Guadalcanal 1942 - The Battle of Alligator Creek

here we go pressing the button now good evening again this is the second of our double header of shows today and if my math or maths depending whether you're american or british is correct this is my 100th live stream which is something of achievement given that we've been doing it for seven months or something um sometimes it feels like i've done five million of them but it's a hundred i think so joining me tonight is an old friend a he's taught by me and normally we've mates a long time brian de mitovic you may remember him from such earlier world war two tv performances as the machine gun panel debate that went on for internally long talking about machine guns but we're talking about a battle tonight so good evening or rather from where you are good afternoon brian how you doing paul i am absolutely very excited about this so we are going off to the pacific to guadalcanal for this uh brian and for those watching so um i i'm just gonna point to talk from a kind of british point of view my big problem with the pacific campaign is placing it all on a bloody map because i know europe i know because i live there it's that pacific thing and you mentioned the solomon islands and the marshalls i just have to every time i have to come look them up on the map and go ah yeah those ones so let's start with a kind of a basic i'll share i've got photos we'll look at them the pacific there and i'll point out where guadalcanal is and so for those watching it's there just to the north east of australia and brian why the hell is guadalcanal important um [Music] to the allies in 1942 so everybody knows the the december 7th 1941 pearl harbor's attacked uh there is a uh across the international date line uh there are simultaneous attacks that are taking place on hong kong um the philippines and the japanese are just really taking over and as you can see from from that map there the japanese have put together uh what is essentially the largest territorial empire in human history it's not a lot of land mass but in terms of territory it is it is the largest and they are defeating everybody um that they go up against uh they've defeated the americans they've defeated the british um they've defeated the dutch um and really it was shocking to a lot of people and um as you can see there on that line you see that august 42 line and that's really where where it leads to um you see in in june may of 42 uh you see those expansions in august 42 and i think one of the points that i i wanted to make early on is in a lot of more uh historical more contemporary concepts is that midway is the turning point uh for the battle uh in the pto um in my opinion in a lot of people's opinion uh it is not the turning point because as you can see uh the battle of midway takes place in in june of 42 up there you can see the mark uh right up there and uh uh they are still making territorial conquest in new guinea uh up into the alaskan territorial regions uh so so midway really hasn't set them back that much they've set them back in in terms of the navy uh but in terms of their land conquest they're still pushing and and finally in august they actually uh um land on the island of tulagi uh which is the the solomon islands is a british territory the capital was talaghi tulagi is about 30 miles north of the island of guadalcanal and what ends up happening is is that the japanese while they're there they kind of fan out and and they land on the island of guadalcanal and notice that there is a very nice flat piece of terrain uh that looks pretty good for an airfield and they start construction of an airfield and the americans along with the australian coast watchers network uh get word that this airfield is being built and as you can see the solomon islands in guadalcanal it really then cuts off australia uh as a lifeline yeah early in the in the war planning we were intending to use australia as we almost use england in europe and uh and and if that lifeline is severed uh there there's there's a huge problem there and so we decide that an offensive needs to take place and we then send uh the first marine division uh to to take care of that job for us i mean it's got a little bit of a malta connection isn't it you know in the mediterranean same time of year 1942 you know in the way of a key ever of a lifeline so it's you know that and that's i know there are people watching that who know these basics but for me it's important we just kind of establish that premise right the beginning of why it's all about and i i'm not a big expert in the pacific and i have to say confess i kind of do consider midway a turning point but that's me because as i said i'm thinking about the naval side of it because that's what i can relate to and then one of the things i want to point out to our audience is that unlike a lot of people who read about the pacific you've actually been to these islands because of your work you get to travel to the far east you've been to these places and so you have a much better sense of just the terrain the geography and the under and the distances as well the us looking at these maps it's very hard to get that sense of of of place and so you know that's why you're on the show because you've been these places and and you've established connections with some of the locals there and tour guides and experts and you know as people who are regular what viewers know i don't just use the phd historians and the the big ones who write the books and appear on tv i use the amateurs who are in many ways as better and in some cases better on their subjects than these these big big people so that's the context so um moving on uh to take us through um the uh the japanese side of it first you know let's talk about um well i'll let you you lead it the way you want to leave it but we're yeah there's we can the japanese side and the american side and of course also we've addressed the fact that the battle we're gonna cover has about seven different labels it gets given uh which is interesting in its own right alligator creek i called it on the uh the graphic but there's other ones illu river hell blah blah blah so we'll go through that so where do you wanna leap off from with your next point uh please brian well i think that um the going back to what you were talking about real quick is is that you know there's always this kind of wikipedia level version of of history where everybody thinks that hey the americans were of this europe first mindset and it's we'll deal with the japanese later um we've got we got to take care of everything in europe and um as as the reports and some of these officers are are reporting back to to the uh the americans the joint chiefs of staff washington dc they're reporting back and saying hey look these guys are for real they are very very violent they are very well put together a lot of people don't realize that the japanese were actually on the winning side of world war one they got to they got to reap a lot of benefits uh from being on the winning side of world war one and um they they take those inner war years and they hone their skills especially naval night tactics um using of aircraft aircraft carriers they get very very good but they're kind of pushed to decide it's like you're you're you're okay you're you're the b team um and finally once the word gets through and they're to be taken seriously uh that's that's where we go okay you know what we gotta focus on these guys because if not it may be too late they may have they may take hawaii they you know the west coast may be threatened i mean just quickly i mean we had this on a show last week with professor frank mcdonough who wrote his book hit the hitler years is that we think of the allies and we know there's a little bit of fractured command yeah eyes now macarthur monty all that but the axis as we call it i mean the japanese don't tell don't tend to tell the germans what they're doing the germans don't tell the japanese what they're doing no one tells italians and so our focus as western in people interested in the battles is so often on the european side of things and the germans because we have that stream of information coming our way and the japanese as you say are completed as a complete treaty it's a completely separate uh entity and it's it's to our our shame in some ways that we don't look at it in in with with as much uh intent interests as we do the eto but anyway i will let you continue no no no that's a