US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

412 Amphibians Came To Conquer
intelligence cdiicer great credit. But to make ready the airfield by this date
certainly put the heat on the Marines who landed on Guadalcanal-Tulagi
on 7 August. By 12 August the landing strip was usable and by 20 August,
Henderson Field with two squadrons of operating Marine aircraft was in
business and would remain so throughout the war.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1942
The days and nights of August and September 1942 were full of TF 62
logistics and of fighting to permit the flow of TF 62 logistics through to its
most important element—the Marines on Guadalcanal.
It is necessary to recount just a few of the main events for background.
Task Force 61, under Vice Admiral Fletcher, acting as a Covering Force
for the cargo ships Fotwzalbaut and Albena carrying the first large load of
logistic support to Guadalcanal, fought the indecisive Battle of the Eastern
Solomons on 24 August 1942, which resulted in the Enterprise being bombdamaged.
The Saratoga unfortunately was damaged by a submarine torpedo
on 31 August.
The Marines, within their perimeter on Guadalcanal, were placed under
heavy attack at the Battle of the Bloody Ridge on 12–14 September. Task
Force 65 under Rear Admiral Turner’s command with 4,000 Marine reinforcements,
the 7th Marine Regiment, made a delayed landing on 18 Sep-
tember on Guadalcanal, but battleship Nortk Carolina, carrier Warp and
destroyer O’13~ien from the Covering Force all were torpedoed by submarines
on 15 September. The wa~p was lost, and the O’Brien went down
more than a month later while enroute to the United States for battle repairs.
The delivery of the 4,OOO Marines and the logistic support that went
ashore with them on 18 September were a real satisfaction to Rear Admiral
Turner, CTF 65.20
The worry and concern over the logistical situation at Guadalcanal and
the heavy naval losses sustained in maintaining the flow of logistic support
extended up and down the command chain of the Navy, and to the Army
and its air arm.
On 16 September 1942, Admiral King was reported as having told the
Joint Chiefs of Staff that “the Navy is in a bad way at this particular
moment .”21
~ Turner.
%Henry Harley Arnold, Globcd MisIiorz, p. 338.