Battle of Guadalcanal order of battle

The Guadalcanal Campaign was fought from the initial American landings on 7 August 1942 until the final Japanese evacuation on 9 February 1943. It was the first major Allied offensive in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

United States

High-Level Command
Theatre commanders for Operation Watchtower
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz
Vice Adm. Robert L. Ghormley (thru 18 Oct)
Vice Adm. William F. Halsey (after 18 Oct)
Naval commanders
Vice Adm. Frank Jack Fletcher
Rear Adm. R. Kelly Turner
1st Marine Division shoulder patch

The roles of Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA) and Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC), were both exercised by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz from his headquarters at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Since the Solomons lie in the Southern Pacific, the landings of 7 August 1942 on Guadalcanal were the responsibility of the South Pacific Fleet, led by Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley from his headquarters at Noumea, New Caledonia.[1] Adm. Ghormley's pessimism, inadequate staff work and unwillingness to visit the front led Adm. Nimitz to replace him with the much more aggressive and hands-on Vice Admiral William F. Halsey on 18 October 1942.[2]

Operational command of the invasion was assigned to Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. He also had direct command of the covering force, designated Task Force 61, where he flew his flag aboard fleet carrier Saratoga. The amphibious forces, Task Force 62, were led by Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner aboard attack transport McCawley.

Bitter disputes between the two men arose during both the planning and execution of the invasion over how long Fletcher's aircraft carriers would stay in the vicinity of Guadalcanal to provide air cover for the Marines ashore. Fletcher decided the matter after multiple assaults on the Allied amphibious force by bombers from the Japanese base at Rabaul on D-Day and D+1. These attacks convinced Fletcher that his crucial aircraft carriers could not be risked in the waters of the Solomons any longer and he ordered his carriers out of the area on the night of 8 August. Unsettled by the removal of air cover and rattled the following morning by the discovery that his cruiser screen had been decimated at the Battle of Savo Island, Turner ordered his vulnerable, and still half-full, cargo ships back to Noumea around sundown 9 August. The Marine Corps forces ashore were thus left without air cover or the planned level of food and ammunition.

The 1st Marine Division's struggle to take Guadalcanal from the Imperial Japanese Army achieved legendary status; the unit's insignia features a large red numeral 1 with the word "Guadalcanal" superimposed. Three future commandants of the Marine Corps fought on "The Canal": Alexander A. Vandegrift, Clifton B. Cates and Lemuel C. Shepherd.

The initial US landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi on 7 August 1942 were made by the 1st Marine Division under the command of Maj. Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift. On 8 December he was replaced by Army Maj. Gen. Major General Alexander M. Patch, who then was named commander of the XIV Army Corps on 2 January 1943.

1st Marine Division
Alex. A. Vandegrift as a full general
Wm. H. Rupertus as a major general
C. B. Cates as a full general
M. A. Edson as a major general
Col. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller
Maj. Gen. Pedro del Valle

Maj. Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift
The D-Day (7 August) landings on Guadalcanal were carried out by the 1st and 3rd Battalions/5th Marines at 0910 hours, followed by the 1st Marines at 0930. Landings on the Florida Islands across the sound were carried out earlier that morning by the 2nd Battalion/5th Marines, the 1st Parachute Battalion, and the 1st Marine Raider Battalion.[3] The 7th Marines and 1st Battalion/11th Marines arrived 18 September. The division began withdrawal from the island 12 December.

2nd Marine Division
Brig. Gen. Alphonse DeCarre
Leo D. Hermle as a major general
Evans F. Carlson as a lt. colonel

Brigadier General Alphonse DeCarre
The 2nd Marines reinforced by the 3rd Battalion/10th Marines were part of the initial 7 August landings. The reinforced 8th Marines landed on 2 November and the reinforced 6th Marines on 4 January 1943.

  • Division staff
    • Asst. to commanding general: Col. Leo D. Hermle[lower-alpha 11]
    • Chief of staff: Col. George F. Stockes
    • Asst. chief of staff for Personnel (D-1): Maj. Lawrence C. Hays Jr.
    • Asst. chief of staff for Intelligence (D-2): Maj. Thomas J. Colley
    • Asst. chief of staff for Operations (D-3): Lt. Col. John H. Coffman
    • Asst. chief of staff for Logistics (D-4): Maj. George N. Carroll
    • Division special troops: Col. Maurice G. Holmes
  • 2nd Marine Regiment
    • Commanding officer: Col. John M. Arthur
    • Executive officer: Lt. Col. William S. Fellers (to 9 Oct); Lt. Col. Cornelius P. Van Ness
      • 1st Battalion: Lt. Col. Robert E. Hill (to 10 Nov); Maj. Wood B. Kyle
      • 2nd Battalion: Maj. Orin K. Pressley
      • 3rd Battalion: Maj. Robert G. Hunt
  • 6th Marine Regiment
    • Commanding officer: Col. Gilder D. Jackson Jr.
    • Executive officer: Lt. Col. Alfred A. Watters (to 15 Dec); Lt. Col. Lyman G. Miller
      • 1st Battalion: Lt. Col. Russell Lloyd
      • 2nd Battalion: Maj. Raymond L. Murray
      • 3rd Battalion: Maj. William A. Kengla
  • 8th Marine Regiment
    • Commanding officer: Col. Richard H. Jeschke
    • Executive officer: Lt. Col. James P. Riseley
      • 1st Battalion: Lt. Col. Miles J. Newton (to 22 Nov); Maj. Joseph B. McCaffery
      • 2nd Battalion: Lt. Col. John H. Cook Jr.
      • 3rd Battalion: Lt. Col. Augustus H. Fricke
  • 10th Marine Regiment (Artillery)
    • Commanding officer: Col. Thomas E. Bourke
    • Executive officer: Lt. Col. Ralph E. Forsyth
      • 1st Battalion: Lt. Col. Presley M. Rixey
      • 2nd Battalion: Maj. George R. E. Shell
      • 3rd Battalion: Lt. Col. Manly L. Curry (to 18 Oct; from 28 Nov); Lt. Col. Donovan D. Sult (18 Oct-28 Nov)
      • 4th Battalion: Lt. Col. Kenneth A. Jorgensen
  • Other Marine units

