier on carrier combat. The lack of IJN CV sightings just makes Ent. more nervous. Vals attack the TRs delivering an Army regt. TR Zeilin takes a near miss. Alerted by the coastwatchers, F4Fs are waiting at 18,000 ft. H. F4Fs shoot down 4 Zeros and 5 Vals 6 F4Fs shot down, 4 pilots killed. I'm guessing the F4Fs got into dogfights. They've been feasting off the lower quality pilots out of Rabaul recently but these Zeros were flown by the carrier pilots - who are now more experienced than the surviving Rabaul pilots. Also, the F4F squadron doing the intercept had the greenest pilots at H.

Almost ready for the November offensive, the IJA have 30,000 men on 'canal! Many are starving, sick or both.
est On the Kokumbona front, the Marines have advanced to where they had been on Nov 4th. Kokumbona is critical. Not only is it 17th Army HQ, it's the base of the supply trail to Mt. Austen (which the J. are fortifying) Newly arrived Gen. Takeo Ito takes a reserve force of 5,000 men to defend Kokumbuna. Gen. Ito prepares a trap! He moves his force 5,000 yards inland and prepares to strike the Marines from the side as they advance.
Long Patrol Carlson sends most of his men out looking for the J. who escaped Gavaga. They find them! 3 out of 4 companies are in hot fire fights with Shoji's 230th Regt.
Long Patrol The commander of the Raider's D company wanders into the base camp at Binu. He says he doesn't know where his unit is, thinks they might have been wiped out. D company is fine. While the commander was lost, Gunnery Sgt. Schrier took over and disengaged from the fight. D company commander is fired on the spot.

Unloaded - the TRs off Lunga, escorted only by DD Lardner, return to Espirtu Santo. The other escorts hang around Lunga waiting for TF 67.

est 1/2 Vandegrift, with intel about a major IJA reinforcement convoy, decides defense of the Lunga perimeter is more important ...than the advance to Kokumbuna. Marines pull back all the way across the Matanikau. AND... The Washington Post reports that Vandegrift "captured the J. landing code, and he knew when and where they were coming in"

Long Patrol Shoji's men disengage. I suppose they think it's over now. Just a long walk to Kokumbona. Marines had 10 killed in today's action - they estimate they killed 120 J.