Meeting created at: 22nd Sep, 2025 - 12:57 PM1 00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:04,480 The Marine landings on Guadalcanal. 2 00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:06,640 Seizing the Decisive Terrain. 3 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:11,280 This is the Principles of War podcast. 4 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:15,760 Professional military education for junior officers and senior NCOs. 5 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:29,770 This episode, number 137 of the Principles of War podcast, we'll look at the US large scale landings on Guadalcanal. 6 00:00:30,010 --> 00:00:46,170 We will discuss not only this important littoral manoeuvre, but military risk management, the importance of logistics, why the airfield was the decisive terrain and what happened on the Getche patrol and what were the lessons learned from it. 7 00:00:46,250 --> 00:00:55,290 We are joined by our historian, Dave Holland, the author of Guadalcanal's Longest Fight, the Pivotal Battles of the Matanical. 8 00:00:56,010 --> 00:01:04,250 Let's get back right into our interview with Dave as a part of our series on the Guadalcanal campaign. 9 00:01:04,810 --> 00:01:06,410 Welcome back to the podcast, Dave. 10 00:01:06,730 --> 00:01:07,450 Thanks, James. 11 00:01:07,450 --> 00:01:10,250 This is episode three and yeah, I'm really enjoying this. 12 00:01:10,570 --> 00:01:15,210 Now we get into the actual landing of Guadalcanal today, so it's going to be real good. 13 00:01:15,370 --> 00:01:17,450 Yeah, I think this will be a really interesting one. 14 00:01:17,450 --> 00:01:26,390 So the landing at Lunga point happened at 09.10 on 7 August, which was after the landing at Tulagi. 15 00:01:26,790 --> 00:01:27,990 What was the delay for? 16 00:01:27,990 --> 00:01:30,950 Why didn't they aim to get simultaneous landings? 17 00:01:31,270 --> 00:01:31,830 Well, they. 18 00:01:32,070 --> 00:01:33,590 I'll just take a step back there. 19 00:01:33,590 --> 00:01:35,270 They didn't actually land at Lunger Point. 20 00:01:35,430 --> 00:01:41,670 They landed roughly 6,000 yards due east in a place called Red beach, or Beach Red. 21 00:01:41,750 --> 00:01:44,550 It was between Coley Point and Lunga Point. 22 00:01:45,030 --> 00:01:49,190 Ideally, they wanted to land at Lunger Point because if you look at Van Fibs. 23 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:51,480 Look at it from an amphibious landings perspective. 24 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:59,480 A Lungar Point is basically convex, so if you land in on a point, you're less susceptible to inflated fire from the sides. 25 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:04,720 So if you land on a concave beach, then obviously you could be potentially inflated. 26 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:10,000 And plus two, if you land at Lunga Point, if you look at a map of Guadalcanal, that's a straight shot to the airfield. 27 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:11,560 There's no obstacles like rivers. 28 00:02:11,640 --> 00:02:15,880 I mean, it's just as soon as you land, you're there like 2,000 yards straight onto it. 29 00:02:16,140 --> 00:02:28,860 But their intelligence had predicted there's around 5,000 Japanese there, including a reinforced Japanese infantry regiment, which potentially dug in on Lunga Point with a machine gun battalion and a few other combat units. 30 00:02:28,940 --> 00:02:34,540 So they thought, well, if we land straight on Lunga Point, where they expect us to potentially land, it's going to be heavy defenses. 31 00:02:34,700 --> 00:02:40,060 So once again, as we spoke about last episode with Tulagi, we'll land where they don't expect us to land. 32 00:02:40,300 --> 00:02:46,450 So that was a gamble that Vande Griff and his planners had taken and it paid off, as we will see. 33 00:02:46,450 --> 00:02:49,290 So they landed about 6000 yards due east. 34 00:02:49,290 --> 00:02:51,970 So it was a 6, 1600 yard beach. 35 00:02:51,970 --> 00:02:54,530 But to get back to the question, why was there a delay? 36 00:02:54,690 --> 00:02:57,570 Now this is one of the questions that's really stopped me a bit. 37 00:02:58,210 --> 00:03:01,170 I've looked at all the resources I could. 38 00:03:01,170 --> 00:03:05,610 I could never lock down a definitive answer why they delayed it for 30 minutes. 39 00:03:05,610 --> 00:03:07,090 Now it was planned. 40 00:03:07,090 --> 00:03:09,860 HR was 08, it's loggy. 41 00:03:09,940 --> 00:03:13,540 And 30 minutes later was going to be the landings on Guadalcanal. 42 00:03:13,620 --> 00:03:17,780 It might have been due to the fact that the air cover resources weren't available. 43 00:03:18,100 --> 00:03:26,020 I did come across a point where some transports were slow, but once again, this is pre planned, so it wasn't one of the last minute things. 44 00:03:26,180 --> 00:03:28,140 Now what about the element of surprise? 45 00:03:28,140 --> 00:03:34,340 And you got to remember too, the airstrikes and the naval gunfire was simultaneous and started at 6 o' clock in the morning. 46 00:03:34,340 --> 00:03:35,580 So they're basically simultaneous. 47 00:03:35,580 --> 00:03:40,110 So the element of surprise, say for example Tulagi is 20 miles across, Ironbottom Sound. 48 00:03:40,510 --> 00:03:48,310 So if they hit there first today, potentially without hitting Guadalcanal by air, the forces on Guadalcanal could be alerted. 49 00:03:48,310 --> 00:03:49,830 Once again, the cat was out of the bag. 50 00:03:49,830 --> 00:03:52,150 They both hit them at the same time simultaneously. 51 00:03:52,150 --> 00:03:53,390 So 30 minute delay. 52 00:03:53,790 --> 00:03:55,230 I'm trying to find that answer. 53 00:03:55,230 --> 00:03:59,310 Obviously if some of the listeners or viewers know that, please let me know. 54 00:03:59,310 --> 00:04:05,900 But I've done some pretty deep research on it and maybe I need to speak to one of my neighborhood historian friends that let me know. 55 00:04:05,900 --> 00:04:10,540 But yeah, definitely occurred when they landed at Red beach, or Beach Reds they called it. 56 00:04:10,540 --> 00:04:16,100 It was supposed to be at 9 o' clock in the morning, but the first elements landed at between 9:10 to 9:13. 57 00:04:16,100 --> 00:04:18,180 Depends on which source you look for. 58 00:04:18,260 --> 00:04:23,380 Were the Japanese expecting them and what forces were there to oppose them? 59 00:04:23,460 --> 00:04:26,580 Okay, well, the Japanese weren't expecting a direct amphibious assault. 60 00:04:26,740 --> 00:04:38,170 The Japanese Imperial General Headquarters had estimated that the Americans or the Allies wouldn't be ready for an offensive in the Pacific until easily early 1943. 61 00:04:38,410 --> 00:04:40,250 So you gotta remember Guadalcanal. 62 00:04:40,250 --> 00:04:43,290 The airfield at Guadalcanal was a staging base. 63 00:04:43,290 --> 00:04:48,850 Initially it was designed as a staging base for Operation fx, which is the invasion of Fiji and Samoa and New Caledonia. 64 00:04:48,850 --> 00:04:51,810 But once that was canceled, they continued building it up. 65 00:04:51,810 --> 00:04:58,170 But it was such a large base now they had roughly about 2,000 construction workers in the two units. 66 00:04:58,170 --> 00:05:04,970 The 13th construction unit and 11th construction units composed primarily of Korean, they're not slave laborers but conscripted. 67 00:05:04,970 --> 00:05:12,010 And some were actually volunteered Korean laborers with a sprinkling of Japanese engineers and some foremen in there. 68 00:05:12,010 --> 00:05:20,050 And plus they had a couple of security companies of special naval landing force, roughly about 500 guys in both companies spread out among those two units. 69 00:05:20,050 --> 00:05:37,890 And it had a number of anti aircraft units there because the Americans had been begun the bombing with the B17s flying out of Australia and Espritio Santos, which is the New Hebrides or Vanuatu as we know it now they were there but they didn't have prepared beach defenses like we spoke about Tulagi. 70 00:05:37,890 --> 00:05:40,250 It was more air defenses, anti aircraft defenses. 71 00:05:40,250 --> 00:05:48,910 Now some of the intelligence was coming back, Japanese intelligence was coming back that a large convoy had left the western United States troop convoy. 72 00:05:48,990 --> 00:05:58,950 They had started picking up radio transmissions and the Japanese intelligence of the 8th Fleet, Japanese 8 fleets are about, were basically sending reports back to Imperial. 73 00:05:58,950 --> 00:06:04,550 General headquarters said look, we think potentially they're going to invade actually named Guadalcanal Angelagi. 74 00:06:04,550 --> 00:06:06,150 They said look, that's, we think they're going to hit here. 75 00:06:06,150 --> 00:06:13,150 Imperial during the headquarters said look, this is probably just reinforcements, troop reinforcements to go to Australia, which that had been sending them there. 76 00:06:13,150 --> 00:06:23,570 And so the other islands, if it's anything, it's going to be like minor raids and they'll just withdraw across the Pacific like they have been doing earlier because they did some carrier raids and a few other raids. 77 00:06:23,570 --> 00:06:27,170 So they kind of just said there's nothing to see here, let's move on. 78 00:06:27,330 --> 00:06:32,370 But once again they, the Japanese did think, some Japanese did think they were going to invite. 79 00:06:32,610 --> 00:06:39,050 But to answer your question, like I said before, the Americans thought they were at least 5,000 Japanese ready to fight. 80 00:06:39,050 --> 00:06:40,050 That wasn't the case. 81 00:06:40,790 --> 00:06:45,910 So what units were the US forces landing on Guadalcanal that morning? 