fantastic point uh you know again and this is uh i think it's more and more coming uh to mainstream uh historical circles yeah but the the the main the main character uh that that we're we focus on with this is is colonel achiki uh i i don't know if you have his uh picture uh up there um yeah yeah so yeah there he is and uh colonel achiki uh is in command of the 28th regiment and he is your typical j if you were to think of a japanese officer in early world war ii this is your guy uh he's very arrogant very cocky um thinks that you know he can he can win the war by himself and uh his unit is actually slated to be the shock troops the first landing assault wave during the battle of midway uh so the troops that are going to land on midway is going to be the 28th uh obviously midway doesn't turn out as well as they thought it was going to so they have to turn a cheeky around um then obviously august 7th they they utilize the 28th uh to go and re take guadalcanal and the reason why they want to use the 28 is for two reasons one they are a very very good regiment and two they don't want them coming back and now all of a sudden people are going hey cheeky uh what what are you guys doing here why aren't you guys at midway and they're like oh yeah well we didn't win we lost they don't have the conquering heroes so yeah exactly right right so they don't want them coming back and uh so ichiki's almost thrust into the spotlight early on actually as a matter of fact he's part of what's called the marco polo bridge incident this occurs in july of 1937 and a lot of more i guess historians that look at the war as a whole both from the pacific and the europe kind of instead of that september 1939 uh being the beginning of world war ii they look at this as actually being the official start date of the war as a whole um so so a cheeky is uh um is now being thrust to to go retake guadalcanal um and what ends up happening is is on august the 7th 1942 this is where the marines land um on guadalcanal they actually um they land um on the islands of tulagi um gavutu and tan and bogo the florida islands and also guadalcanal um if you if you have that map uh there's uh that one yeah that beautiful so this is uh this is an outline um down at the bottom of the picture is is the island of guadalcanal it's roughly about 90 miles long 20 miles wide and above there you see tulagi island and kavutu island and there's an even smaller island there called taunton bogo and it's here on august 7th and actually the the road to tokyo um begins um on those islands those are the first landing islands uh that take place roughly on august 7th um around 7 00 a.m and uh the the landings on guadalcanal really don't take place until the 9 a.m time frame and it's the on guadalcanal is really construction troops people that are building uh the airfield they're korean conscripts they're not fighting troops um do you have a little bit more of a contingent on tulagi and gavutu and tanabogo and there's an incident actually that happens on town and bogo early on where um the the japanese are are kind of hunkered in on tanabogo and found a bogo to give european viewers a little bit to maybe understand that the battle of normandy have been to say st mary glees uh is probably uh half the size of the saint mary glee square there it is tiny um and we are hitting that with destroyers uh a battalion size uh this is where uh marine raiders and para marines are fighting on these islands and um we attack uh ton and bogo with a few tanks and on the island of town and bogo are mechanics essentially they're they're airplane mechanics um a steward tank lands on tanabogo and these mechanics come out with metal bars and gasoline molotov cocktails and at one point they jam these metal bars into to disable the tank uh they douse the tank and gasoline they light it on fire and they drag these tank drivers out and beat them to death and light them on fire uh these are their mechanics and um marine commanders and and marines are looking at this going i mean they're just dumbfounded they're they're absolutely dumbfounded of the ferocity of what they're experiencing and um this is this is really going to set the stage now what what the one thing too i want to point out real quick is for the people that are watching and the people that will watch this is that you have to look at this battle through the lens of 1942 you cannot look through this battle through the lens of 1945 and beyond because talking about this everybody's kind of going well yeah we knew the japanese did this you know it's it's in history books the ferocity of them we didn't know this in august of 1942 we did not know the fanaticism that we were facing uh on those islands they are they are learning it firsthand the american military is going through exactly the same process a bit later in the war than the british did earlier in assuming that the world war ii in the european theater would be kind of fought like the old wars and we hadn't anticipated the ss murdering our guys up near dunkirk and things like that so the learning curve of realizing it's not going to be cricket this time it's going to be a little bit tougher and you know whenever the pacific comes up like the eastern front has come up on my shows and mikhail in stalingrad oh there's thousands of mass graves here in stalingrad yeah the scale of things the barbary the savagery needs to be bashed home again because we have this european theater of operations sensibilities of kind of the niceties and although there are some atrocities in normandy they are by far the exception not the rule there's a sportiness there's these there's the prisoners there there's the prisons there and it's important to kind of establish right at the beginning that guadalcanal sets the stage violently immediately for a very very violent and bloody and savage campaign and and you know we could touch on the pacific series and we won't you know but that this i think that the popularity of that series didn't compare with banner brother because of the savagery because of just the the the what it did to the men who were out there on both sides and it there's there's not much of a joyful viewing you don't get like we do with banner brothers the the reunions and the and the liberations and the grateful civilians and the pacific starts almost as it ends with with epic epic awful violence anyway i i i'm just throwing it in there but you know um let's get back to guadalcanal yeah i know you you you you hit it right on the right on the head right there because again i we we have a lot of these discussions always kind of come up where people are always tend to gravitate towards band of brothers and and when people talk about the pacific they go i didn't like it as much and and i think because of that just the the sheer violence um and uh the magnitude of it uh that is taking place in the pacific uh not to say that it's not happening in in the in the uh eto um but but here again like you said you don't have these you know french civilians coming out with champagne and bread and everything it's kind of okay we got to go to this island we have to kill everybody every sense of the word of the enemy on this island okay we're done there all right let's go to the next island let's do it there and then the next time the next one um so but but guadalcanal uh sets the stage and um early in the campaign it is kind of nice if if people read uh robert leckie's book helmet for my pillow he discusses the good days early on uh where they have canned crab food that they've taken from the japanese beer sake wine um it's it's kind of nice because they the marines land there and thinking that uh they uh are going to have uh essentially in their minds this saving private ryan style landing in their heads and they really walk ashore with without a shot being fired really and um for the first few weeks there's really they don't know if there's even japanese on the island they start getting into some skirmishes but they know and and some of the war planners know that the the counter-attack is coming and and this is where colonel achiki starts and and they they actually send there is a naval engagement uh the battle of savo island that takes place on august 9th and the the american navy is is basically destroyed a lot of the uh destroyers there's some australian ships involved as well uh and and the navy essentially says hey we've already lost the carrier coral sea we've already lost the carrier midway later and