Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office

These days, prelude to a big enemy push, were utter weariness to
the 67th. Repeated missions multiplied the work of men forced by
repeated bombings and shellings to spend most of their time in foxholes.
Sleep and sufficient food were always lacking. Planes were
wearing out. One day, four P-4oo's took the air. The first had a
bomb, but only one .30-caliber machine gun functioning; number
two had a bomb and no functioning armament, numbers three and
four had most of their guns in commission, but no bombs. Personnel
cracked under the strain. On the i8th, officers and men,
affected by repeated bombings, were evacuated to New Caledonia.
Apparently the Japanese were sanguine of the outcome; their German
allies announced that two important airfields had been captured
from U. S. forces in the Solomons. In Washington, Secretary Knox
hinted at the seriousness of the situation. The main strip at Henderson
was only recurrently in operation despite prodigious efforts to
erase the pockmarks. Up in the northern Solomons the Japanese
marshaled cargo and warships and the Express ran on the nights of
the i6th, i8th, and 2oth--destroyers and cruisers feeding the units
ashore with foreboding regularity. The new COMSOPAC, Adm.
William F. Halsey, Jr., soberly prepared to counter a thrust by sea.
The laps' Grand Assault
Decision, however, was reached on land. The Japanese plan envisaged
simultaneous attacks, eastward across the Matanikau and
from a point south of the airfield. D-day was 23 October; for days
before, patrols probed the American lines. But the grand assault,
from the Japanese point of view, was bungled; the attacks were
delivered separately, and separately they were beaten back.
The Matanikau action proceeded on schedule, if not according
to plan. Ten tanks and thousands of fresh troops, with ample
artillery support, were thrown against the defenders. Four times on
the 23 d the enemy lashed at positions held by the ist and 2d Battalions
of the 5th Marines. American half-tracks mounting 75's knocked
out the tanks one by one as they attempted to cross the Matanikau,
and the Marines picked off about 2,ooo Japanese troops. Undaunted,
the enemy repeated the effort at dawn of the 24th. The P-4oo's went
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