82 00:06:46,390 --> 00:06:49,350 Last episode we discussed what units landed at Tulagi. 83 00:06:49,350 --> 00:06:51,430 So that was under Brigadier General Purdis. 84 00:06:51,430 --> 00:06:56,469 So Vandegroof took the bulk of the division, roughly about 11,000 men. 85 00:06:56,630 --> 00:07:03,630 So you had the complete regiment, the 1st Marines, they call them 1st Marine Regiment or 1st Marines in Marine polants. 86 00:07:03,630 --> 00:07:04,590 That's the way they say it. 87 00:07:04,590 --> 00:07:07,490 And then you had two battalions of the 5th Marines. 88 00:07:07,490 --> 00:07:10,530 She had 1, 5, the way the Marines say it, 1 5. 89 00:07:10,930 --> 00:07:12,290 And you had 3, 5. 90 00:07:12,850 --> 00:07:17,650 And then you had all the other specialist units associated with amphibious division. 91 00:07:17,810 --> 00:07:19,770 You had four battalions. 92 00:07:19,770 --> 00:07:20,690 No, sorry. 93 00:07:20,690 --> 00:07:22,610 Three battalions of artillery. 94 00:07:23,010 --> 00:07:27,650 She had 275 millimeter battalions and a 105 millimeter battalion. 95 00:07:27,650 --> 00:07:35,440 And in fact each Landed battalion had a 75 millimeter pack howitzer battery assigned to them going straight in. 96 00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:44,040 And you know, in the first waves, well probably by the third wave, but they had a specifically a whole battery of 75 millimeters artillery attached to that infantry battalion going in. 97 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:55,160 And then you had the 1st Special Weapons Battalion which had a number of M3, 75 millimeter half tracks, anti tank guns, anti aircraft guns. 98 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:59,160 You had the 1st Engineer Battalion, the 1st Pioneer Battalion. 99 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:01,530 We'll talk about them, those guys in a second. 100 00:08:01,530 --> 00:08:02,850 There's specialist role. 101 00:08:03,170 --> 00:08:11,090 You had two companies of tanks which you had the 1st Marine Tank Battalion but had two companies, had A Company and P Company of M3 tanks. 102 00:08:11,170 --> 00:08:16,929 I know I'm missing a couple here, but yeah, had a good combined arms assault unit going in. 103 00:08:17,010 --> 00:08:19,290 That's quite a balanced force, isn't it? 104 00:08:19,290 --> 00:08:29,790 Yeah, well just like we think we talked about in episode one about how that division, amphibious assault division, the first of its kind in US history, but it was a whole combined arms division for that. 105 00:08:30,110 --> 00:08:33,590 So the commander for the Marines was Alexander Vandegrift. 106 00:08:33,590 --> 00:08:34,429 What was he like? 107 00:08:34,990 --> 00:08:39,710 Yeah, so Vandegrift, I think he joined 1909, Marine Officer. 108 00:08:39,870 --> 00:08:42,590 He did the typical Marine postings. 109 00:08:42,750 --> 00:08:46,590 He missed World War I because he'd assigned to Haiti. 110 00:08:46,590 --> 00:08:49,110 He was in Agenda Arms, he was an advisor in Haiti. 111 00:08:49,110 --> 00:08:50,310 He was fighting at Cacos. 112 00:08:50,310 --> 00:08:55,230 Cacos, I think the way you pronounce it, probably mispronounce it, but the Haitian insurgents or Haitian rebels. 113 00:08:55,340 --> 00:09:02,460 So he was fighting down there and doing some insurgency anti counterinsurgency roles in Haiti during the war. 114 00:09:02,540 --> 00:09:07,100 And after that he went to Nicaragua, he went to China, he served in the staff. 115 00:09:07,500 --> 00:09:21,900 He had a good background with specialty staff and what typical Marine would have at the time when the war broke out, he was the assistant division commander of the 1st Marine Division and then soon took command of the 1st Marine Division. 116 00:09:22,150 --> 00:09:29,830 And Vandy Griff is a man, he was described as a con man, a pretty down to earth type of guy, very personable. 117 00:09:30,150 --> 00:09:41,790 He on the island he would actually, once he'd finished his correspondences for the morning, his routine, he would jump in the jeep with his driver and he would take a tour of the lines or sea Marines. 118 00:09:41,790 --> 00:09:44,270 He'd be speaking anywhere from colonels to privates. 119 00:09:44,270 --> 00:09:45,990 That was what he really liked to do. 120 00:09:45,990 --> 00:09:49,870 And he would stop and just discuss things on the ground and find out what was going on. 121 00:09:49,870 --> 00:09:50,080 He. 122 00:09:50,150 --> 00:09:55,910 He's also gauging the morale, their health and he was doing what a good commander would do and very personable. 123 00:09:55,910 --> 00:09:57,270 He would sit and Talk with them. 124 00:09:57,350 --> 00:09:58,630 And people said they could be. 125 00:09:58,630 --> 00:10:01,830 They felt very comfortable around Smiling Jim, they called him. 126 00:10:01,830 --> 00:10:07,190 He was deaf, I guess, from these years of all the firing and the guns and stuff. 127 00:10:07,510 --> 00:10:16,300 And sometimes people would think he wasn't listening in command meetings because sometimes when we'd go into command meeting, if he went by himself, he would come out and he and his. 128 00:10:16,300 --> 00:10:18,700 His subordinates to say, okay, boss, what did they say? 129 00:10:18,700 --> 00:10:21,140 And he really couldn't describe in detail what they said. 130 00:10:21,140 --> 00:10:23,140 So they've always tried to put someone in with him. 131 00:10:24,180 --> 00:10:25,180 It actually be the. 132 00:10:25,180 --> 00:10:26,180 To get some of the. 133 00:10:26,180 --> 00:10:26,900 All the information. 134 00:10:27,540 --> 00:10:28,980 He had night blindness. 135 00:10:29,220 --> 00:10:31,819 There's a famous photo of him on Guad Canal. 136 00:10:31,819 --> 00:10:32,260 And he's. 137 00:10:32,260 --> 00:10:33,940 He's in his, like his little bush tent. 138 00:10:34,020 --> 00:10:35,260 He's got his field desk. 139 00:10:35,260 --> 00:10:39,340 He's got his flashlight or torches they call in Australia right beside him. 140 00:10:39,340 --> 00:10:42,340 So everywhere he went, he had that flashlight torch with him. 141 00:10:42,410 --> 00:10:51,330 And when he would do his rounds visiting the Marines, you'll see in the photos, he's always got like a pith helmet or a sun helmet on because he hated wearing a steel pipe because he gave him a headache. 142 00:10:51,330 --> 00:10:53,130 But he always had his.45 with him. 143 00:10:53,370 --> 00:10:59,890 What was so great about Vandegrift, he had that strategic vision when they first landed. 144 00:10:59,890 --> 00:11:04,410 From minute one, he knew that battle or that campaign was going to be on the Air Force. 145 00:11:04,810 --> 00:11:14,860 So some of the, even the Joint Chiefs of Staff and some of the higher ups thought traditionally you land on Guadalcanal, you take the island. 146 00:11:14,940 --> 00:11:17,820 It's more about grabbing land than it was about the airfield. 147 00:11:18,060 --> 00:11:21,500 Vandergrift recognized that strategic importance of the. 148 00:11:21,580 --> 00:11:24,580 The airfields and how it will be play out in the Pacific War. 149 00:11:24,580 --> 00:11:25,980 It was all about the airfield. 150 00:11:26,060 --> 00:11:27,220 Protect the airfield. 151 00:11:27,220 --> 00:11:32,780 You know, don't spread your forces all around the island because The Guadalcanal is 90 miles long and 25 miles wide. 152 00:11:32,780 --> 00:11:34,940 It's the same size as US state of Delaware. 153 00:11:35,170 --> 00:11:36,770 So you can't spread your guys out like that. 154 00:11:36,770 --> 00:11:40,250 He put them in a nice tight perimeter. 155 00:11:40,250 --> 00:11:41,770 But all is about the airfield. 156 00:11:41,770 --> 00:11:42,850 Protect the airfield. 157 00:11:43,010 --> 00:11:44,290 And Vandergriff had the. 158 00:11:44,690 --> 00:11:50,370 I forgot what famous journal used it, I think on a General George Washington American Revolution. 159 00:11:50,610 --> 00:11:52,130 To win, you must not lose. 160 00:11:52,130 --> 00:11:53,810 I forgot the exact same of that. 161 00:11:53,810 --> 00:11:54,610 But that's what he said. 162 00:11:54,770 --> 00:11:57,810 For us to win, we just can't lose the battle. 163 00:11:57,810 --> 00:12:07,090 If we don't lose battles like a defensive strategy, we'll win because that's what the Marines did initially was the first offensive for the Allies against the Japanese. 164 00:12:07,090 --> 00:12:11,650 Then it quickly switched and changed, pivoted 360 degrees to a defensive posture. 165 00:12:11,650 --> 00:12:16,330 But yeah, that was Vandegrift and very well liked. 166 00:12:16,330 --> 00:12:20,610 He's probably the right man for the right time for the right job in Marine Corps. 167 00:12:20,610 --> 00:12:25,170 He probably couldn't have picked a better commander to command the 1st Marine Division together. 168 00:12:25,410 --> 00:12:27,250 Strategic importance. 169 00:12:27,580 --> 00:12:29,820 But I have to say his staff was great. 170 00:12:29,980 --> 00:12:31,500 They were packed with some good guys. 171 00:12:32,220 --> 00:12:33,740 Especially a guy called. 172 00:12:33,980 --> 00:12:41,060 It was Lt. Col. Gerald Thomas or Jerry Thomas had quickly became a colonel and when they first landed, he was the planning officer. 173 00:12:41,060 --> 00:12:42,140 D3 they call him. 174 00:12:42,220 --> 00:12:46,220 And then in September became the chief of staff and he was the brains of the division. 175 00:12:46,540 --> 00:12:49,580 Then he had a guy called Lt. Col. Merle Twining. 176 00:12:49,580 --> 00:12:51,580 He took over the D3, the planning. 177 00:12:51,820 --> 00:12:56,390 Those guys were some real good planners and they knew basically what they were doing. 178 00:12:56,550 --> 00:12:58,270 I think you bring up a really good point there. 