and they they they head for home um and they head for open waters and really leave the marines stranded uh on guadalcanal so it's whatever they've pulled off the ships is is what they have now the one good thing uh that they've done is is that they have combat loaded uh those ships so in new zealand they said hey we're gonna combat load these ships so we're going to bring off essentials ammo medical supplies weaponry that's going to be off first we'll worry about our other stuff later uh good thing that they did because a lot of that stuff ends up sinking to the bottom but they do have what marines need is uh lots of guns and lots of ammo um and they'll they'll make do with what they have uh on on the on the island um the the real first main detachment is ichiki's detachment uh that is sent they land on the island on august 19th um now cheeky has roughly a little over 2 000 men but the japanese navy is going hey we only have six destroyers that we can transport your guys so do you want heavy weapons do you want your cannons you want your anti-tank do you want men um so he's like rather have my men and i'll send and they're able to fit about 917 of of his troops on six destroyers and start setting him towards guadalcanal uh the secondary echelon is going to be coming and he is ordered uh to to retake the airfield and the encampments there there there is some controversy that and some some data that that has come to light over the years where a lot of people have always thought that a cheeky was was was told go get them and and his command was telling him hey just wait wait for everything then we'll go get him um and the cheeky's going no i got him with my 900 guys um some some some evidence has come to light where um in the past few years uh with japanese archives opening up uh with with a lot of the translations that are happening now that are kind of showing that that some in the higher command and the 17th army the japanese are saying go get them and make this happen uh i think the truth is is somewhere in the middle there because ichiki does request hey once i take the airfield can i go take tulagi as well so he has no idea that there's there's a large contingent of about 10 000 marines uh he's going to go up against them with about 900 men and uh he for him to think that yeah he's gonna just mop these guys up and head over to tulagi and just redo all this with with 900 guys is kind of goes to show you the cockiness the arrogance and it goes to that that warrior status that bushido code uh that the japanese army lived by and and this was a time for the army to shine uh because again the everybody had known that the navy had failed midway there's a huge huge rivalry between the the uh army and the navy within the japanese as a matter of fact uh just just recently last week there was the army navy game that took place uh here it's a football game an american football game yeah uh to take place and a friend of mine actually made a social media post and he posted a japanese army helmet and a naval helmet and he said the real army navy game and uh and and i kind of chuckled at it because the the ferocity between those two uh um groups were were just on another level uh there and so a cheeky's kind of saying this is our time to shine uh we're gonna go get these americans and uh we're we're gonna show them how it's done and uh he he lands on august 19th uh with 900 men and he's about 20 miles they land him at a place called taivu point and from there he's got a march about 20 miles um to to get to um yeah you can see there thai view point uh down there uh to the right um uh right there uh tassemboko right there yeah yeah yeah and so from there he's going to make it all the way down uh to essentially where you see uh the the tenaru river a little bit between the tenero river and longa point uh that's their that's their objective right there which is about 20 miles um so the marines because of the coast watchers network that that are on these islands are feeding the americans information um they're watching rabal uh which is kind of the main hub of of the japanese military in that region and they're they're picking up the phone and and because every day the the americans are being attacked by air uh by sea and the coast watchers are usually that first warning they pick the phone up and and they weren't even talking in code at that point there if there was 20 planes they would just pick the phone up and say 20 headed jurors slammed the phone down and they knew hey and by that time it was always around noon and they called it tojo time uh it was tojo time when uh when when the the japanese air forces showed up and um so so we had a sense of this these these whispers that now this main japanese force is heading uh towards the american perimeter and it is the first marine regiment uh that is now going to start digging in along the lines of what they think is the tenaru river um but it's actually the ilu river um and a tributary off of that called alligator creek so it kind of goes to what you were um uh yeah so this is uh you can see where the tenaru river is there on the right yeah and the japanese maps and again we're looking through a lens of 1942. not 1945. there are you know the amount of planning that went into d-day i mean we're measuring uh sand density and soils and we're doing all this crazy stuff to plan for d-day the first marine division doesn't have this uh the first marine division only comes into existence in february of 1942 and here they are in august uh one of you know they are the front line of the american response to pearl harbor and and so they are given hand-drawn maps uh they're trying to find anybody that was on a coconut plantation uh any missionaries uh they're literally bringing boats up alongside of boats and saying hey this guy was a priest on guadalcanal a few years ago and and they're they're bringing them over to the ship and they're just slapping pieces of paper down in front of them and saying hey what do you remember draw something yeah and they're drawing hand-drawn maps and so the rivers get skewed uh so so that's why they lots of local names and and local kind of you know nicknames for things and you know again the reference you made to normandy you know we have these 150 000 scale maps all the towns there because france had maps for centuries so you can there's a church there's a road there's a road network you know you're going to islands that the people who live there didn't need maps because they just went from there to there and they did so you know just addressing the fact that the marine division don't even have basic cartography is is is is essential to understand how these battles develop you know the there's people watching this you know who who take it for granted that military commanders go in with a you know portfolio of highly detailed maps and and that is the case in some fear does it is absolutely not the case in the pacific and we have mentioned already the fact the 14th army had in burma you know it's a well the enemy over that way somewhere through those 3 000 miles of territory we haven't got maps off you know that's that's the situation we're in so yeah so you've set the scene um so um yeah i'll i'll let you continue this i'm thoroughly enjoying this so um and also to the uh just a little side note for the japanese they're using maps that have been provided by the navy so the the navy in terms of topography they really don't care uh so later in the in the the uh battle of guadalcanal uh that that will that will come into play uh because they're going wait a minute i didn't know there was this 300 foot hill here um we just thought this was flat land so but anyways that's uh that's another day um but the first marine division uh starts digging in uh roughly a week before the battle uh that will take place on august 21st um there they they put two two battalions on the line uh the second battalion is really at the mouth of the river uh and then they have the first battalion uh up on on the right um so you can see uh uh pollock's uh uh second battalion they're right there at the at the sand bar as you wanna if a lot of people refer to it and then the first marines are are are south uh along the alligator creek and this line stretches roughly uh about between two thousand and three thousand yards it's a very very thin line um and uh because the marines are not able to make a full perimeter around the airfield their job is to protect that airfield at all