Battle of the Tenaru
The Battle of Tenaru took place on August 21, 1942, on the island of Guadalcanal. It was the first of three major land offensives by the Japanese in the Guadal canal campaign. The battle was won by the Marines, under the overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift. The landings initiated the six-month-long GuadalCanal campaign, which ended on August 25, 1944.
About Battle of the Tenaru in brief
The Battle of the Tenaru took place on August 21, 1942, on the island of Guadalcanal. It was the first of three major land offensives by the Japanese in the Guadal canal campaign. The Allied landings on the islands were meant to deny their use as bases for threatening supply routes between the U.S. and Australia. The Japanese realized after Tenaru that Allied forces on Guadal Canal were much greater in number than originally estimated and sent larger forces to the island for their subsequent attempts to retake Henderson Field. All but 128 of the original 917 of the Ichiki Regiment’s First Element died in the battle. The battle was won by the Marines, under the overall command of U. S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift. The landings initiated the six-month-long GuadalCanal campaign, which ended on August 25, 1944. The Battle of Tenaru was the last major Japanese land offensive in the Pacific campaign of World War II. The Allies were forced to withdraw from the island by the end of the month, leaving the Japanese with only the 17th Army corps to defend the island. The 17th was heavily involved with the Japanese campaign in New Guinea, where the Japanese had only a few units available to send to the southern Solomons area of the Solomon Islands. In response, the Japanese increased the total supply of food to the Allied troops to conserve limited food supplies, which were limited to two meals per day. In the battle, the Marines were defending the Lunga perimeter, which guarded Henderson Field, which was captured by the Allies on August 7.
On August 12, the airfield was named Henderson Field after Major Lofton Henderson, a Marine aviator who had been killed at the Battle of Midway. The U.K. 28th Infantry Regiment under Major General Harukichi Hyakutake was the unit responsible for retaking Henderson Field from the Allied forces. The American 4th Infantry Brigade under General Major Kiyotake Kawaguchi was the 35th Brigade in charge of retaking the island from the Japanese. The 4th Brigade was the only unit available to take on the task of taking back Henderson Field and other Allied ground forces from the Imperial Japanese Army. The Marines were able to do so, and Henderson Field was renamed Henderson Field on August 12. The 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment was the regiment responsible for taking control of the island and securing it for the Allies. The 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, was responsible for defending the perimeter around Lunga Point on the east side of the Lung a perimeter. The 5th Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment took over the defense of the perimeter and completed the perimeter on August 14. The 6th Battalion was the division responsible for protecting the perimeter from the enemy. The 7th Battalion and 4th Marines were the units responsible for guarding the perimeter of the north side of Lunga. The 1st Battalion, 7th Marines was the one that took the brunt of the fighting on August 20.
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This page is based on the article Battle of the Tenaru published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 21, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