179 00:12:58,270 --> 00:13:04,710 I wonder how many great generals there were or there have been who haven't had a great staff. 180 00:13:05,350 --> 00:13:17,790 And I think to be a great general, one of the things that you need to be able to do is you need to be able to build a strong team around you because you've got a lot of things going on as a divisional commander and you've got to be able to rely on your. 181 00:13:17,790 --> 00:13:24,270 Staff so that, you know, it was down the leadership, I mean company commanders, 10 commanders, battalion commanders. 182 00:13:24,270 --> 00:13:30,230 You always have a good staff below you, good people to work for, civilian world or any job, really. 183 00:13:30,230 --> 00:13:33,350 So do you want to talk us through how the landing proceeded then? 184 00:13:33,670 --> 00:13:34,110 Yeah. 185 00:13:34,110 --> 00:13:37,990 So the first wave or the first unit to land was the 5th Marines. 186 00:13:38,230 --> 00:13:40,670 So you had 15 and 3, 5 and they landed abreast. 187 00:13:40,670 --> 00:13:41,790 Two battalions abreast. 188 00:13:41,790 --> 00:13:42,390 They landed. 189 00:13:42,470 --> 00:13:49,280 Their job was to land, turn to the right or turn to the west and then proceed across three small rivers and go to the airfield. 190 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:51,280 First Marines were going to push through. 191 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,440 Once the beachhead was formed, they were going to move through the 5th Marines. 192 00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:58,480 They were going to go on a compensated 270 degrees. 193 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:01,920 Then I forgot something like 4,000 yards. 194 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:03,040 Take another. 195 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:04,480 They were going to go. 196 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:05,680 I don't know what that was. 197 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:11,840 They're going to go straight to a, a place called the grassy knoll, which we now know is Mount Austin. 198 00:14:12,010 --> 00:14:19,210 So the preliminary, the pre recon information coming in from some of the Australian planters or some of the Australians that were there before. 199 00:14:19,290 --> 00:14:20,490 Talk about the grassy knoll. 200 00:14:20,490 --> 00:14:22,530 They said, oh, it stands out pretty prominent. 201 00:14:22,530 --> 00:14:23,770 And so that was what they're going to do. 202 00:14:23,770 --> 00:14:30,810 They're going to land first Marine is going to push through and take the grassy knoll, the grassy nose roughly three miles away over three rivers. 203 00:14:32,010 --> 00:14:35,930 With four rivers and thick jungle, there would be no way they could take it. 204 00:14:36,170 --> 00:14:40,320 So what they were going to do, they were going to go to cut off the potential retreat. 205 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:44,080 That was what the plan was. 206 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:48,320 Yeah, it's hoping to take the airfield by day one, which was the 7th of August. 207 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:54,160 So Vice Admiral Jack Fletcher withdrew the carriers on the 8th of August. 208 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:56,800 That night, the Battle of Savo island is fought. 209 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:02,000 And the next morning, Rear Admiral Kelly Turner withdrew the transports. 210 00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:06,970 What impact did this have on for the Marines in particular in their logistics? 211 00:15:07,290 --> 00:15:11,970 Okay, last episode we discussed a bit about why they pulled out and the coverage and all that. 212 00:15:11,970 --> 00:15:13,650 So I won't go into too much detail there. 213 00:15:13,650 --> 00:15:15,250 That's a big controversy to this day. 214 00:15:15,250 --> 00:15:20,250 And with the whole I declare the abandonment myth and I'll discuss that in a second. 215 00:15:20,730 --> 00:15:27,450 So the impact we mentioned earlier, that the Marines were winning light to start with because they were trying to restrict their weight. 216 00:15:27,850 --> 00:15:32,340 So when the transports and the cargo ships, like left on the morning of the. 217 00:15:32,340 --> 00:15:35,420 Or, sorry, the afternoon of the 9th of August, they probably took. 218 00:15:35,820 --> 00:15:37,420 There's really no definitive. 219 00:15:37,900 --> 00:15:40,860 It's estimated about 50 of the supplies they had with them. 220 00:15:40,860 --> 00:15:46,300 So they left the Marines with 50% of their supplies, which they were going in a lot to start with. 221 00:15:46,620 --> 00:15:49,420 So that was the impact logistically they had on the Marine. 222 00:15:49,820 --> 00:15:59,900 Now, the abandonment myth, I call it the abandonment myth because you hear the Marines and some of them still to this day, even while I was in Marine boot camp, when I was in the Marine Corps, they said all the. 223 00:16:00,230 --> 00:16:00,870 The Navy abandoned. 224 00:16:00,870 --> 00:16:03,550 The Navy abandoned Marines on Guadalcanal. 225 00:16:03,550 --> 00:16:09,590 But every time we're involved in an amphibious invasion, from now on, just be careful because Marines, or started the Navy would leave your. 226 00:16:09,990 --> 00:16:11,110 Leave your rear behind. 227 00:16:11,190 --> 00:16:12,590 That was what was always told. 228 00:16:12,590 --> 00:16:13,830 We just believed it. 229 00:16:13,830 --> 00:16:16,910 It wasn't until I started studying the battle of Guadalcanal. 230 00:16:16,910 --> 00:16:17,110 Sorry. 231 00:16:17,110 --> 00:16:18,350 They're campaigning Guadalcanal. 232 00:16:18,350 --> 00:16:21,590 And deeply that I'm thinking, well, this is not the case. 233 00:16:22,070 --> 00:16:25,030 Did the Marines have a right to perceive that they were abandoned? 234 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:26,240 Yeah, they did. 235 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:27,520 A lot of them didn't know. 236 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:29,360 Some of them didn't even know the. 237 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:32,000 The losses on the Balisavo island to after the war. 238 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:36,720 They just know one day the neighbors there, next minute they're going to go, where's their food? 239 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:37,680 All the Navy left. 240 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:39,040 Well, they left us. 241 00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:42,640 But abandonment means to completely leave someone and never come back. 242 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:45,120 When Turner left, yes, he told Vanagar. 243 00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:46,160 So I'LL be back in a week. 244 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:54,910 And to his credit, they started running small, fast destroyers for supplies in nine days later, always say to the people, said, oh, they abandoned the Marines. 245 00:16:54,910 --> 00:17:00,390 I said, well, if you look, there's 5,000 sailors in iron Bottom sounds still manning their ships. 246 00:17:00,550 --> 00:17:02,190 They didn't leave anybody. 247 00:17:02,190 --> 00:17:03,510 They didn't abandon anyone. 248 00:17:03,510 --> 00:17:04,230 Now for every. 249 00:17:04,230 --> 00:17:11,270 So 3.5 sailors died for every one US army and US Marine on Guadalcanal on the land. 250 00:17:11,670 --> 00:17:12,950 So, yep. 251 00:17:13,109 --> 00:17:19,250 Did the Marines, would they expect it or is it reasonable to think that, okay, they were abandoned? 252 00:17:19,250 --> 00:17:21,089 Yeah, that was a good perception at the time. 253 00:17:21,410 --> 00:17:25,569 But anyway, yeah, so they were left with 50% with their supplies. 254 00:17:25,890 --> 00:17:28,450 This highlights the key dilemma of the campaign. 255 00:17:28,850 --> 00:17:34,609 And you know, should the carriers be risked to protect the transports to offload the supplies for the Marines? 256 00:17:34,770 --> 00:17:39,170 How did Vandegrift respond to the removal of the transports? 257 00:17:39,570 --> 00:17:41,050 Well, he didn't really have much response. 258 00:17:41,050 --> 00:17:46,820 He didn't like it, of course, him and Kelly Tarter, the Trans force commander, but they didn't really have a say in the matter. 259 00:17:46,980 --> 00:17:49,220 Van de Griff, once again, very optimistic guy. 260 00:17:49,220 --> 00:17:53,620 He says, okay, we got what we got and we're here to stay and we'll fight us out. 261 00:17:53,620 --> 00:17:57,300 And one of the Marine officers said, well, you can't dislodge infantry by bombs. 262 00:17:57,300 --> 00:17:58,340 They're going to come back. 263 00:17:58,660 --> 00:18:00,020 The carriers at the time. 264 00:18:00,180 --> 00:18:01,940 Once again, it's another controversy. 265 00:18:01,940 --> 00:18:05,060 Do they sacrifice a Marine division or carriers? 266 00:18:05,060 --> 00:18:07,940 Carriers are very strategic at that stage of the war. 267 00:18:08,100 --> 00:18:12,110 Very well, cagey for the rest of the war, but they didn't have that many to play. 268 00:18:12,110 --> 00:18:12,910 Win or lose. 269 00:18:12,990 --> 00:18:13,510 The risk. 270 00:18:13,510 --> 00:18:15,550 Losing Fletcher was under the. 271 00:18:15,790 --> 00:18:19,870 I wouldn't say it's doctrine, but he'd been told about the calculated risk from Nimmies. 