costs that is their job end of story keep that airfield um and to allow us to land our planes there and uh but they don't have enough men uh to do this uh i think probably now would be a good point to talk about uh one of the solomon islands heroes uh is jacob vuza and kind of a little bit of a controversy or a story but jacob vuza uh is a is a is just a rock star uh on that island to this day he has monuments um he's on you know money uh this guy is just um again it beatles level fame of the solomon islands and uh he retires to the island's water canal obviously the japanese invade and uh there he is in his marine greens and the he he loves killing japanese uh yeah i'm looking at him and going i wouldn't pick a fight with him i'm just i'm just saying you know not a month or sundays when i pick a fight with him no he he's he's he's a very large man um he he loves beheading japanese there's a lot of photos i didn't provide any of those photos uh where you know he's smiling uh with severed heads of the japanese he hated them he loved the americans and he loved the marines and the narrative the the the contemporary narrative uh that you and you see this come along social media a lot people i i see it a lot uh and and so the story goes is that vuza is is is walking essentially towards um cheeky's men um he's captured in a village because they find an american flag on him and the story goes is that he is uh tortured uh he's tied up placed on an ant hill they ban at him and he refuses uh to tell um where the americans are um the japanese leave him for dead um he then chews through his ropes and his bindings and and and runs ahead in front of the japanese column and uh goes to the american lines warns the americans and uh the americans are able to establish a defense at the last minute and uh the this battle is going to be won that's the contemporary narrative um that that a lot of people go by and it's a great story but it's actually it didn't really happen that way um i have been very very fortunate in my life again to travel to some of these places i've traveled to guadalcanal a few times i've spent about a total of about a month on the island um i've been able to to meet uh losers uh a family as well as um there's another gentleman um that that really has done so much uh and he's an australian uh for the history of of the guadalcanal campaign in the first marine division his name is john ennis uh he had recently passed away um but john uh was able to really get the true story from from booze's family and they actually had recordings of him telling what really happened and to me the real story is actually kind of better than than the this this this tale that has been uh displayed and really what ends up happening is that the same thing he's he he comes across the cheeky's men he's captured he's found with the american flag and and booze is a very smart man and he's kind of eyeing this up going this isn't a raiding party this is a this is a large enemy force he knows that the american lines are are very sparse he knows where they're dug in at now the japanese do they're they're they do uh torture him a little bit they do stab him but but kind of goes hey hey i'll talk i'll talk i'll talk i'll tell you where they're at and i'll tell you where they're the weakest at and says they're the weakest at the sand bar they're the weakest at the mouth of the of the elu river and essentially tells them the exact opposite of what they need to know and vusa ends up directing these japanese right into the slaughter pen um it's it's then uh he he then is then taken uh prisoner uh up to the front lines and when the battle erupts um he then escapes and uh there's a marine private wilbur bully sees this this man coming through the dark through the creek and and bully you know pulls his rifle up and says hands up put your hands up or you and stop where you are you're you're a dead son of a [ __ ] and and and and in broken english is going uh you know me no japanese mean no japanese and um they they end up getting him uh uh to to a medic station they actually have to pump up they have to give him a blood transfusion uh there because he's lost so much blood and that he is very proud of that because he always says that he was he was half american uh because he had so much american blood i like the idea firstly we love we love new narrative new new evidence we love different versions of things but also i'm gonna sort of throw it out there that the he's he's you just said he's intelligent but i'm assuming the japanese kind of thing all the locals are just idiots they don't know what they're doing very easy to kind of manipulate and so that he he he spins them a story me know where americans are back and they just buy it because they don't question that he's clever enough to actually double cross them and i say that to me makes him a better hero because he's absolutely it's not just a physical tree he hasn't just wriggled out and escaped he's actually fooled the [ __ ] out of them by playing on the fact he they think he's yeah grass skirt wearing idiot kind of thing right and actually he's really savvy and he's tricked them and that's a better story absolutely and and uh he for for his actions for the battle he'll actually be awarded the silver star and uh he'll be uh promoted to the rank of honorary sergeant major of the marine corps and they actually uh bring him later in life uh it's actually during the vietnam war i actually have photos of him uh holding an m16 and he and when he when he eventually dies uh he's buried in all of his marine with his medals that was the proudest thing uh that he could ever accomplish and he ends up helping uh the marines throughout the entire campaign uh he's at their disposal fighting side by side he's organizing a lot of the locals as ammo bearers stretcher bearers uh and they are really an important part of the american victory uh aguado canal so the solomon islanders has has a lot and just i know we're gonna i'm interrupting you now we're gonna go into the battle but marion walters is watching as they'll be watching and marion is saying this is a general question how do the islanders look back on that period now you know with regret with anger affection and who is he who has the anger and affection directed at is it is the is the affection still for the americans today and i'm guessing it is yeah absolutely um when when um they're the the history there i mean obviously um they're they're they they gain their independence they're now an independent nation they're trying to figure a lot of things out um they definitely have affection towards the americans uh uh when when we go there um as a matter of f as a matter of fact i think they the people they hate the most right now are australians um from my experience uh once they hear me speak uh i've had a few run-ins uh out way way out in into into the jungle um and they want to hear me talk uh because if they talk with an australian accent um they they don't like and that's due to other things not taking place during the war um but but they obviously have a pride uh for the americans that that fought for for essentially their their independence their freedom yeah uh because you know they they were an occupied uh uh nation uh at that time so um yeah no definitely they look back uh on it and again the history is kind of dissolving but there are a few people uh there that are really really trying uh to to preserve a lot of these battlefields i think i like the fact you refer to them as a nation because i think we tend to think in you again the european connection we think of the frenchman i think when we think of the pacific we kind of think of the islanders as being kind of irrelevant to the story they're just kind of in the way getting enabled and actually you know these are independently fiercely independent nations and communities who have as much um invested interest in the outcome of these things as well and and and fought for whichever side they fought for with whichever levels of passion and commitment you can talk about the philippines everything so i think to give them some um credit for being part of the influences as well as just being the victims by circumstance of battles they are there they're involved and they it's it's it's their it's their history as well absolutely absolutely so so let's get so that so the marines are dug in um the japanese have been misdirected as to where the strength is it's about time we kind of got the battle