The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

One Brush of the Armored Sleeve-Tulagi and Tenaru with special guest Dave Holland

Episode Summary

This week Seth and Bill welcome historian and Guadalcanal expert Dave Holland to the show as they discuss the landings and subsequent fighting on Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo. After diving into some of the personal stories of the Raiders and Paramarines who fought there, the trio dives deep into the history and story of the first of many major land battles on Guadalcanal, the Battle of the Tenaru River. Check out the video to see what the team talks about.

Episode Notes

H-Hour Guadalcanal

• American intel assumed that the bulk of the Japanese were on Guadalcanal, specifically along Lunga Point
• Estimated 5,000 men
• 5th Marines secured the beachhead, 1st Marines passed through them and headed for “Grassy Knoll”
• It was assumed there would be heavy defensive fire on the beaches
• The landing on Guadalcanal could not have gone any better, as virtually no opposition was encountered
• The beach head was a jumbled mess of supplies as there were not enough marines nearby, or sailors, to unload the supplies.
• Marines pressed inland and encountered the jungle for the first time

Tulagi

• About 2 miles long ½ mile wide.  
• Japanese garrison was the 3rd Kure Special Naval Landing Force, about 350 men
• Marines that assaulted Tulagi, Florida, Gavutu/Tanambogo were:
• 1st Raiders
• 1/2
• 2/5
• 1st Parachute Btln.
• The first boots on the ground belonged to 1/2 who landed at Florida island.

• Initially, resistance was nill until the Raiders hit phase line A where they ran into stiff defenses.

• Japanese embedded themselves in caves
• Harbinger of future defensive efforts throughout the Pacific
• The night of August 7-8, the Japanese counterattacked on Tulagi, breaking marine lines in one point.
• By morning, those Japanese had all been killed

• Good personal stories of the Raiders?

Gavutu/Tanambogo

• Assigned to the 1st Parachute Battalion, numbering some 397 men
• Facing the Paras were over 500 Japanese
• Heavy Japanese resistance caused many casualties among the Paras
• By nightfall, neither island had been secured and Marine casualties had been very heavy
• Paras requested reinforcements for morning assault
• Reinforcements sent in, but the landing was a failure because of enemy fire
• Landed near the causeway instead
• Like on Tulagi, the Japanese holed up in caves and had to be blasted out
• Talk about Angus Goss (An explosion was the sweetest music conceivable)
• Talk about Harry Torgerson
• Blew up caves using dynamite
• One blast was so close that it blew the majority of his pants off of his body, exposing most of his ass surrounded by shredded pants.
• Hence the name “Raggedy Assed Marines”
• The conversation supposedly went, “Captain you done tore your pants!”  “Screw the pants!  Get me more dynamite!”
• Awarded a Silver Star for this action
• The islands were finally captured, most Japanese were killed at the loss of 70 KIA and 87 WIA
• Total casualties for Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo were 122 KIA for USMC and 863 KIA for the Japanese

Air Raid

• Once the landings were revealed to be an invasion and not a raid, Yamamoto ordered a “decisive counterattack”
• While the IJN would respond off Savo within 24 hours, the first “decisive counterattack” came by air
• 53 aircraft were involved in the initial air attack
• Mixture of Betty’s, Zeroes and Vals
• Only 12 F4Fs were aloft to intercept the incoming raiders
• Saburo Sakai
• Attacked SBDs from CV6
• Got creased in the head from a rear seat gunner in one of the SBDs
• The wound left Sakai blind in his right eye, his left side was paralyzed, and his Zero was shot to pieces
• Sakai losing blood quickly, fought off death by punching himself in his wound to stay conscious, and managed to steer his crippled airplane the 565 miles back to Rabaul

• The raid achieved nothing in terms of stopping the landing, but it did deprive the Americans of most of their fighter contingent from the CVs, thus compelling Fletcher to pull his CVs back away from Canal as he did not have the fighter capability to withstand another attack by torpedo carrying Betty’s (or so he thought anyway) 
• Pulling his CVs back put them out of reach for proper patrols the next day, which could have spotted Mikawa’s force coming south to destroy the Allied force in what would be Savo Island

Tenaru

• By the time the Tenaru battle unfolded, the Marines had been ashore for 3 weeks
• No serious Japanese counterattacks had yet been made against Canal
• On August 10, plans had been drawn up to send forces to Guadalcanal to expel the invaders
• One of the units selected was the 28th Infantry Regiment, under COL Kiyoano Ichiki
• Due to poor intel, a lack of Allied naval activity or aerial presence on Guadalcanal, the Japanese thought that the majority of Americans had been withdrawn from Guadalcanal
• Who was Ichiki?
• Known expert in infantry tactics
• Commanded rifle units in China
• His actions are said to have started the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, often marked as the beginning of WWII
• Very headstrong, was slated to land at Midway
• Believed that the sword and night tactics of traditional Japanese infantry could and would best any defensive positions he may encounter

• Ichiki Detachment numbered some 900 men

The Battle begins

• 2/1 had set up their positions in the days before the attack 
• Myth says that they set up their positions only hours before the attack because of Jacob Vouza’s warning
• Dispel the myth of Vouza here

• Dug in MG positions manned by H/2/1 and rifle positions manned by G/2/1 stretched from the ocean front down “stream” on the west bank of the river

• Marines had 1917 water cooled MGs, some 50 caliber weapons, and several 37mm anti-tank weapons, at least two of which were supplied with canister shot

• Ichiki’s plan was to essentially march down the beach, and assault the Marine positions, eventually capturing the airfield and a further position around Lunga

Attack and Annihilation

• Initial contact was made shortly after midnight, with scattered rifle shots between Marine Ops and Ichiki’s van

• Around 0200 the first wave of Japanese troops came crashing across the sand bar

• This wave was met by strong defensive fire from MGs, 37s, and artillery
• Wave was essentially wiped out after a few broke through into Marine lines and engaged in hand to hand
• At least three more waves of attackers hit the Marine lines only to be slaughtered by withering fire
• Johnny Rivers, Diamond and Al Schmid
• Frank Pomroy

• Marine artillery walked itself down the Japanese side of the river and collected in a grove where it presumably broke up another potential assault.
• Following this, the Japanese holed up on their side of the river and a firefight ensued all night long
• The following morning, elements of 1/1 crossed the river and flanked what was left of Ichiki’s unit
• Slowly, the Marines closed the trap around Ichiki, forcing the survivors to dart across the coconut grove or into the sea where they were killed by riflemen

• M3 tanks under the command of Lt Leo Case crossed the sand bar and turned into the coconut grove eliminating what was left of the enemy

• Over 777 dead Japanese littered the field of battle

• 1 surrendered, and 12 wounded were taken prisoner
•  
• Marine losses were around 44 KIA and 71 WIA

Implications on the Campaign

• Japanese refusal to surrender informed the Marines how the war would be fought from here on 
• Wounded Japanese tried to kill those attempting to help them
• Rather die than surrender

CLOSER:

1st Mar Div report of Tulagi Operation:

“The combat assumed the nature of a storming operation from the outset, a soldier’s battle, unremitting and relentless, to be decided only by the extermination of one or the other of the adversaries engaged.”