272 00:18:20,190 --> 00:18:23,830 If you think you can take a calculated risk without losing your carriers, take it. 273 00:18:23,830 --> 00:18:27,070 But if you think you potentially lose your carriers, don't take it. 274 00:18:27,230 --> 00:18:30,750 So I think he looked at it, he said, this potentially calculated risk. 275 00:18:30,750 --> 00:18:31,910 And I said, I'd be there. 276 00:18:31,910 --> 00:18:32,790 D +2. 277 00:18:32,790 --> 00:18:40,220 I've done my duty, now I'm pulling out because my cash month, basically carriers are stationary in one position, acceptable air attack. 278 00:18:40,460 --> 00:18:45,900 So he didn't want to lose them because once again, you can leave the infantry there on the island. 279 00:18:45,900 --> 00:18:47,380 They're not going to be dislodged for bomb. 280 00:18:47,380 --> 00:18:48,460 They can stay there for a while. 281 00:18:48,700 --> 00:18:54,620 But it only takes a few bombs to sink a carrier and you lose your strategic asset very quickly. 282 00:18:54,620 --> 00:19:00,380 So, yeah, there was a gamble, or I guess it was a risk, a calculated risk to Leave, and they did. 283 00:19:00,620 --> 00:19:05,320 So they managed to offload 11,000 troops, but not all of the supplies that he wanted. 284 00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:11,000 What did Vande Griff have and how did he deploy the forces that he had to prepare for a Japanese attack? 285 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:16,320 Luckily for the Marines, it goes back to what I was saying earlier about how the Japanese were building staging base. 286 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:19,759 So a lot of supplies there, more than enough for 2,000 men. 287 00:19:19,759 --> 00:19:23,960 They were obviously building it up because the Japanese, they're very little weak. 288 00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:28,320 They were going to land a lot of planes on it, and that place would become operational. 289 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:31,810 So they were getting ready for a few hundred or a few thousand more men to come in. 290 00:19:31,970 --> 00:19:38,050 So the Japanese had a full, basically small city and had their own ice plants, power plants. 291 00:19:38,210 --> 00:19:43,250 They had hangers, they had hundreds and thousands of gallons of fuel. 292 00:19:43,250 --> 00:19:52,570 They had much more importantly, they had all these aircraft or, sorry, airfield construction said bulldozers, rollers, trucks, everything you need to build an airfield. 293 00:19:52,570 --> 00:19:55,060 The Marines were only offloaded one bulldozer. 294 00:19:55,290 --> 00:19:56,570 I think they call it Old Faithful. 295 00:19:57,130 --> 00:20:01,530 They got a lot of work out of it, but they used a lot of Japanese equipment, a lot of Japanese food. 296 00:20:01,850 --> 00:20:05,770 You had rice, you had canned food, you had all kind of stuff. 297 00:20:05,770 --> 00:20:07,090 You had matting. 298 00:20:07,090 --> 00:20:10,170 So once again, the Marines were going to form a defensive perimeter. 299 00:20:10,170 --> 00:20:13,690 So they didn't really arrive with a lot of tools. 300 00:20:13,690 --> 00:20:18,650 They call them trenching tools, sandbags, shovels, picks, barbed wire. 301 00:20:18,890 --> 00:20:21,930 They all offloaded 20x spools of barbed wire. 302 00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:26,200 So they used a lot of these Japanese rice bags as sandbags. 303 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:28,040 So they improvised quite a bit, too. 304 00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:36,080 So the Japanese stores really assisted Vandegrift and more importantly, assist them in building and completing the airfield. 305 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:38,840 They had the airfield completed by 16 August. 306 00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:44,480 The Japanese had built about a 3,600 or 3,700 foot airfield. 307 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:48,680 They started from both ends, and there's only a small portion in the middle that was uncomplated. 308 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:51,040 So the first Marine engineers actually completed it. 309 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:53,960 Then the Seabees, we'll talk about later who they were. 310 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,640 They landed on the 1st of September and built it up more. 311 00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:01,520 So the way that Vandergrift deployed his forces, they had four points after they landed. 312 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:04,160 Four things they had to achieve four major points. 313 00:21:04,799 --> 00:21:07,600 The first one was preparing his defenses for amphibious assault. 314 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:11,280 Because on the 7th and 8th, the Japanese had started to do some counterattacks. 315 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,520 They had three air raids in two days, and they also had the Battle of Savile Island. 316 00:21:15,700 --> 00:21:17,300 So they had some fierce counterattacks. 317 00:21:17,540 --> 00:21:21,860 So Vandergrift and his planners are expecting a major Amphibious assault. 318 00:21:21,860 --> 00:21:24,900 And a major amphibious assault was going to be on Luna Point. 319 00:21:24,980 --> 00:21:33,540 They were actually getting some reports in Revile that there was some armored landing craft being I think put in ships and they were heading their way. 320 00:21:33,780 --> 00:21:42,890 In fact on August 9th in the battle of Saval island, some of the US transport ships had been moving back and forth unloading supplies and the Marines stopped. 321 00:21:42,890 --> 00:21:44,010 The Japanese were landing. 322 00:21:44,010 --> 00:21:48,290 In fact I think it was two, one or one actually shot up some of the boats coming in. 323 00:21:48,450 --> 00:21:50,570 They stopped and they were not landing. 324 00:21:50,570 --> 00:21:53,250 So their main concern was amphibious assault. 325 00:21:53,570 --> 00:22:00,450 So what Vandergrift did on Lunga Point he put his main defenses, so he's put his two regiments, infantry regiments there. 326 00:22:00,690 --> 00:22:08,260 He refused both flanks, one at Cookham on the west flank and one on Alligator Creek or the Elu river on the right flank to refuse it. 327 00:22:08,260 --> 00:22:15,500 So you basically had about a three mile line coastline and both sides pulled back about 2,000 yards. 328 00:22:15,660 --> 00:22:17,700 It's like a little horseshoe shape. 329 00:22:17,700 --> 00:22:28,220 And then on the beaches they put 37 millimeter tank guns, ran top boat defense, had 50 cows caliber heavy machine guns, 30 caliber heavy machine guns, 30 caliber medium machine guns. 330 00:22:28,540 --> 00:22:34,380 They took their M3 half tracks with 75 millimeter self propelled guns that put them there. 331 00:22:34,380 --> 00:22:38,650 They had their tanks ready for a quick response counterattack. 332 00:22:38,810 --> 00:22:42,290 They registered all their artillery all on the baits. 333 00:22:42,290 --> 00:22:43,850 They had a pretty strong defense. 334 00:22:44,010 --> 00:22:45,930 Let's go back to the artillery. 335 00:22:46,170 --> 00:22:49,130 I said one battery landed with each battalion. 336 00:22:49,370 --> 00:22:54,090 The first battery was on the baits in 28 minutes and one hour and seven minutes later. 337 00:22:54,490 --> 00:22:58,250 This is code from Pedro Laval which is division artillery commander. 338 00:22:58,250 --> 00:23:03,930 From his notes they fired redstream shot within one hour and seven minutes after landing the artillery. 339 00:23:04,130 --> 00:23:05,010 So they're ready to go. 340 00:23:05,010 --> 00:23:08,850 To me that I thought that was quite impressive, the 75 millimeter pack holes. 341 00:23:09,170 --> 00:23:10,970 So the four key things you had to do. 342 00:23:10,970 --> 00:23:12,370 One, you had to build up the defenses. 343 00:23:12,370 --> 00:23:16,690 Two, remember 6,000 yards to the right was still all their supplies. 344 00:23:16,930 --> 00:23:18,450 I'll talk about the supplies in a second. 345 00:23:18,530 --> 00:23:22,330 But they had to get all their supplies into the secure perimeter. 346 00:23:22,330 --> 00:23:25,250 So that was a major key job they had to do. 347 00:23:25,570 --> 00:23:33,180 Because them supplies built up on the beach, susceptible to air raids or they were thinking potentially a commando raid to take them out. 348 00:23:33,180 --> 00:23:35,940 So the whatever supplies that offloaded they had to move them in. 349 00:23:35,940 --> 00:23:37,740 The third they had to complete the airfield. 350 00:23:37,820 --> 00:23:42,860 And the fourth they had to do active patrolling to try to find the original garrison. 351 00:23:42,940 --> 00:23:50,540 Because when they landed the original garrison and the captain Monson they gave them orders, said okay, I want everyone to flee to the. 352 00:23:50,540 --> 00:23:53,580 To west to Matanical river, to our defense line. 353 00:23:53,660 --> 00:23:56,300 Grab three days with the rations or whatever and take off. 354 00:23:56,460 --> 00:23:57,420 That's what they did. 355 00:23:57,500 --> 00:23:59,550 But they didn't know where the original garrison was. 356 00:23:59,550 --> 00:24:04,110 And plus remember their intelligence said there's 5,000 Japanese here and they didn't really come across any of them. 357 00:24:04,110 --> 00:24:05,670 So they're trying to find them now. 358 00:24:05,670 --> 00:24:07,030 We'll go back to supplies. 359 00:24:07,430 --> 00:24:10,550 Beach Red is a great beach, great landing beach. 360 00:24:10,710 --> 00:24:12,870 A red beach, but it's shallow beach. 361 00:24:12,950 --> 00:24:15,190 A lot of these supplies landed on a shallow beach. 