Americal Division
Alexander M. Patch as a lieutenant general

Major General Alexander M. Patch[lower-alpha 12]
Arrived in echelons beginning 13 October

Landed 13 October

Landed 12 November

25th Infantry Division
J. Lawton Collins as a full general

Major General J. Lawton Collins[lower-alpha 13]
Arrived in echelons beginning 17 December


Service Command, South Pacific Theater of Operations

Brigadier General Raymond E. S. Williamson

  • 70th Coast Artillery
  • Engineer units
  • Supply units
  • Military Police units

Japanese
Lt. Gen. Harukichi Hyakutake
Maj. Gen. Kiyotake Kawaguchi was relieved of command and expelled from the island 23 October just as the Battle of Henderson Field was beginning

On 10 August 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army's Seventeenth Army[lower-alpha 14] under Lieutenant General Harukichi Hyakutake assumed command of the Japanese efforts to retake Guadalcanal. The General arrived on the island to take direct command on 10 October.[6]

2nd Infantry (Sendai) Division

Lieutenant General Masao Maruyama
Landed between 5 September and 4 October

  • 4th Infantry Regiment
  • 16th Infantry Regiment
  • 29th Infantry Regiment
  • 2nd Artillery Regiment
  • 2nd Engineer Battalion

38th Infantry Division

Lieutenant General Tadayoshi Sano
The depleted 38th Division landed 5–15 November

  • 228th Infantry Regiment
  • 229th Infantry Regiment
  • 230th Infantry Regiment
  • 38th Mountain Gun Regiment
  • 38th Engineer Battalion

35th Brigade

Major General Kiyotaki Kawaguchi[lower-alpha 15]
Landed 29 August–5 September; included a late-arriving battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment. The Ichiki detachment arrived 18–24 August.

  • 124th Infantry Regiment
  • Kitao Battalion/Ichiki Detachment
  • 4th Artillery Regiment
  • 10th Mountain Gun Battalion
  • 20th Mountain Gun Battalion

Other units
  • 28th Infantry Regiment

Arrived on Guadalcanal 6 July to begin construction of an airstrip:

  • 11th Construction Unit
  • 13th Construction Unit

Notes
  1. Later rose to division command
  2. Relieved by Vandegrift for poor performance
  3. Killed when a patrol he had organized encountered unexpected Japanese resistance and was essentially wiped out
  4. Later rose to Corps command and post-war Commandant of the Marine Corps
  5. Relieved by Vandegrift for poor performance
  6. Relieved for perceived lack of aggressiveness
  7. Relieved by Vandegrift for poor performance
  8. Eventually became most-decorated man in history of Marine Corps
  9. Commanded 7th Marines during Battle of Peleliu
  10. Commanded 1st Marine Division during Okinawa Campaign
  11. Later rose to regimental and assistant division command
  12. Later rose to army command during the liberation of Europe
  13. Later rose to Corps command during the liberation of Europe and Army Chief of Staff during Korean War
  14. A Japanese army was equivalent to a Euro-American corps.
  15. Relieved 23 October and given rear-area command after repeated refusal to obey orders

References
  1. Morison 1949, pp. 250-251
  2. Morison 1948, p. 183
  3. Stille 2015, p. 40
  4. Naval Heritage and History Command webpage, p. 6/84, Seabee Museum, Port Hueneme, CA
  5. 18th Naval Construction Battalion, Naval Heritage and History Command webpage, p. 21/88, Seabee Museum, Port Hueneme, CA
  6. Stille 2015, p. 60

Bibliography
  • Morison, Samuel Eliot (1949). Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions, May 1942 – August 1942. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. IV. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
  • Morison, Samuel Eliot (1948). The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942 – February 1943. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. V. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
  • Stille, Mark (2015). Guadalcanal, 1942–43: America's first victory on the road to Tokyo. Oxford: Osprey.
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