do you want to throw up that photo as well the aerial photo with the annotations on it i think is a good one as well yeah the one with the uh yeah which brian prepared for us here's one he made earlier so um blue is american red is japanese basically yep and um the the if you can see down right as well yeah so so right now that's uh the current this was uh current day as a matter of fact um when i looked at the date of this data from this satellite footage on google earth um i was i was on the island when they took this so i started getting concerned that i was being tracked um but i looked i was like wait a minute i was i was there on that date uh um but that the airfield wasn't there uh this obviously has been extended yeah yeah up there but uh it's still it's still called henderson airport uh it was called henderson field during war they still maintain uh that name and it was named after lofton henderson it was a marine aviator uh that was killed during the battle of midway uh that's where the naming comes from and uh as you can see there's the the red is the is the generalized approach and i i purposely make that that bigger that bottom arrow red because this is where the concentration of the troops are going to be at partially because of uza uh and and partially because of cheeky's just directing everybody which doesn't make a lot of sense i mean we've kind of looked at this a lot of historians look at this and they can't quite figure out why he would pick that spot uh uh to attack because you you have nowhere to go you're just stacking guys up on that sandbar uh and then on the the night of august 21st on 1942 uh this attack uh proceeds and um the the [ __ ] the japanese um and this will be considered the first um real large land engagement uh between american forces and japanese forces yeah um and and where it's a level playing field at this point and so who's gonna win out you know marine uh willpower firepower or this this japanese uh invincibility theory and uh this is this is what takes place um i think can you do you have that aerial uh the august 12th ariel um august 12 there there we go yep so this is a a really great aerial photo um this was taken on august 12th 1942 so it's roughly um about nine days before the battle you can see the sand bar there um you you can see that this is essentially coconut grove this isn't uh jungles uh um this area here is coconut plantations um they are it's it when you're there it's it reminds you of the ardennes a little bit because you have these rows and rows of culture cultivate your trees yeah cultivated trees and and you can see down them um and it's very very eerie um because the depth perception kind of plays on you um and so the the japanese uh this is this is where they attack they are attacking with roughly about 800 of the 900 guys that they sent um on the line is uh roughly about 914 within the first battalion and uh about 800 or so in the second battalion so it's it's almost a two to one swing that they're going up against and um the the battle takes place now if anybody have seen hbo's the pacific um you know this is this is at the end of episode one this battle uh so if you haven't seen it or you want to go re-watch it this is the battle that we're talking about now the battle on the on the on the uh in the series kind of takes place where it's just this eruption of of of gunfire um but actually which is oddly enough uh talking and reading a lot of marine accounts of the men that were there uh they the the the first kind of wave is walking across the sand bar with the rifles slung on their back and they get tangled up in the barbed wire and they come to this oh [ __ ] realization and then flares start shooting up and then they're going uh oh um and what's facing them uh the main kind of uh toys that the marines have are are showing them are the the water cooled the browning 1917 uh the m250 cow and the 37 millimeter anti-tank gun which is firing this here uh this is what's called a canister round and this here converts that anti-tank gun into a giant shotgun essentially and inside of this is a hundred and twenty two of these things oh i love a nice show and tell brian this is good my kids ever have to want to take things to show and tell i'm gonna have to go yeah not not not now you're not gonna have that yeah yeah um and uh the the japanese are are just running into this these anti-tank guns that are just blowing just holes into them um and these water-cooled machine guns that are just firing into them at a rate of about 600 rounds a minute and are just decimating this first wave uh that's coming across um they start stacking them up on on the beach um and the japanese kind of retreat for the first time and they're kind of going wait a minute that wasn't supposed to happen they were supposed to run and they were supposed to you know these americans can't fight uh what the hell is this and uh you know so now that the company commanders are kind of getting together going what do we do uh you know to usually we've never had to really pull back and go back and always win this yeah yeah yeah so they kind of got to go to the manual script yeah yeah this is the script you're meant to run away now yes so um they they then start to fan out um where you know they they kind of are taking it amongst themselves to say hey let's start fanning out a little bit but the main orders are again to attack that sandbar because the cheeky's going well hey the islander guy said that's where the weakest at so let's keep hitting them there uh you guys are lying and these guys are going no you do not understand we just lost you know 100 guys right out of the gate and um so so they start now attacking the the main portions of the line so this battle is taking place in waves um and they actually do start to get across and this is really what's concerning to the americans is that they're they're actually making it across the the river um they're making it into marine lines they've taken out the the anti-tank guns uh on the sandbar they're able to start getting across this really isn't depicted uh in in the pacific um they actually do make it across they take out the guns they start uh hand-to-hand combat and um and one of the the bigger stories uh is is this h company machine gun crew uh that is comprised of uh leroy diamond al schmidt and johnny rivers and um have uh have their there's diamond diamonds the uh the machine gun crew lead and uh he's uh and his main gunner is johnny rivers and uh if you bring up the photo of mr rivers uh rivers was uh was a native he was he was a foster child uh you could see he was of a of indian descent yeah um a lot of people think that he was his father there's not a lot about it but they think more of a like a south american uh um ethnicity that he had um and uh was just uh very revered among the men uh that he served with and he's the main gunner and uh he is uh killed uh as as uh he he takes around uh to the head he is killed but um he when when he slumps over the gun uh his hand stays on the trigger and actually rips off the entire belt and is killing japanese uh as they're coming across so uh even even as a uh um a marine that's been killed in action uh he's still taking enemy uh with him and uh and so uh albert schmidt here uh was the the assistant gunner he now gets on the gun diamond gets in and it's uh around one of the counter attacks that a grenade is thrown um into the pit it uh it blinds schmidt and uh diamond has most of his hands uh uh destroyed so now they're they're thinking to themselves you know what uh what do we do um because now i can't see and they come to this plan and said and and schmidt goes well hey i have good hands you have good eyes you tell me where to shoot as they're coming across the river and coming across the sandbar and so diamond is sitting there saying you know five degrees to the left five degrees to the right keep firing and then they're you know and just because they're so well trained marines you know they're able to reload this gun i mean schmidt is able to reload uh with really no no eyesight um and they're able to hold their position um for this thing just interrupt there's a movie about this isn't with john garfield or schmidt about him i forgot the brother of the marines 45 46 may just after all wasn't it it's it's to be honest it's more about his therapy after the war and the romance and stuff than it is but it does it does have the battle in it and it does show it reasonably well in