362 00:24:15,190 --> 00:24:20,270 The marines would conduct a lot of landings after Guadalcanal. 363 00:24:20,270 --> 00:24:24,470 What were the key lessons that came out from these first littoral operations? 364 00:24:24,470 --> 00:24:27,590 So both to La De and Guadalcanal. 365 00:24:27,830 --> 00:24:32,390 Go back to Lt. Col. Twining, Division Plant planner, very smart guy. 366 00:24:32,550 --> 00:24:38,390 He said the number one thing about the number one lesson they earned, especially logistics is serialization. 367 00:24:38,710 --> 00:24:41,590 They had learned how to serialize the cargoes. 368 00:24:41,590 --> 00:24:53,670 He said it may not sound important but he said became that was the most important thing they learned and how it come to fruition in all the later campaigns and you see nowadays and loading cargoes on ships, everything's serialized. 369 00:24:53,670 --> 00:24:56,430 I mean you barcodes now but every item has a place. 370 00:24:56,750 --> 00:25:03,710 And it allowed him to organize and efficiently move their supplies quicker and get them offloaded and loaded on boats lot faster. 371 00:25:03,710 --> 00:25:07,310 He said serialization was number one command and control. 372 00:25:07,790 --> 00:25:10,990 Between the amphibious forces and land forces. 373 00:25:11,230 --> 00:25:11,870 There was a. 374 00:25:11,870 --> 00:25:19,470 They ironed out a lot of the kinks in that also the coordination of naval gunfire and close air support. 375 00:25:19,710 --> 00:25:21,580 By placing actually nice. 376 00:25:21,650 --> 00:25:24,610 They were going to fire forward observers in with the landing forces. 377 00:25:24,850 --> 00:25:31,890 They didn't have that before the integrated combined arms in the planning teams and the coordinations and started from the very beginning. 378 00:25:31,970 --> 00:25:37,570 So when you're starting a planning amphibious operation that all elements need to work as a team together. 379 00:25:38,130 --> 00:25:45,650 For example, you don't have the Marines planning team over on the say on this side and Navy on this side and the air on this side. 380 00:25:45,730 --> 00:25:50,920 All elements working together from minute one to integrate in their plans. 381 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:55,280 Because that hadn't occurred, which we look at it nowadays, you think that's normal. 382 00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:56,560 But in those days it wasn't. 383 00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:58,760 Especially in the very first amphibious assault. 384 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:02,040 The loads were too heavy initially to go in the planning. 385 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:04,600 For example, they'd plan for 90 days. 386 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,600 They said in Vivian invasion should have 90 days worth of supply. 387 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:10,440 So ammunition, food and so forth. 388 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:13,960 After this they said well they only need 60 days worth of supplies. 389 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:14,640 And that's what they did. 390 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:15,800 They initially landed with 60 days. 391 00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:17,000 They'd packed for 90 days. 392 00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:21,480 But in New Zealand, they said, well, we can't take all this, so we'll just cut it down to 60 days. 393 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:28,520 Naturally went down to 30 days when they actually landed, because that's all they had, food for 30 days and four units of fire. 394 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:35,480 That's all they had initially when the Navy pulled out, that's supplemented with Japanese rations. 395 00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:39,640 The importance to rapidly build up and defend advanced bases. 396 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:56,640 That was an importance, and that's a very important, I think, key lesson for today and for littoral operations to quickly grab a base or grab an area and defend it, to build up very quickly and obviously the complete dominance of air and sea space for an amphibious invasion. 397 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:09,600 I think one of the Marines says after there was no navy around to support them, they said even the greenest second lieutenant would know that you need to control a sea space for effective, infamous operation. 398 00:27:10,980 --> 00:27:12,500 They controlled the sea and air. 399 00:27:12,740 --> 00:27:14,460 So they learned the aspects of that. 400 00:27:14,460 --> 00:27:22,900 Because once again, during, you'll see in the Guadalcanal campaign, the US Navy didn't control the sea, especially at night, didn't have complete control of the sea dominance. 401 00:27:23,140 --> 00:27:28,500 Therefore, if you didn't have that control of that space, that battle space, then it was hard to supply. 402 00:27:28,580 --> 00:27:32,500 And the Japanese found it out too, because they lost control of the battle space too. 403 00:27:32,500 --> 00:27:36,340 And they found it hard to resupply during the day because they're. 404 00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:38,280 The Cactus Air Force stopped them. 405 00:27:38,360 --> 00:27:39,800 That was the main ones. 406 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:41,960 I think I had another one here. 407 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:48,200 Radio, comms, communications, more transports to move the supplies off the beach. 408 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:59,280 Because when they land in one stage on 7 August, there were a hundred landing craft, landing ships, and we're talking about the little Higgins boats full sitting off the beach, getting ready to unload. 409 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:02,520 There's 50 more out in the surf getting ready to come in. 410 00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:08,000 So the 150 boats, they had to delay it for two, two hours to try to offload some of the supplies. 411 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:09,360 They were just jamming up. 412 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:11,560 They need more boats and the more. 413 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:17,200 And their secret weapon, which Vandergrift later said, this is my secret weapons with amphibious tractors, Amtraks. 414 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,040 At that time, it was a very new that a whole battalion. 415 00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:32,120 In 1st amphibious tractor battalion, they looked at them and in later campaigns that were used as landing craft, assault craft, Guadalcanal, they looked at them as water trucks. 416 00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:35,920 They use them in supply, moving supplies from point A to B. 417 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,440 But they're very effective, those amphibious tractors. 418 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:44,000 And they had a scheme where they take amphibious tractors, use them as Pontoons. 419 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:46,560 This is one of the engineers beforehand. 420 00:28:46,879 --> 00:28:48,680 I might have talked about this in the other episode. 421 00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:52,240 They had like a kadura, prefabricated kadura road. 422 00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:53,840 Like a road, a bridge. 423 00:28:53,840 --> 00:29:05,760 They had a big roll on top of an Amtrak and they'd drive these two amphibious tractors in a river or small creek, then unroll this little temporary bridge that allowed them to forward very quickly. 424 00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:08,080 They seen how important that came to be. 425 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:13,600 So, yeah, they were very shown a lot of innovation here that turned out to really assist them in later campaigns. 426 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:24,480 Who was actually in control of the beach, who was trying to coordinate what landing craft were going to come in and who was going to take off the supplies and where those supplies were going to go? 427 00:29:24,710 --> 00:29:34,350 I think at one stage Vandergrift was worried because there was a significant ammunition dump and he thought that if the Japanese bombed it, they could lose all of that ammunition. 428 00:29:34,350 --> 00:29:36,710 And he wasn't sure when he was going to get resupplied. 429 00:29:37,270 --> 00:29:40,430 Yeah, so that's another lesson that they learned about beach masters. 430 00:29:40,430 --> 00:29:45,030 They only have one beach master, you know, one beach master control this whole 1600 yard beach. 431 00:29:45,350 --> 00:30:05,220 Jack Clark US Navy Beach Master so he was doing his best he could, but there was really no one completely organizing and controlling the beach because once they landed, the Marines infra guys fanned out and formed a beachhead because you got to remember they were suspecting a reinforced Japanese regiment, so they couldn't help with the offloading. 432 00:30:05,460 --> 00:30:11,620 There was a specific unit made for this landing support battalion and they were called the first Pioneers. 433 00:30:11,860 --> 00:30:14,980 There were part engineers and part landing support battalion. 