Lieutenant John George of the 132nd Infantry Regiment’s Second Battalion described how the jungle in this part of the island consisted of “huge trees of tropical rain forest varieties, mostly of the buttress rooted type, which reached their straight trunks up to great heights before spreading their branches to form the absolutely sun proof roof. Mount Austen stood 1,514 feet tall, but it was just one hill in an area of the island laced with ridges and valleys.

Mount Austen and its surrounding heights also threatened the left flank of any American attempt to advance west along the northern coast of Guadalcanal toward the Japanese-held village of Kokumbona. Japanese artillery situated on the hill harassed Henderson Field, and Japanese soldiers infiltrated American lines near Mount Austen on two occasions and destroyed several parked fighter planes.

A hill known to Americans as Mount Austen was the biggest threat to the airfield. As a result, the latter stages of the campaign are often overlooked, despite the intense combat that continued until the island was secured in February 1943.Īlthough the 1st Marine Division and its attached Marine raider and parachute elements had successfully defeated Japanese attacks at the Battle of the Tenaru in August, the Battle of Bloody Ridge in September, and the Battle for Henderson Field in October, Japanese forces still held the high ground just six miles southwest of Henderson Field in the wake of these defeats. Tregaskis, however, concluded his famous Guadalcanal Diary in September 1942, and Hersey departed the island in October, long before the fighting ended. Americans closely followed the desperate fights for Bloody Ridge and the Marine airfield dubbed Henderson Field. War correspondents Richard Tregaskis and John Hersey immortalized the 1st Marine Division’s struggle to defend the small American beachhead against repeated Japanese infantry assaults and naval and air bombardments. From the moment US Marines set foot on the southwest Pacific island of Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942, American newspapers trumpeted the offensive.

The Guadalcanal campaign was the first American amphibious invasion of World War II. Top Image: Sergeant Howard Brodie drawing courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Japanese tank battles ww2