Actions along the Matanikau

The Actions along the Matanikau were two separate but related engagements, which took place in the months of September and October 1942. They were part of a series of engagements between the United States and Imperial Japanese naval and ground forces. The area included a peninsula called Point Cruz, the village of Kokumbona, and series of ridges and ravines stretching inland from the coast. Japanese forces used the area to regroup from attacks against U.S. forces on the island, to launch further attacks on the Allied airfield, and to watch and report on Allied activity around Henderson Field.

About Actions along the Matanikau in brief

The Actions along the Matanikau were two separate but related engagements, which took place in the months of September and October 1942. They were part of a series of engagements between the United States and Imperial Japanese naval and ground forces. The area included a peninsula called Point Cruz, the village of Kokumbona, and series of ridges and ravines stretching inland from the coast. Japanese forces used the area to regroup from attacks against U.S. forces on the island, to launch further attacks on the U. S. defenses that guarded the Allied airfield, and to watch and report on Allied activity around Henderson Field. Allied forces landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida Islands in the Solomon Islands on 7 August 1942 to deny their use by the Japanese as bases for threatening the supply routes between the U.-S. and Australia. The landings initiated the six-month-long Guadal canal Campaign, which ended in October 1942 with the liberation of the islands. The Japanese 17th Army, by this time heavily involved with the Japanese campaign in New Guinea, had only a few units available to send to the southern Solomons area. The different units began to move towards Guadal Canal immediately, but Ichariki’s regiment was the closest to the island. The first action was the Battle of Taivu Point, where Japanese destroyers plus a convoy of slow barges delivered the rest of the Kawaguchi’s brigade, including the First Ichiki regiment, were almost completely annihilated during the resulting Battle of Tenaru. The second action forced the Japanese to retreat from their positions east of the MatAnikau, and hindered Japanese preparations for their planned major offensive on the US Lunga defenses set for later in October.

The Battle for Henderson Field was the result of a battle between Allied forces and Japanese forces at Lunga Point, which resulted in the loss of 6,000 men and the destruction of a large part of the Japanese capital, Rabaul. The battle was one of the most significant battles of the war, with Allied forces eventually taking control of the island and Henderson Field, the airfield and other key Allied targets in the Pacific. The Allied landings on the islands were meant to deny the Japanese use of these islands as bases, and secure the islands as starting points for a campaign with the eventual goal of neutralizing the major Japanese base at Rabaul while also supporting the Allied New Guinea campaign. In the first action, elements of three U. s. Marine battalions under the command of U. S. Marine Major General Alexander Vandegrift attacked Japanese troop concentrations at several points around the Mat anikau River. The Marine attacks were intended to “mop-up” Japanese stragglers retreating towards the Matonikau from the recent Battle of Edson’s Ridge, and inflicted heavy casualties on a Japanese infantry regiment. The Second action two weeks later, a larger force of Marines successfully crossed the Matranikau river, attacked Japanese forces under thecommand of newly arrived generals Masao Maruyama and Yumio Nasu, and inflicting heavy casualties.

Related posts:

Battle for Henderson Field Koli Point action Naval Battle of Guadalcanal Matanikau Offensive