434 00:30:14,980 --> 00:30:16,740 So it was 450 of those guys. 435 00:30:17,070 --> 00:30:18,430 So they were supposed to assist. 436 00:30:18,910 --> 00:30:21,550 And then he had some of the beachmaster party. 437 00:30:21,630 --> 00:30:22,510 But it was very. 438 00:30:22,590 --> 00:30:28,470 I think it was about 30, 40 guys in that they were supposed to set up the signal flags in the sector and get. 439 00:30:28,470 --> 00:30:34,990 Which is basically fell apart and boats would just come in, unload, dump it in a big pile and take back off. 440 00:30:35,150 --> 00:30:36,430 That was basically how it went. 441 00:30:36,510 --> 00:30:38,670 And there was not enough people to help unload. 442 00:30:39,150 --> 00:30:40,910 Gotta remember, there's no docks there. 443 00:30:41,310 --> 00:30:45,750 They had no rollers, which you see them in the later ones, campaigns we can just. 444 00:30:45,990 --> 00:30:52,590 You've seen like some of the warehouses, modern warehouse, you got like little tracks with rollers on it, and they can just roll boxes straight off. 445 00:30:52,590 --> 00:30:53,750 They didn't have anything like that. 446 00:30:53,750 --> 00:30:56,550 You see them in later in any campaign, but nothing like that. 447 00:30:56,550 --> 00:30:57,110 It would just. 448 00:30:57,350 --> 00:31:00,710 And then a lot of these landing craft didn't have ramps. 449 00:31:00,870 --> 00:31:02,710 So you're throwing this stuff Straight over. 450 00:31:03,110 --> 00:31:07,510 Some of the stuff was hitting the surf and floating in the surf, and he's piling up and it was a big mess. 451 00:31:07,510 --> 00:31:09,150 It was a big cluster, basically, what it. 452 00:31:09,150 --> 00:31:09,710 What it was. 453 00:31:09,710 --> 00:31:10,070 So. 454 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:16,680 So a few days later, the 12th of August, we have quite a famous patrol, the GY Patrol. 455 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:20,560 Do you want to talk us through what the GY Patrol was? 456 00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:21,400 Yeah. 457 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:23,200 So Gatche is lieutenant colonel. 458 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,319 Later colonel on 28 July, became colonel. 459 00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:27,920 You see some of the reports. 460 00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:29,200 He was in Australia. 461 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:31,960 He was the division intelligence officer. 462 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:33,680 He was lieutenant colonel. 463 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:36,760 And then I always wondered, because that's the finest picture of him. 464 00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:37,600 He's on Guadala Canal. 465 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,470 He's got colonel, got eagles, got colonel insignia. 466 00:31:40,790 --> 00:31:45,550 But I'm reading all these primary reports in July that he's signing off lieutenant colonel. 467 00:31:45,550 --> 00:31:46,950 I said, well, how does that work? 468 00:31:47,110 --> 00:31:59,150 And then I came across a report where on 28 July, it was a message on the ship that him and about three other guys were promoted from lieutenant colonel a week before he landed. 469 00:31:59,150 --> 00:32:00,110 He was Colonel Gye. 470 00:32:00,110 --> 00:32:04,390 So GY was the division intelligence officer, famous former football player. 471 00:32:04,390 --> 00:32:08,150 I think he was going to be recruited by the New York Giants, which professional football team. 472 00:32:08,150 --> 00:32:12,850 But he remained in the Marine Corps, Big fella in Gatchi. 473 00:32:12,850 --> 00:32:16,970 When they'd landed, all his estimates said there's 5,000 Japanese here. 474 00:32:16,970 --> 00:32:18,570 When they get there, they can't find them. 475 00:32:18,650 --> 00:32:24,650 So Getche was a guy who always led for the front, and he kind of was very aggressive guy. 476 00:32:24,810 --> 00:32:33,130 I think he was losing a bit of face from the reading the accounts and the reports and some of what the other officers were saying, because they go, what was these 5,000 men get you? 477 00:32:33,130 --> 00:32:34,330 You know, we've got 5,000. 478 00:32:34,570 --> 00:32:35,930 Your intelligence supposed to be great. 479 00:32:35,930 --> 00:32:36,810 What's going on here? 480 00:32:37,300 --> 00:32:40,900 So there were a number of Japanese laborers who escaped to the jungle. 481 00:32:40,900 --> 00:32:46,420 A lot of them with the security forces and some of the Japanese laborers headed to the Matanical West. 482 00:32:46,660 --> 00:32:50,140 But a lot of these Japanese, like there was over 2,000 of them. 483 00:32:50,140 --> 00:32:51,460 It just spread all over the place. 484 00:32:51,460 --> 00:32:55,140 So they're aimlessly walking around in the jungle, in the hills, all around the airfield. 485 00:32:55,300 --> 00:33:00,820 In the first few days, Marines unfortunately killed some of these Koreans, thinking they were Japanese and shooting them on site. 486 00:33:00,820 --> 00:33:02,100 Then it started working out. 487 00:33:02,180 --> 00:33:05,280 These are Koreans laborers, not Japanese soldiers. 488 00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:07,120 And they started capturing them. 489 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:12,360 Then, of course, on the 11th of August, they captured one Japanese laborer. 490 00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:16,080 But there was another guy with him they described as a sullen man. 491 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,200 He was a warrant officer in the Japanese naval landed forces. 492 00:33:19,439 --> 00:33:22,560 So they get him in, they captured him, they brought him in. 493 00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:24,240 He wouldn't say anything. 494 00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:26,480 They tied him to a tree and a son. 495 00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:29,760 I wouldn't say torturing him, but question him. 496 00:33:30,060 --> 00:33:32,380 Then they gave him some brandy, gave him a lot of brandy. 497 00:33:32,540 --> 00:33:34,220 Then he started singing like a bird. 498 00:33:34,380 --> 00:33:45,380 Anyway, he told him, he said, look, there's about a thousand, I think Japanese on the other side of Point Cruise, which is about six miles to the west past Matanical River. 499 00:33:45,380 --> 00:33:46,460 They want to surrender. 500 00:33:46,700 --> 00:33:48,140 Then it's okay. 501 00:33:48,140 --> 00:33:55,940 And it roughly earlier to that day, the marine patrol had went to the Matanical near some fire and they'd be running patrols through there. 502 00:33:55,940 --> 00:33:59,900 And it took some shots in Matanical, this is some guys here, they want to fight. 503 00:34:00,060 --> 00:34:01,100 So they're coming back. 504 00:34:01,100 --> 00:34:02,780 But at Cookham, the marines had a. 505 00:34:02,780 --> 00:34:04,620 Had captured a anti aircraft gun. 506 00:34:04,620 --> 00:34:10,699 So they're test firing it and shoot it out toward the Matanical, which is three miles or, sorry, five miles out. 507 00:34:10,780 --> 00:34:12,780 And then they thought they seen a white flag. 508 00:34:13,100 --> 00:34:13,820 What did we. 509 00:34:13,900 --> 00:34:14,980 We think it is now. 510 00:34:14,980 --> 00:34:20,139 And the white flag was just a normal Japanese flag, you know, with the red circle in the middle. 511 00:34:20,300 --> 00:34:21,620 They just seen the white flag. 512 00:34:21,620 --> 00:34:23,179 You got to remember this is before the. 513 00:34:23,469 --> 00:34:25,389 They knew the Japanese would generally never surrender. 514 00:34:25,389 --> 00:34:27,310 You know, the common belief and common knowledge. 515 00:34:27,310 --> 00:34:28,150 I don't surrender. 516 00:34:28,150 --> 00:34:29,030 They didn't think about that. 517 00:34:29,030 --> 00:34:30,670 They think they potentially might surrender. 518 00:34:30,989 --> 00:34:33,190 So the information got back to Gye. 519 00:34:33,190 --> 00:34:35,030 They said, look, we've seen a white flag. 520 00:34:35,030 --> 00:34:39,110 We've got this warrant officer saying there's over a thousand Japanese want to surrender and get you. 521 00:34:39,110 --> 00:34:42,469 Goes, oh, okay, here's my garrison potentially. 522 00:34:42,469 --> 00:34:48,270 And you know, here's my chance to just look good and do good and finally clear this island of the Japanese. 523 00:34:48,510 --> 00:34:52,730 So there was going to be a patrol by a guy called first sergeant Custer as a. 524 00:34:52,810 --> 00:34:57,330 Not a direct lineage, but he was actually lineage to the Custer of the custard. 525 00:34:57,330 --> 00:34:59,570 Little big born fight, Stephen Custer. 526 00:34:59,570 --> 00:35:04,250 But he had organized patrol or concert patrol and he had some combat guys on it. 527 00:35:04,250 --> 00:35:13,610 And they were going to go in and infiltrate and look over the Matanical because of the reports from the early patrols that, you know, there's just some fighting at Tanical, some pretty tough guys there. 528 00:35:13,610 --> 00:35:14,330 Don't go there. 529 00:35:14,330 --> 00:35:23,540 And in fact, there's a guy called Colonel Bill Whelan who was the executive officer of the 5th Marines that told G. He goes, just avoid the mouth botanical. 530 00:35:23,540 --> 00:35:24,860 That's a hornet's nest there. 531 00:35:24,860 --> 00:35:25,780 Just avoid that area. 532 00:35:26,420 --> 00:35:27,580 Yes, sir, I will. 533 00:35:27,580 --> 00:35:28,180 No problem. 534 00:35:28,500 --> 00:35:29,740 So what Gadget did. 535 00:35:29,740 --> 00:35:31,060 He thought, well, here's my chance. 