a kind of a hollywood way you know but yeah right for for 19 you know 1940s i've i've i've enjoyed it and i think it really touches on a lot of that that kind of psychological effect that that this has on the men leaving there which is is taboo at the time i mean it is yeah i mean it comes in that era when they made best years of our lives when they were tackling ptsd and getting which they kind of stopped again after about the late 40s they went back to the rah-rah the gopher broke um you know and the battle cry kind of films but there was that little phase just after war where they did address that going back with injuries going back with psych you know um psychological problems was was something but then they they gave up on it and they started again now but we go off and i love going off on war moving tangents but yeah definitely watch that pride the marines find it and and have a watch right right it's it's a great movie um they're awarded the silver star for their actions um so so that's kind of one of you know the many many heroic uh efforts that that are that are taking place by the marines um and and this is really happening along the line uh robert leckie uh the one thing you know in the pacific they really focus on robert leckie um uh his his machine gun he was in first platoon h company he's uh right before the battle his machine gun position has moved up further to the right uh past schmidt's uh gun uh so he wasn't as close to the sandbar uh as uh as is depicted um it's it's it's schmidt's gun uh that's doing a lot of that damage along the uh the sandbar and i think uh if you have i have a photo uh current day photo that i took from what we approximate to be uh schmidt's machine gun position yeah i was going to say we should show some of the modern photos now to give an idea to people it is more open than i thought it was going to be it the movie kind of conveys it much more kind of covered in and dark and uh it's like a more tighter jungle it's you know it's yeah it's it's more open than i thought it was but that's that's that's where you think the machine gun was yes this is this is where um again this was uh john john ennis uh that i referred to uh you know did a lot of early uh excavating in these areas um and based on kind of the maps and and where they've placed those guns and historical references uh has found just tons and tons of piles of 30 odd six brass uh you know indicating that there's a machine gun there but um i think i i believe that the the series did a fantastic job portraying it because if you look at that aerial shot from august 12th um there is uh um it was very very close um a lot of those trees reached right up to the to the the riverbank but obviously again it's been cultivated formed uh over the years uh there's residences going in there now people living on it building things so um but we're still very fortunate that there is a a sandbar there um yeah so this is uh this is a great shot this actually would have been where the 37 millimeter anti-tank gun uh section would have been uh firing down the sandbar now as anybody could imagine in the pacific uh they get tons and tons of typhoons and storms that shift the the landscape there uh but for the most part uh this is um uh kind of where the sandbar was um and and that would have been a viewpoint of looking down that sandbar um and and again there's another viewpoint in the grass kind of over you could see the sandbar uh down to the left but um you know all of that on the opposite side of the bank where the photos being taken have all been uh coconut trees yeah uh and and the japanese would have been using for uh for cover um so this is you know this is this is happening this is another great shot i believe this was taken on the 18th or 19th um another great shot so you can kind of see the landscape there's the sandbar there um this is and then all to the right there uh would have been where um you know this is where uh ichiki's men would have been coming through uh through this end and um as you can imagine it's a resounding american victory um the of of about the 800 men uh that are that are sent uh about 700 are laying dead that's kind of where the story stops at uh uh there is a a effort um what they with um general vandergrift uh and the commanders of the first marine you could do this is uh this is these are actual photos uh uh that were taken uh i believe this one was actually taken from a a movie a real still um but you can just see the carnage uh of and and again japan uh americans have not i've never seen anything like this before uh you you have marine commanders that have fought um in in the inner war years in nicaragua um and face some enemies and seen some battle and and never seen anything like this um that next morning the marines are saying hey we can get these guys let's envelop them uh there's another that's a famous photo you see a lot um back there actually so in a far probably about the go move over to the left your your right over to the left move it over to the left left left stop right there you see that amtrak there there's an amtrak right in those trees that was actually one of the first aid stations that was the location of the first aid station um and then i have a photo it says 2015 now where it's taken in that same direction um that's a good shot uh so that's that photo that you just had this is kind of uh looking in that same direction so that amtrak would have been over there and this was just been all those those japanese dead uh laying there so that's a nice then and now um the first marines uh end up sending lieutenant colonel cresswell's first battalion um across the river into the into the coconut grove to to to do cleanup efforts now again i don't know about everybody else but if i've just watched 700 of my fellow soldiers decimated um within the japanese army i think i would be pretty well going this this is uh yeah time to time to head back home um and this is where again the americans are seeing this for the for the first time the ferocity and and one of the uh stories in here is is company c uh company c is commanded uh by a gentleman uh captain nikolai stevenson and stevenson uh men start taking fire uh one of his platoon leaders gets shot and they notice what looks to be a machine gun emplacement uh um in in these uh in these coconut logs and he starts seeing his guys getting taken fire and doesn't know why why he did it but he orders a bayonet charge um he orders all of his uh platoon leaders to fix bayonets and says we are going to charge this now again if you would now going if you're this machine gun crew and these these this string of japanese soldiers you're going okay i got an entire marine rifle company charging me with bayonets um i'm gonna head the other way to to the surprise of the marines uh the japanese themselves fix bayonets and charge into uh stevenson's men and it turns into what what is a is a a almost something out of gettysburg or the civil war um there's this huge clash and stevenson recalls just hearing the the bone crunching cracks the the rifle butts to the heads the stabbing the the cries um the marines come out on top now again you would think to yourself this would be the end of it but stevenson is standing there with one of his corporals and one of the japanese soldiers rolls over and the corporal yells out grenade grenade they're able to jump out of the way the grenade explodes and stevenson at this point goes enough of this [ __ ] and walks over puts the 45 to the guy's head and then starts ordering his men stab and shoot every single one of these guys do not render aid to any of them um and this is that that kind of inception point of of this is what we got to do and this is going to have it and it's not that we want to do this it's just this is how it's going to be yeah these these guys are not going to give up they're not going to play by the the the tennessee maneuvers game rules so just do we have to do i'm just while you're talking about that i don't know where the focuses will work we've got some footage drone footage here whether my internet connection will hold with this i'll start playing it brian can keep on talking over it may january maybe i don't know we'll see but i'll start i'll attempt to play this footage um and we'll see what happens basically yeah this is uh hopefully this works this was actually taken by a gentleman in australia his name is michael holmsby um he uh is a is a uh australian native that has spent time on