Lunga Point

Offensive, the Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal by Henry Shaw

In the early summer of 1942, intelligence reports of the construction of a Japanese airfield near Lunga Point on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands triggered a demand for offensive action in the South Pacific.

The leading offensive advocate in Washington was Admiral Ernest J.

King, Chief of Naval Operations, CNO.

At noon on 5 August, the convoy and its escorts turned north for the Solomons.

Undetected by the Japanese, the assault force reached its target during the night of 6-7 August and split into two landing groups.

Transport Division X-Ray, 15 transports headed for the north shore of Guadalcanal east of Lunga Point, and Transport Division Yoke, eight transports headed for Tulagi, Gavutu, Tanambogo, and the nearby Florida Island, which loomed over the smaller islands.

Vandergrift's plans for the landings would put two of his infantry regiments, Colonel Leroy P. Hunt's 5th Marines and Colonel Cates' 1st Marines, ashore on both sides of the Lunger River, prepared to attack inland to seize the airfield.

Another unit had fuel on board ready to make Henderson Field operational for the soon-to-be-arriving Japanese aircraft.

The two other units were in position to the east and west of Lunga Point to keep American ships away, and the fifth one was on standby just in case.

But as American planes were still patrolling, They must still be the masters of the perimeter.

So the Japanese ships were called back.

They believed that a well-placed bombardment on American artillery and the airfields would do the job.

So some of the ships turned around.

Further, an American light cruiser had been spotted off Lunga Point.

In reality, this was two destroyer-minesweeper conversions, Trevor and Zane.

And though the planners started out with a goal of trying to keep things simple, a third attack was also included.

Another unit would be put aboard ships and sent to Koli Point, about eight miles east of Lunga Point, because the Japanese had convinced themselves, somehow, that the Americans were building a third airfield there.

This was untrue.

Thus, at this point, When the 1st Battalion of the 228th Infantry landed with one company of the 38th Engineers, they would be in for a surprise given the lack of an enemy airfield.

The Marines repulsed the first enemy attack at the Tenaru River on 21 August, but Vandergriff knew that he would need all the strength he could muster to defend the extended perimeter surrounding the airfield.

At the end of the month, he brought the Raiders and parachutists across the sound and placed them in reserve near Lunga Point.

The latter battalion had suffered heavily in its assault of Gavutu-Tanambago to include the loss of its commander, so Vandergriff attached the parachutists to Red Mike's force.

Edson quickly established a rapport with Lieutenant Colonel Thomas, the division operations officer, and convinced him to use the Raiders offensively.