536 00:35:31,060 --> 00:35:40,020 So what he's done with Custer's patrol, he's pulled a lot of combat guys out and added his own specialist in because some of these specialists will blow your mind. 537 00:35:40,460 --> 00:35:42,380 One was a guy called Pratt, Dr. Pratt. 538 00:35:42,380 --> 00:35:44,700 He was battalion or sorry, the regimental surgeon. 539 00:35:44,860 --> 00:35:51,260 It fought in the First World War and earned a Navy Cross as a Navy doctor with the 5th Marines actually in the First World War. 540 00:35:51,660 --> 00:35:52,820 So he was spent old. 541 00:35:52,820 --> 00:35:57,100 But he was going to go because they thought, oh, we got all these prisoners going to need a doctor. 542 00:35:57,260 --> 00:35:58,540 I guess Corps was not good enough. 543 00:35:58,540 --> 00:36:06,550 They took the litter graph, their map makers, all the most of the guys from the regimental and division intelligence. 544 00:36:06,710 --> 00:36:09,590 They took a linguist, one of the few linguists they had. 545 00:36:09,670 --> 00:36:10,550 They took him. 546 00:36:10,710 --> 00:36:13,190 They took another guy called Ralph Corey. 547 00:36:13,190 --> 00:36:15,270 Ralph Corey was in his 40 forties. 548 00:36:15,510 --> 00:36:19,750 He'd lived in Japan pre war and he came back in American. 549 00:36:19,990 --> 00:36:31,590 But what Ralph Corey had and what he was involved with pre war, I don't even think Vandergriff even knew he was involved some in a program called Magic, which is the breaking the Japanese codes. 550 00:36:31,980 --> 00:36:33,980 Very super, super top secret. 551 00:36:34,380 --> 00:36:39,100 In fact, Corey shouldn't even been in a combat zombie, much less than going out on combat patrol. 552 00:36:39,340 --> 00:36:45,660 He was put in there because he was a Japanese linguist and he had other non combat types in there too. 553 00:36:46,140 --> 00:36:48,420 So 25 of them jumped on a boat. 554 00:36:48,420 --> 00:36:49,340 They booked out. 555 00:36:49,340 --> 00:36:52,380 I won't go in a lot of detail because my whole episode. 556 00:36:52,380 --> 00:36:54,940 Well, I'll have my episode on the Gadget truck. 557 00:36:54,940 --> 00:36:58,860 Anyway, they left on the 12 August. 558 00:36:59,510 --> 00:37:03,750 So instead of landing, they were going to land on the other side of Point Cruise. 559 00:37:04,070 --> 00:37:13,350 For some reason, whether they got lost or Disorientated, they landed 200 yards due west of the mouth of Matanakau into the Hornet's Nest. 560 00:37:13,430 --> 00:37:14,230 So they landed there. 561 00:37:14,230 --> 00:37:16,070 They landed actually 200 yards out. 562 00:37:16,150 --> 00:37:21,590 They were landed 200 yards from the mouth, about 100 yards out and was hung up on a sandbar or a coral shelf. 563 00:37:21,750 --> 00:37:24,550 The boat went back and forth, making all this noise. 564 00:37:25,130 --> 00:37:26,570 So the Japanese were waiting for them. 565 00:37:26,970 --> 00:37:29,170 So they basically, they landed them. 566 00:37:29,170 --> 00:37:33,770 The boat took back off because G said they didn't need the boat, didn't want to wait around, just take off. 567 00:37:33,770 --> 00:37:34,730 So catchy. 568 00:37:34,730 --> 00:37:39,050 Two others walked in to find out where they were at and they walked straight into ambush. 569 00:37:39,050 --> 00:37:43,370 Gaethje was basically killed automatically and the rest of his men was pinned down on a beach. 570 00:37:43,530 --> 00:37:47,930 And over the course of the night they sent three Marines out to try to get help. 571 00:37:48,170 --> 00:37:50,370 One died at the mouth of the town cow. 572 00:37:50,370 --> 00:37:51,770 The other two started swimming back. 573 00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:55,600 And then when morning time come, I mean, they didn't have a radio, they didn't have anything. 574 00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:59,720 So morning time come, there's only three survivors left, and they try to make a run for it. 575 00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:06,120 Two was shot down and a guy called Frank Few managed to jump into the ocean, strip down and swim back. 576 00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:08,600 By the time he got back, the other two had made it. 577 00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:12,440 And they said, look, the Gatches is getting hit up there, so they're forming up a relief party. 578 00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,960 By the time Few got back, he said, they're all dead. 579 00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:16,600 So that. 580 00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:24,180 And then when they did find reef party, it was the first biometanical and a few other things, but the state of the bodies when they did find them. 581 00:38:24,180 --> 00:38:32,260 And then Few actually said when you look back, you could see them being bayoneted and chopped up and things like that and killing the wounded. 582 00:38:32,260 --> 00:38:33,140 So that got back. 583 00:38:33,140 --> 00:38:38,980 And then when the first patrols went up there, they seen the mutilated bodies in all kinds of different forms. 584 00:38:39,060 --> 00:38:40,980 And that word got back to the division. 585 00:38:41,220 --> 00:38:45,860 So that kind of set the mindset because you got to remember division was very young. 586 00:38:45,940 --> 00:38:51,150 The average age was about 19, fellow division compared to say U.S. army with 26. 587 00:38:51,790 --> 00:39:01,390 Because at this stage all these guys were volunteers and most of them were filled up with a lot of the war or the Pearl harbor guys at, you know, 18, 17, 18 years old at joint. 588 00:39:01,790 --> 00:39:04,350 So they had that whole teenage impression line set. 589 00:39:04,429 --> 00:39:05,590 So the word got back. 590 00:39:05,590 --> 00:39:07,470 The Japanese not taking any prisoners. 591 00:39:07,630 --> 00:39:08,750 They're butchering us. 592 00:39:09,070 --> 00:39:10,350 We take no prisoners. 593 00:39:10,350 --> 00:39:11,390 That's the way they want to play. 594 00:39:11,390 --> 00:39:12,990 We'll play the same way. 595 00:39:13,390 --> 00:39:16,320 They, you know, these bastards, they, you know, they fought dirty. 596 00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:17,280 They're just ruthless. 597 00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:22,800 And plus two, they thought that the Japanese had set them up. 598 00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:25,280 Oh, it was a white flag, you know, they set us up. 599 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:29,840 Oh, the Japanese prisoners gave us a bad information because they took the Japanese prisoner along with them. 600 00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:36,520 In fact, when they started to land at that area, that Japanese start saying, no, no, in Japanese, don't land here. 601 00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:37,080 Don't land here. 602 00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:37,840 You got the wrong place. 603 00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:39,760 Because he knew what they were going into. 604 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:41,280 They actually had him on a. 605 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:45,520 Had a rope around his throat on the leash like a dog so he would escape. 606 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:46,040 So the. 607 00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:49,960 From the first shots fired, there's a guy called Stout, Sergeant Coldwater. 608 00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:52,560 He fired one shot with his.45 into the Japanese head. 609 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:53,720 He said, well, you've tricked us. 610 00:39:53,720 --> 00:39:54,880 And he killed him on the spot. 611 00:39:54,880 --> 00:40:06,240 But that, but the whole trick rid and the butchery and all that combined form the ethos and the mindset for all these Marines for the Marine division at that stage on, they said, we'll take no prisoners. 612 00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:09,720 If that's the way they want to play this game, we'll take no prisoners. 613 00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:10,720 And then we'll see. 614 00:40:10,720 --> 00:40:13,080 With the ballet area of the creek, that was just reinforced more. 615 00:40:13,240 --> 00:40:19,800 But that was the, I think, the biggest impact of the Gadget Patrol that went through, all through boot camp, all through War ii. 616 00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:21,800 Like Eugene Sledge, he wrote the. 617 00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:28,560 I don't know if you're familiar with Sledge about Peleloo in Okinawa with the Old Breed, he wrote probably one of the best memoirs of the. 618 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:29,600 I would say the war. 619 00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:32,840 Probably one of the best war memorials memoirs of all time. 620 00:40:33,650 --> 00:40:36,690 He talks about in his boot camp, they talk about the Gatchi Patrol. 621 00:40:36,690 --> 00:40:38,770 He went through it in 43, I think, or 44. 622 00:40:39,090 --> 00:40:41,730 So that was an everlasting impact all through the whole Pacific. 623 00:40:41,810 --> 00:40:48,530 But then obviously the Japanese actions for every battle after that just reinforced that whole perception. 624 00:40:48,610 --> 00:40:50,930 So that was the impact of the Gochi patrol. 625 00:40:51,090 --> 00:40:57,570 And it's interesting because it did have an important cultural impact on the rest of the war, effectively. 