the island and uh has taken this uh uh drone footage across across the uh uh the island uh just phenomenal footage of kind of showing uh what what this terrain uh looks like and uh you know today uh you know but but again not a lot has changed other than uh you know there's not uh a thousand marine or a thousand japanese charging across the uh sanskrit but it kind of gives you a good really good view of the sandbar you can see you can see from my photos and how the sandbar in this photo and this in this footage is um has expanded because again just all the flooding and everything uh that takes place um but yeah it appears to be juddering a bit but yeah i i wasn't expecting it to be perfect but yeah it gives a gives a good sense of of uh you know just from a little bit of a a heightened perspective uh from that um the um uh another instance actually to the left of this drone footage this is where all of this action is happening uh with the first battalion there's actually another instance uh with uh d company um his name is private don styles and as he's going through the coconut grove um he sees a a japanese soldier that is um taking fire uh styles is able to wing him uh in the arm and again you would think okay i just wounded this guy he may go okay i give up or turn and run uh he proceeds to them watch this soldier uh take his bayonet and disembowel himself right there uh and again just they're they're going what is this um yeah and this again and behind them what's happening here on the sandbar and this is again depicted uh in the pacific is um the you know marines are coming out navy corpsmen are coming out trying to to render aid to uh to wounded japanese the japanese are either trying to stab them shoot them with pistols blow them up with grenades and and marine commanders are are are sending runners back you know and this is where this we're not dealing with this we're gonna you're gonna do this we're gonna we're gonna have to take drastic measures don't render aid to them you know ban at them um make sure that they're dead because you don't know if they're gonna be booby trapped uh they're gonna try to take your life so this is some of the stuff that's uh again looking through that lens of 1942 um it is uh this is never this has never really happened before um and there's again setting that tone yeah for uh for the rest of the pacific war and frankly and it only gets worse doesn't it you know you get to the the the okinawa and the philippines towards the end and and the savagery gets was different types of savagery but it doesn't it doesn't ease off it just continues at the same unrelenting um you know level it started at and it's hard for those of us who focus on the european theater to kind of just um accept just how how how brutal that campaign is as you say it's always important to look at it through the 1942 lens and you know we're not we're not judging we're not set we're just saying it was a very different and brutal war and and that's it and the people who experienced it i haven't met as many pacific veterans i have european theater but you know they they they have a different way of looking at the war um understandably and um you know who can blame them it was just awful out there so you know um we ought to start gradually thinking about winding things up there now but um you also you also provide a clip from victory at sea as well didn't you which you wanted you want to talk about as well um yeah um the the so um so i guess people are probably sitting there because again you know i'm like okay i don't see why this is uh this is important uh or or you know why why why is this so special because again this is happening uh this type of battle is going to happen hundreds if not thousands of more times over the next three years but again this is this destroys the myth of japanese invincibility um we can beat them um they can be beaten in 1942 everything is going bad it is just it's a horrible horrible year um and this campaign in itself uh will last six months it's the longest campaign uh in either theater uh it is six months of sustained combat uh both at land sea and air uh this is one of the very few uh if not probably the only campaign in either theater where you could be a marine or army rifleman uh fighting there's a sea bat it's almost like a call of duty map page where you're playing where you got planes uh uh fighting each other above you you got naval uh battles happening to the right of you and and you're fighting on land and this is going on for for six months and this battle uh lasts again from from the total campaign will last from august 7th of 1942 all the way up until february of 1943 until then perspective so 90 miles by 40 you said approximately go out the canal yeah 90 90 by 20. so 20. so that's going to be it sort of the shareball peninsula ish i mean that's about 40 miles across about sick but kind of the chair ball peninsula kind of elongated and narrow but that kind of area and you know and that's only a quarter of the back of normandy which was only two and a half months so you're talking twice as long over about four times a greater area ish well here here's the thing though we never we only fought um can you bring up that that uh the main map uh at the at the beginning that shows guadalcanal yeah um now this is uh uh no the the the map the black and white map just to kind of give people a sense of of really what what took place um it's not yeah that one is it yeah so go from essentially um coley point right there uh uh to the right yep yep from coley point um and go over to about pasaforonga and then come about 10 miles in yeah 90 of the battle takes place in there we never expand across the entire island at all it is the airfield yeah you can see mount austin right there mount austin um that that's really the farthest we're gonna go in uh that i now i mean if there's if there's purists that are watching this um you know obviously but but for the main part the whole battle centers around this airfield for six months um this is this is what and there's there's an up and down um and this is one of the few battles that uh i i don't think you myself or a lot of people out there would ever think i don't think there was ever a chance that we were going to lose in in in normandy uh we were never going to lose the battles of okinawa uh at the bottom once we're there yeah once we're there yeah once we're in yeah it's like it's just whatever it takes guadalcanal is is one of the few battles that could have gone american planners are actually going we may have to abandon it there's actually talks of do we go to the table uh with the japanese um so so there is a big fear uh in in america um and and i think uh if people have ever seen it uh victory at sea and i was just kind of leading up into that that importance of this battle um the in the 50s uh nbc produced this this uh epic tv song at the time um called victory at sea and this was the ending to the guadalcanal episode and just listen to the words um and i and i really think they strike home and i think really um yeah hopefully it doesn't gather too much we'll go if there was horror in the ferocity there was also courage and self-sacrifice if there was death filth and disease the marines turned the tide of war [Music] one of the greatest tales of heroism slips our focus into history these men go the honors according to greeks the colonials at valley forge the british at waterloo and now the americans [Music] yeah ghana says it doesn't it yeah it it uh it truly does uh i i think that um you know the it's uh at that time in 1942 and i think again uh the pacific i'll kind of give a nod to that series at the end of that second episode when uh the men are on board lucky uh and his guys are sitting there drinking the coffee and uh you know the the one guy says hey he's like have you ever even heard of this place and he goes everybody's heard of the first marine division of guadalcanal and he's like you guys are on the front page of every paper uh in america you guys are heroes and it's kind of like what you know uh it was you know everybody was hanging uh on on the words of all that and uh back at home and before we go to i just wanted to just kind of take a nod uh to to just acknowledge a few people uh that that i think have just contributed to the to the history of this battle uh one of them being richard frank uh richard frank authored arguably the most uh comprehensive book uh on the battle of guadalcanal uh called it's