Episode Details

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