626 00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:00,080 What were the maps like? 627 00:41:00,240 --> 00:41:06,640 So, because when you look at Point Cruise, it would be difficult to miss Point Cruise. 628 00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:10,400 And I think so you. 629 00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:15,400 You wonder how they could have got close to the Metanica when they were told not to go close to the Metanica. 630 00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:19,760 It does sound like a navigational error and yet Point Cruise is fairly clear. 631 00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:20,680 Yeah. 632 00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:23,560 And you know, you've been there and Point Close crew stands out. 633 00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:27,190 We got to remember there in the darkness when they were going, it was dark. 634 00:41:27,670 --> 00:41:29,750 And the mouth botanical stands out too. 635 00:41:29,750 --> 00:41:31,590 So they're only 200 yards from. 636 00:41:31,750 --> 00:41:33,070 Well, they're 100 yards out. 637 00:41:33,070 --> 00:41:35,990 They landed 20 yards on the beach, but they were a hundred yards out from the mouth. 638 00:41:36,070 --> 00:41:37,990 I've studied it quite a lot. 639 00:41:38,550 --> 00:41:48,710 I don't only think that they were potentially lost in the darkness and the Cotswin and the boat was moving close to shore to trying to find his bearings and they seen the Alpha Matanical and get. 640 00:41:48,710 --> 00:42:04,280 You probably said, list this land here or they're getting close and they either that or they've hit that sandbar, seen the mechanical and then a bit of lost patience because they're already behind, like hours behind their expected landing because they left cook them for boat base. 641 00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:06,280 They were Operation Bay cook them, they left. 642 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:12,080 And then about 6 o' clock at night, Robin is starting to get dark and then they seen a flare of light and they had to come back. 643 00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:12,840 It wasn't for them. 644 00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:14,680 But they lost another hour, an hour and a half. 645 00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:16,800 So they're behind the schedule. 646 00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:20,920 Maybe a bit of impatience with get you because he was a very impatient type of guy. 647 00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:29,600 He just always wanted to just take action without potentially thinking a lot that was quite commonly said about G very super brave man. 648 00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:33,280 But yeah, I just think he just was a bit too aggressive. 649 00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:34,880 I think he just lost impatience. 650 00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:36,320 Let's land here and we'll go in. 651 00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:44,120 When you think about the risk assessment for that action, a force of 25, we're going to pick up a theft, thousand prisoners and. 652 00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:45,400 Exactly. 653 00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:46,760 And, and that's another question. 654 00:42:47,240 --> 00:42:49,720 Was that the arrogance or the naivety? 655 00:42:50,280 --> 00:43:02,040 They think it was just okay, I've got 25 men, got one doctor, I got one linguist and unfortunately get you not here now to tell us what he was actually thinking. 656 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:04,640 He kept a lot of it to himself or their plans. 657 00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:11,050 He didn't write anything down what they had planned to do and he didn't for tell anyone really what his full on plans. 658 00:43:11,050 --> 00:43:20,410 I think he was potentially going to find them, verify and then go back and obviously get more supplies and get more men and things like that. 659 00:43:20,410 --> 00:43:26,850 I think he just wanted to actually verify that what he was saying was true because initially it was going to be a reconnaissance patrol under Custer. 660 00:43:27,010 --> 00:43:31,410 And then once Sketchy got this other information then he basically took control of it. 661 00:43:31,410 --> 00:43:37,000 And I think, well, we'll just keep reconnaissance patrol but we'll go out and see if we can find these thousand men. 662 00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:39,320 Then once we find them, then we'll come back. 663 00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:41,560 Yeah, it is a bold plan. 664 00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:43,640 Yeah, very bold. 665 00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:44,440 Excellent. 666 00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:45,640 Well thank you very much. 667 00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:52,760 Dave's done a fantastic job of bringing out some of the lessons learned for the landings at Guadalcanal. 668 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:54,760 There's a couple of things that I would add. 669 00:43:54,840 --> 00:44:02,120 Firstly, there's a bit of advice for officers early on in their career who think that they may be struggling. 670 00:44:02,770 --> 00:44:07,330 And this is from the example of General Alexander Vandegrift. 671 00:44:08,210 --> 00:44:14,290 Firstly, in 1909 he wrote a paper, Aviation the Cavalry of the Future. 672 00:44:15,330 --> 00:44:16,770 So that was in 1909. 673 00:44:16,770 --> 00:44:21,810 The Wright Brothers had only flown in December of 1903. 674 00:44:22,290 --> 00:44:32,610 So aviation very much in its infancy and yet he was able to extrapolate out to the important role, the critical role that aviation would play in future combat operations. 675 00:44:33,980 --> 00:44:42,620 However, his first assessment when he was still at the Marine officer school, he was rated as not good. 676 00:44:43,420 --> 00:45:07,960 And these were the remarks that the commander of the Marine Officer School wrote, this officer has not shown that he appreciates the responsibilities of his position as an officer and unless there is decisive improvement, his relations will not be to the advantage of the service he obviously worked on that he received in his next assessment good and tolerable. 677 00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:13,160 Tolerable is probably not the best way of being described, but it's definitely trending upwards. 678 00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:17,080 And his next one after that he was rated as excellent. 679 00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:22,520 He did sterling work as the commander of the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal. 680 00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:30,100 He would go on to be the Commandant of the Marine Corps, which is a four star position and part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 681 00:45:30,580 --> 00:45:37,780 The other lesson I think to reflect on is the planning and risk assessment around the get you patrol. 682 00:45:38,180 --> 00:45:44,580 I think it's important to look at what the mission is and to ask yourself, do I have the resources to be able to do this? 683 00:45:44,740 --> 00:45:48,100 What are the likely tasks that are going to fall out of it? 684 00:45:48,340 --> 00:45:56,000 They were expecting quite a large number of Japanese that were going to surrender to manage the number of prisoners. 685 00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:05,040 They increased the number of people who spoke Japanese rather than thinking about potentially the risk of running into combat. 686 00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:11,360 But it's important to admire G's initiative, definitely his bravery. 687 00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:17,680 Had they been able to pull off that mission successfully, it would have been a huge coup for the Marines. 688 00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:24,320 And the last point of that, I think highlights the fact that the Marines were only just getting to know their enemy. 689 00:46:24,720 --> 00:46:29,120 They were unsure of the culture of the Japanese that they were fighting. 690 00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:34,480 And this is why those initial lessons learned when fighting a new enemy are absolutely critical. 691 00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:35,800 We'll leave it there. 692 00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:39,200 We'll be back next week with the Battle of the Tenaru. 693 00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:43,520 The Principles of War Podcast is brought to you by James Ealing. 694 00:46:43,930 --> 00:46:54,890 The show notes for the Principles of War podcast are available at www.theprinciplesofwar.com for maps, photos and other information that didn't make it into the podcast. 695 00:46:55,290 --> 00:46:58,890 Follow us on Facebook or Tweet us at surprisePodcast. 696 00:46:59,370 --> 00:47:05,450 If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on itunes and tag a mate in one of our episodes. 697 00:47:06,090 --> 00:47:09,070 All opinions expressed by individuals are those of those individuals. 698 00:47:09,220 --> 00:47:11,220 Individuals and not of any organization.