US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

HUDDLE Slowly Scuttled 447
relieved. I have given it a great deal of thought; the only conclusion I have
come to is that we cannot, at present, reach a decision on that point. I
sympathize entirely with your pcint of view and hope we can do the job the
way you wish.ss
According to the Chief of the Army Air Force, in late September 1942:
. . . The Marines on Guadalcanal wanted to know when the Army was
going to relieve them. The Marines had understood they were to be there
for a few days only, and then were to be relieved. Where was the Army? w
It was not until 6 October 1942 that the Army Commander in the South
Pacific offered Army troops for Guadalcanal. They were not offered as a
relief for part of the Marines on Guadalcanal but as an augmentation in
time of need and as a far more desirable use of Army resources than on
Ndeni.
The 164th Infantry Regiment of the Americal Division was landed by
Rear Admiral Turner from the McCawfey and Zeili+z, commencing 13 Oc-
tober 1942, with their 3,200 tons of logistic support, bringing the total
strength on Guadalcanal to over 23,000. Some 4,5oo more troops were still
on the Tulagi side. At the same time the Marine 1st Raider Battalion departed
Guadalcanal for the rear area and this movement reaffirmed the principIe
of Marine relief by Army troops. And it was on 13 October, that the
Japanese surprise bombed Henderson Field from the comparatively safe
height of 30,000 feet, where our fighters could not reach them at all or
else (F–4F) so slowly that the attackers were gone when the fighters reached
that altitude. The same day the Japanese took the Marine-Army defensive
forces under fire with their 15 long range 105-millimeter howitzers, which
were positioned out of retaliatory range.
The success of the 164th Infantry Regiment in meeting the heavy Japanese
attacks on 24–25 October, and the repeated pleas of Major General Vande-
grift for more and more reinforcements to be followed by the relief of his
Marines, made at the Noumea conferences of this same October period, led
to an early decision for the landing of a battery of 155 guns from the 244th
Coast Artillery Battalion, which was accomplished on 2 November 1942.
This was followed by movement of the 147th Infantry Regiment which
landed at Aola Bay on 4 November. From 12 November 1942 on there was
a planned flow of relieving Army Troops, initially from the Americal
Division.
~ RKT to AAG, letter 28 Sep. 1942.
* Arnold, Global Mi~~ion, p. 348.