152 - National Guard vs Imperial Japanese Army on Guardalcanal - Lessons Learnt for employing green troops at 5th Matanikau

How did the Green Troops of the US 182nd Infantry Regiment perform during their first brush with the Japanese? We look at the Fifth Battle of the Matanakau. This is the Principles of War podcast, professional military education for junior officers and senior NCOs. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the podcast.

This is the 18th episode with Dave Holland, our expert on the Guadalcanal campaign. Last week, we looked at the impact of the naval battle of Guadalcanal and the issues that that created for the Japanese with their inability to get their third large convoy in to resupply the troops on Guadalcanal. We also looked at the plan for the fifth battle of the Matanakao.

So American forces had pulled back. They thought that there was an invasion force coming in the lead up to the naval battle of Guadalcanal. So they pulled back to the east of the Matanacao River. It's now around the 18th of November. The soldiers and Marines are looking to cross the Matanacao. Once again, this is going to be the fifth battle of the Matanacao. You can see how important it is as key terrain. It's been fought over on five separate occasions. The US is gaining the ascendancy. They've got fresh troops that are coming in. The supply situation is improving, which is the direct opposite of what's been happening for the Japanese. This battle is going to be led by the 182nd Infantry Regiment of the AmeriKal Division.

This will be their first combat experience. The plan is to cross the Matanakal, have the 2nd battalion, 182nd, sees Hill 66, have the 1st Battalion advance towards Point Cruise, get the engineers to rebuild mobility, and then launch a larger offensive towards Kokumbona and the Pohar River. So let's get right back into our interview with Dave Holland. How did that plan go once they

crossed the Botanical? Well, the first day, one battalion of the 182nd, which is the 2nd Battalion, had moved to the left, uphill 66. And once again, brand new troops, Ola Burden, and you've been there, James,

walking those hills. They were suffering heat casualties very quickly. But they moved across as they expected, no resistance.

The Japanese wasn't defending the river. They moved across in 66, and they were there the first night. Then there was a famous waterhole,

waterhole incident, they call this in a platoon down, because they didn't have any water. And they were relying on Southern Island porters

and their anti-tank unit to bring, they got to hand carry these five gallon, what five gallon, but these large jerry cans of water up these hills. And they just couldn't make it in time. So they ran out of water. They sent these guys down to the water hole to base in 66, typical green units. I don't know if

it was the, cause they're, wasn't trained that well, or they just had water on their mind. They didn't put any security out. So they're down in this water hole. And you can imagine they're surrounded by ravines on all sides. And they were literally like fish in a barrel.

The Japanese called them out. And they trapped them there. Miraculously, one died. I think one died, a number one,

before they could get them out. But they left all their cantees down there. That became known as the famous water. I went to it, so I learned a lesson.

But anyway, at that same time, the Marines had pushed a company over on Hill 78. So they were holding there. And they started hitting some of the Japanese positions.

They said, well, they're a bit strong positions here. They had to pull back and they called some artillery in. Anyway, the 1st Battalion, the one they second crossed. And then they hit the base of Point Cruz and they got a bit of resistance.

And I said, oh, this isn't good. This is a bit more than we expected. So they dug in. So that night, the Japanese, they were 1,000 yards between both battalions.

Both battalion commanders says, we got a 1,000 yard gap between our lines. We don't like this. And the Marines, the company pulled back. They were ordered to pull back.

And the battalion commander says, I have no one on my flank. This isn't good. Once again, this is the very first time these guys have been in combat, first planning, a lot of mistakes were made. The Japanese said, okay, we're going to take advantage of this.

They seen the gap. So they had two fresh Japanese companies, some of these recently landed guys. And they, early on the morning of the 20th, they smashed into the 1st Battalion 182nd. They preceded them with a mortar barrage.

They sent those two companies straight into the assault. Just like the American Battalion commander feared, the Japanese sent some guys up on the hill up to his flank. and started pouring in fire on his flank. All three companies and Americans broke and ran.

This is something you don't really read too much about. They broke and ran. There's enough primary evidence, and yes, they did. General Segre came up, the G3 of the division, which is the planning.

He came up. They had to rally them the best they could. One report, one of the Marines' anti-tank guy was on the mouth of Matanica. He was a platoon commander.

And he said this Army guy ran up. He goes, what are you doing? He hands him an M1 Garand and all these bandoliers. And he said, you're going to need these more than me, Marine.

And he just kept running. It got so bad that Colonel Bill Whaling, the Marine colonel, got with the army. And they set up, they had three foot bridges across the mechanical. So what they did, because they got so bad with stragglers, they set up evacuation points, medical points.

So they'd put a corpsman or a medic with a senior NCO into each bridge. So if you came away from the front line, if you didn't have a medical tag, they sent you back. Because what was happening, they noticed that you'd have one wounded man come back and it would be like 10 with him to escort him to the rear. Unwounded.

They're really just one way. They stopped the strike. They call them straggling points, which is very effective. But anyway, after the rally, then in that morning, it got so bad that Patch came up too.