Tulagi

By the way, the Solomon Islands campaign was not just Guadal- Guadalcanal.

There were other parts of it, uh, believe Tulagi, and Bougainville, and Bougainville's gonna come into play here.

This is a story about Bougainville.

Bougainville was really, really vicious fighting and very worthy of your time if you ever wanna learn about that story.

To understand why two carrier fleets were circling around each other east of the Solomons in late August of 1942, you have to start on a beach, Red Beach, Guadalcanal, August 7th, 1942.

That morning, the 1st Marine Division waded ashore on Guadalcanal and on the little island of Tulagi across the channel to the north.

This was Operation Watchtower.

the first American amphibious offensive of the war.

Not yet.

Even more strange, the Japanese believed, for some reason, that Vandegrift only had about 10,000 men on Guadalcanal and another 1,000 on Tulagi.

That being the case, the would-be attackers clearly had more men than the Americans.

but still they did not attack, even with their supposed superiority.

All six ships saw service in the Solomons campaign, but only Manly and Stringham, APD-6, survived.

Japanese bomber sank Colhoun, APD-2, on 30 August 1942, just after it had transferred a company of the first Raiders from Tulagi to Guadalcanal.

Enemy destroyer sank Gregory, APD-3, and Little, APD-4, in the early morning hours of 5 September 1942 after the two transports had participated with the first Raiders in a reconnaissance of Savo Island.

A torpedo bomber ended the existence of McKean, APD-5, on 17 November 1943 as she ferried troops to Bougainville.

The scheduled D-Day was 17 August, 10 days after the 1st Marine Division and the 1st Raiders assaulted the Lower Solomons.

The objectives of the operation were diverse.

To destroy installations, take prisoners, gain intelligence on the area, and divert Japanese attention and reinforcements from Guadalcanal and Tulagi.

Companies A and B drew the mission and boarded the submarines on 8 August.

The Zeros lost one of their own, the Americans, two Wildcats.

Then the Bettys came in, but three of them were sent down, crashing into the waters near Tulagi.

The next day, October 19th, the 17th Army still wanted that one more delivery of men to before the main attack was to start, and besides, they were also to transport an officer from the staff of the 17th Army to the island.

But between two separate air attacks, both led by Lieutenant Commander John Eldridge and his VS-71, the transport ships not only suffered damage, but were unable to offload anything, any soldiers, any guns, any supplies.

Five knots of something.

Knowing that Hawaii was not in their future, The destroyer's commander, Lieutenant Commander John C. Alderman, made his way as best he could to Tulagi.

But with him now were 27 dead and 28 more wounded.

But at that same moment, 19 Wildcats from VMF 212, led by Lieutenant Colonel Harold F. Bayer, were approaching Henderson Field with seven Dauntlesses in tow.

...

Tulagi.

They were looking to be there themselves.

Yeah.

And that's about to become one of the most infamous names of the entire Pacific War.

And he's just gotten word that Japanese forces have landed at Tulagi, a small harbor across the strait, to establish a seaplane base.

Fletcher makes a decision that tells you everything about how this battle is going to be fought.

He doesn't wait for the main event.

The cost was almost nothing.

One torpedo bomber and two fighters lost, and every one of those crews eventually recovered.

Compare that to what's coming in four days, and Tulagi looks almost gentle.

Now, it wasn't gentle for the men aboard Kikuzuki, but as a proving round for green American carrier air crews, it did exactly what it needed to do.

Then somebody started kicking the hell out of my feet.

It was Captain James Headley saying, "'Get up! You are hurt worse on Tulagi!' Captain Headley knew Chambers' sucking chest wound portended a grave injury.

He sought to reduce his commander's shock until they could get him out of the line of fire.

This took doing.

Imperial Japanese Marines, Edson told the war correspondents, the best Tojo's got.

Edson's 1st Raider Battalion had sustained 88 casualties in resting Tulagi from the 3rd Cure Special Naval Landing Force the previous August.

Admiral Shibasaki boasted to his troops, a million Americans couldn't take Tarawa in 100 years.

His optimism was forgivable.

In December 1941, a force of 5,000 landed on Guam and another unit of 450 assaulted Wake Island.

A small detachment of 113 men was the first Japanese reinforcing unit to land on Guadalcanal, ten days after the American landing.

A 350-man SNLF detachment provided fierce resistance to the 1st Marine Division landings on Tulagi and Gavutu-Tanambogo early in the Guadalcanal Campaign.

A typical SNLF unit in a defensive role was commanded by a Navy captain and consisted of three rifle companies augmented by anti-aircraft, coast defense, anti-boat, and field artillery units of several batteries each, plus service and labor troops.