page_title: Actions along the Matanikau
section_title: Action
hierarchical_section_title: Actions along the Matanikau / September action / Action
caption_attribution_description: View looking south over Point Cruz, Guadalcanal shows the jumble of sharp-grassed ridges, foothills and mountainous jungle which was Guadalcanal. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-M-Guadalcanal/USMC-M-Guadalcanal-1.html "X" marks the spot on March 27, 1942 where three companies from "Chesty" Puller's U.S. Marine battalion were surrounded by Japanese forces and almost annihilated. Modified by user:cla68 on 19 Mar 07.
context_page_description: The Actions along the Matanikau—sometimes referred to as the Second and Third Battles of the Matanikau—were two separate but related engagements, which took place in the months of September and October 1942, among a series of engagements between the United States and Imperial Japanese naval and ground forces around the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal Island in the southwestern Pacific northeast of Australia, during the Guadalcanal campaign. These particular engagements—the first taking place between 23 and 27 September, and the second between 6 and 9 October—were two of the largest and most significant of the Matanikau actions.
  The Matanikau River area included a peninsula called Point Cruz, the village of Kokumbona, and a series of ridges and ravines stretching inland from the coast.
context_section_description: The 930 men of Puller's battalion marched west from the Lunga perimeter early on the morning of 23 September. Later that morning, Puller's troops chased away two Japanese patrols that were reconnoitering the Marine Lunga defenses. Puller's battalion then camped for the night and prepared to climb Mount Austen the next day.
  At 17:00 on 24 September, as Puller's men hiked up the northeast slope of Mount Austen, they surprised and killed a bivouac of 16 Japanese soldiers. The noise from the skirmish alerted several companies of Oka's Maizuru Battalion, who were emplaced nearby. The Maizuru troops quickly attacked Puller's Marines, who took cover and returned fire. Acting on Oka's orders, the Japanese slowly disengaged while withdrawing towards the Matanikau River, and the engagement was over by nightfall. The Marines counted 30 dead Japanese and had suffered 13 dead and 25 wounded. Puller radioed headquarters and requested help to evacuate the wounded. Vandegrift replied that he would send the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment (2/5) as reinforcements the next day.
  2/5—under Lieutenant Colonel David McDougal—rendezvoused with Puller's unit early on 25 September. Puller sent his casualties back to the Lunga perimeter with three companies of his battalion and continued on with the mission with his remaining company (Company C), his headquarters staff, and 2/5, and they bivouacked for the night between Mount Austen and the Matanikau River.
  On the morning of 26 September, Puller and McDougal's troops reached the Matanikau River and attempted to cross over a bridge previously built by the Japanese that was called the "one-log bridge". Because of resistance by about 100 Japanese defenders around the bridge, the Marines instead proceeded north along the east bank of the Matanikau to the sand spit on the coast at the mouth of the river. Oka's troops repulsed a Marine attempt to cross the Matanikau at the sand spit as well as another attempt to cross the one-log bridge later in the afternoon. In the meantime, Griffith's Raider battalion—along with Merritt A. Edson, commander of the 5th Marine Regiment—joined Puller and McDougal's troops at the mouth of the Matanikau.
  Edson brought with him a "hastily devised" plan of attack—primarily written by Lieutenant Colonel Merrill B. Twining, a member of Vandegrift's division staff—that called for Griffith's Raiders—along with Puller's Company C—to cross the one-log bridge and then outflank the Japanese at the river mouth/sand spit from the south. At the same time, McDougal's battalion was to attack across the sand spit. If the attacks were successful, the rest of Puller's battalion would land by boat west of Point Cruz to take the Japanese by surprise from the rear. Aircraft from Henderson Field—as well as Marine 75 mm (2.95 in) and 105 mm (4.1 in) artillery—would provide support for the operation. The Marine offensive would begin the next day, on 27 September.
  The Marine attack on the morning of 27 September did not make much headway. Griffith's Raiders were unable to advance at the one-log bridge over the Matanikau, suffering several casualties, including the death of Major Kenneth D. Bailey and the wounding of Griffith. A flanking attempt by the Raiders further upstream also failed. The Japanese, who had reinforced their units at the mouth of the Matanikau during the night with additional companies from the 124th Infantry Regiment, repulsed the attacks by McDougal's men.
  As a result of "garbled" messages from Griffith because of a Japanese air raid on Henderson Field that disrupted the Marine communication's net, Vandegrift and Edson believed that the Raiders had succeeded in crossing the Matanikau. Therefore, Puller's battalion was ordered to proceed with the planned landing west of Point Cruz. Three companies of Puller's battalion, under Major Otho Rogers, landed from nine landing craft just west of Point Cruz at 13:00. Rogers' Marines pushed inland and occupied a ridge, called Hill 84, about 600 yd (550 m) from the landing area. Oka—recognizing the seriousness of this landing—ordered h
caption: A view of the Point Cruz area looking south. The three companies from Puller's battalion landed just to the right of Point Cruz as seen in the picture (bottom foreground) and occupied Hill 84 (marked with an "X") before being surrounded by Japanese forces.