THE BATTLE OF GUADALCANAL: HELL IN THE PACIFIC AUG 1942- FEB 1943

1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries Podcast

Jon Hagadorn

Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2025

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The land campaign on Guadalcanal
The initial amphibious assault on the southern Solomons represented a superb coordination of Allied naval, air, and ground forces. Warships laid down heavy barrages to screen the approach of troop transports and carrier-based planes, and U.S. Army Air Forces bombers softened Japanese defenses. Landing craft took the Marines ashore at key points throughout the islands. The Marines rapidly secured a beachhead on Guadalcanal and captured the almost-complete airstrip that would become Henderson Field. They also seized the smaller islands of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanombogo. While the Japanese construction units on Guadalcanal were overcome with comparative ease—or simply melted away into the jungle—the defenders of Tulagi and Gavatu included elements of the elite Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF), and they fought desperately. The battle for Tulagi saw the Japanese garrison destroyed virtually to the last man; this would serve as a grim preview of later engagements in the U.S. campaign in the Pacific.

#Semper Fi

Transcript

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0:00.0	The day is August 12, 1942, and you have been assigned to a 25-man patrol on a mission to pick up Japanese deserters on the island of Guadalcanal
0:21.0	in order to gather intelligence that would be needed to assess Japanese troop strength on the island.
0:28.0	Your Marine Regiment has landed just five days before
0:31.2	and been able to capture the airfield that the Japanese had been building.
0:35.9	Up to this point, with the arrival of the Marines being a total surprise, there had been
0:40.5	little resistance.
0:42.9	Your CEO is Lieutenant Colonel Frank Brian Getke, a 47-year-old Marine Corps veteran and senior
0:49.0	officer for D-2 intelligence who had served in the Ardennes offensive in World War I that knew his way around.
0:55.0	Also attached to the patrol was translator Ralph T. Corey, who in civilian life had held a government job as a Japanese translator.
1:04.0	There was Lieutenant Commander Malcolm Pratt, regimental surgeon, and other intelligence scouts and infantry.
1:14.6	You are the platoon sergeant.
1:20.7	It's 9 p.m. and you're with your platoon supporting this group of intelligence officers,
1:26.5	cruising in a tank lighter crafted 9 p.m. at night, seeking a landing west of Point Cruise on the north shore of the 90-mile-long
1:28.8	tropical island called Guadalcanal.
1:34.4	The Japanese, you have been told, are amassed near the shoreline west of the Matanikau
1:39.0	estuary, which your patrol is assigned to enter, traveling upstream for the purpose of picking up
1:45.5	surrendering Japanese. A captured Japanese naval warrant officer had informed intelligence
1:52.0	that there were many men who would surrender if given a chance. In addition to this,
1:57.5	some of the Korean laborers forced into service by the Japanese had made it through
2:01.9	the lines to surrender, providing additional information on defenses. Commander Getki was
2:08.3	hoping they could avoid losses on Guadalcanal if they could persuade the Japanese to surrender,
2:13.7	a critical part of this mission. There was no moon tonight, only the darkness and the dim form of the jungle that began where the thin strip of sand marking the beach ended.
	...

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