Virtual Battlefield Tour : Bloody Ridge National Peace Park
all command of the composite Battalion , had reconnoitered the terrain the week before the Tasimboko Raid and knew they were in for trouble . The high ground running straight towards the airfield would provide a well-defined line of approach for a night attack on the airfield . Marine patrols that frequented the area south of Henderson Field amplified Edson ’ s concerns , reporting increasing numbers of Japanese soldiers and many small artillery pieces . Finally , on 10 September , native scouts reported the Japanese were cutting a trail through the jungle east of the Tenaru River , about five miles from the Lunga perimeter . Both observations indicated that a major Japanese offensive was in the making .
The Japanese mid-September offensive to recapture the airfield would be their second attempt . When word of the 7 August landings reached Tokyo , IGHQ dispatched the 28th Regiment , under Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki , to evict the Marines from Guadalcanal . Ichiki , whose Regiment had been designated to occupy Midway Island , was a former instructor of “ bamboo spear ” tactics or “ Banzai charges ” at the Toyama Infantry School . Hyper-aggressive , Ichiki did not wait for his entire Regiment to gather before leading his men in an uncoordinated Banzai charge against the Marine perimeter . At Alligator Creek ( 21 August ), eight hundred men of the Ichiki Detachment charged across the Tenaru River ’ s mouth into the prepared Marine positions and died . The combined arms fire from rifles , machineguns , and mortars was murderous .
Ichiki and the Regiment ’ s surviving officers committed suicide .
Next into the breach was Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi ’ s 35th Infantry Brigade , the victors of the fighting in British Borneo . IGHQ was so sure the Brigade would be victorious , it dispatched 1,500 soldiers to occupy Guadalcanal . The 35th , however , would not engage the Marines as a single brigade but as individual battalions with little coordination . Kawaguchi lost unity of command before his troops arrived on Guadalcanal . Units embarked in the “ Tokyo Express ” fast destroyer-transports arrived unharmed and in the correct location . The troops transported by open flat-bottomed barges suffered a slow and tedious journey , traveling only at night and hiding in island coves and mangrove swamps during the day . One barge-borne battalion , caught in the daylight , was strafed mercilessly by Henderson Field planes , lost its commander , half its men , and landed on the wrong end of the island . Consequently , Kawaguchi could only gather four battalions from three different regiments in the main body for the assault on Henderson by way of the ridge Japanese maps labeled “ the Centipede .”
At noon on 12 September , the daily Japanese air raid arrived and dropped its bombs , not on the airfield , but along the ridge ’ s length . At about the same time , the Raiders attempted a reconnaissance in force south of their position and encountered unexpected Japanese resistance and broke contact . Vandergrift now knew what Red Mike suspected all along — the fight was com-
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