literally called the definitive account um it's usually uh everybody it's it takes into account the air war the ground war and and the naval war um the other the other person uh is john ennis uh john dennis the late john is again i had the honor and privilege uh spending about three weeks with him uh on the on the island um there's a there's a there's a little quick story with john john was actually touring the commandant of the marine corps mind you that was during the anniversary and and john was was bringing american marine vets back to the island and and and john established these you know or now we're you know you can go to say hey this is carrington this is saint mary glees it's very easy to distinguish things in europe uh there it's kind of like it's jungle grain based on the grain bit yeah right right right and uh so so so uh john really established a lot of these locations and and just his love and passion for the first marine division uh uh was was just immense and while touring the the commandant of the marine corps john always referred to the marines as his marines and uh the commandant actually stopped him at one point he says excuse me john they're my marines and john and john and john looked at him and said sir with all due respect if they fought on this island in 1942 they're my marines you can have the rest and and the commandant basically said fair enough um and uh so so john uh really uh and he was one that uh wanted wanted all of this knowledge to be out there uh you know i you you you and i know very well that the the tour the tour guide gigs and enormity could be ferocious at times uh a lot a lot of territorial things uh i don't know what you're talking about no i have no idea what you know protective of our story everybody's uh yeah um but but john really wanted this uh he is if he just was just hey i did all this work it's out there um and uh the the other person uh the two people um is uh another aussie his name is peter flavin uh peter uh if anybody has seen anything or looked at anything on guadalcanal uh the amount of work and the research that he's done on the island uh is just is phenomenal um and then the other guy uh is and i've met just recently within the last few years uh is dave holland dave holland was actually he's an american was a marine and then um uh fell in love with uh with a with an aussie girl uh in australia and uh um he actually was doing um some work uh in the solomon islands took some uh jobs there and uh while he was there really kind of continued uh with what john was doing um uh to to to a further extent and really finding um you know japanese lines positions and things like that and he actually has a a youtube channel uh that he just kind of posts his videos from the island it's called guadalcanal walking a battlefield um and uh he he's done uh done some fantastic work so yeah those are the guys that are really kind of laid the groundwork uh for for life and it's important to remember there's lots of people do these work i just i'm i'm while you were talking i was thinking about tom clones as well tc who would have liked to watch this show he was a supporter of world war ii tv he passed away a few weeks ago and he'd have been waiting for maureen's show and finally tom it's uh it's come but yeah you're not here to see it but you know wherever you are i hope you can watch it replay somehow but yeah he'll love this show i've been getting messages every five minutes after saying marines marines but um and just but just in a serious note we had a couple of questions coming one and we will kind of bring it to whole air but the great dominion said and you talked about the fact that americans could have lost this bad he said did the marines have a serious plan for shifting to guerrilla warfare in the event the battle was lost because it was doubtful that a large-scale evacuation could have kind of taken place so you might have ended up with sort of cut off marines i mean do you have you ever read anything about a potential kind of shift to guerrilla good fighting the the the the attitude of of the marines were uh you know we're we're gonna win this um yeah and and uh they were gonna do whatever was necessary to win um i i would i i will acknowledge that uh and i i know some marines may cringe when i say this uh but but the army uh had a hand in victory later in the battle um there was actually a lot of army elements that were fighting side by side uh with john bazzalone in october the battle of henderson field uh chesty puller actually gave him uh the best compliment that he probably could give the army and he said they fought like marines uh so yeah that was about as far as jessie poehler was going to go uh with compliments to the army um but but yeah i mean there was a compliment and also a kind of a yeah it's a little bit of a dig clever isn't it good good pr yeah yeah yeah you're as good as the marines it's like you're not better you're good at it yeah but they they uh they did i mean there was always uh contingent plans of of if they were to be cut off or if they were to break uh through the lines and uh there there was a lot of luck involved uh with that battle uh because there was a few there was many times uh that the japanese could have broken through the lines but because of their own hierarchy um their command structure um maps things like that it just the ball didn't bounce their way um and then the marines came out on top but there was always that that plan was always on the table uh absolutely well i think we've we've reached the end of what has been a really enjoyable show from my point of view so um uh it remains me to say thank you very much brian for doing this presentation it's been really good i know marion is one of my supporters at a big chat with her she's hoping to go to guadalcanal next year so i'll get you in touch so you can give us some tips of how the hell she can get there from rural uh suffolk and norfolk in england over to guadalcanal in terms of the viewers uh please uh join up join in with us what we're doing check us out on twitter and facebook and uh patreon page in terms of our next show i've got a day off tomorrow and then monday it's my kind of christmas special i suppose we've got peter lyon on talking about the american saint nick and then hopefully and brian mentioned this earlier hopefully going to be scheduling a hong kong special on the morning of 27th with uh canadian history so british historian lives there and a canadian historian joining me from canada uh we can all work that out um so that'll be kind of cool and then we've got the big uh then we've got a pearl harbor veteran on the 28th and then of course we've got a big star wars world war ii crossover show on 29th so lots of stuff coming up so please keep in touch please check youtube please check twitter please check everything and i can try and keep you updated with what's going on brian you are you rank alongside some of the best historians i've had you're you're clear you're concise you tell the stories with passion conviction you know your subject the fact you've been there spent a month there in total that comes through and you know i'll have you on any time to talk about more the pacific campaign because you know it's it's something we should do more of so thank you very much brian um have you enjoyed it thank you for having me enjoyed it with your armory behind in case things get rough you can jump on your armory there and shoot your way out i i said to myself i cannot do a show about the marines without having a bar and a 1903 it just had it had to be in the shot bit of hardware yeah okay well this is um been great so happy viewing everybody i will see you all again this is paul woodard for world war two tv saying i will see you all again i'm ending the stream now um it was brilliant see you again next week cheers thank you good night

Channel: WW2TV

Views: 23,873

Keywords: USMC, guadalcanal, Al Schmid, Ichiki, battle of the tenaru, Vouza, alligator creek, The Pacific, guadalcanal battle, guadalcanal documentary, guadalcanal the pacific, guadalcanal march victory at sea, battle of the tenaru, battle of the tenaru river, battle of the tenaru ilu river, guadalcanal campaign, 1st marine regiment, henderson field guadalcanal, henderson field battle, henderson field wwii, guadalcanal campaign ww2, world war ii explained, alligator creek battle

Id: xk46kwnYvLY

Length: 76min 15sec (4575 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 19 2020