Battle for Henderson Field

Maps

World War II Pacific theater in August, 1942.
Pacific Ocean divided up into WWII Allied commands.
South Pacific, 1942.
Map of southwest Pacific area in 1942-1943.
Strategic situation in South Pacific, summer 1942. Red circles are Japanese bases. Blue arrows are Allied shipping and communication lines between U.S. and Australia and New Zealand.
Allied lines of communication in the South Pacific, 1942.
Solomon and Santa Cruz Islands and New Caledonia area, 1942.
Map of the Solomon and Santa Cruz Islands.
Guadalcanal
Map of Guadalcanal.
Map of Matanikau action between U.S. Marines and Japanese forces, September 24-27, 1942, on Guadalcanal.
Aerial map of Point Cruz, Guadalcanal overlaid with actions by U.S. and Japanese forces during operations in late September, 1942.
The 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, withdraws from its dangerously exposed position west of Point Cruz, Guadalcanal, under cover of naval gunfire and artillery support in late September, 1942.
U.S. and Japanese actions along the Matanikau River, Guadalcanal, 23-27 Sep, 1942.
Lunga perimeter, late September, 1942.
U.S. Matanikau offensive on Guadalcanal, October 7-9, 1942.
ACTION ON THE MATANIKAU, Guadalcanal, from 7 to 9 October, 1942, enabled General Vandegrift to establish forward positions in that area during the balance of the campaign.
U.S. positions along the Matanikau and Lunga Point, October 9, 1942.
U.S. Marine defensive positions along the Matanikau River, Guadalcanal, October, 1942.
The 1st Raider Battalion and the 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, found themselves immobilized by the Japanese along the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal in October, 1942.
Japanese attacks on U.S. forces, October 23-25, 1942.
Japanese attacks on the U.S. perimeter on Guadalcanal, Oct 23-25, 1942.
Japanese attacks, October 23-25.
Conoley's Action, 24-26 October 1942, near the Matanikau River, Guadalcanal.

Commanders

U.S. Marine General Alexander A. Vandegrift.
Lieutenant General Harukichi Hyakutake in front of HQ at Rabaul.
Japanese Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka, main leader of the Tokyo Express operations and victor in the Battle of Tassafaronga.
Japanese Maj Gen Maruyama commanded Japanese forces on Guadalcanal.
U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel "Chesty" Puller on Guadalcanal in September, 1942.
Japanese Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi (seated center) in a group photo with his brigade staff at Palau shortly before departing for Guadalcanal. Kawaguchi was relieved of his command during this battle.

Tokyo Express

Japanese troops load onto a destroyer in preparation for a "Rat Transportation" (called "Tokyo Express" by Allied forces) to Guadalcanal in 1942.
A Japanese transport destroyed by aircraft from Henderson Field at Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal on October 14, 1942.

Japanese forces

Japanese troops from the 4th "Aoba" Infantry Regiment march along the shore of Guadalcanal shortly after landing in September, 1942.
Japanese soldier demonstrates use of the Model 89 (1929) 50mm Heavy Grenade Discharger. Often called a "knee mortar" by U.S. troops, they were used extensively in Pacific battles by Japanese forces, including on Guadalcanal.
Wreckage of the Japanese 1st Independent Tank Company on the sandbar at the mouth of the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal after the failed October offensive to take Henderson Field.
Dead Japanese soldiers from Nakaguma's 4th Infantry regiment lie near the mouth of the Matanikau after their failed attack on October 23-24.
Dead 2nd Infantry soldiers after their failed assaults on Hall's and Puller's lines, October 26, 1942.

U.S. Marine forces

A M1918 155mm howitzer is fired by artillery crewmen of the 11th Marines in support of ground forces attacking the enemy on Guadalcanal.
Flooded U.S. Marine camp near Henderson Field.
A U.S. 11th Marines 75mm pack howitzer and crew on Guadalcanal, September or October, 1942.
A U.S. Marine patrol crosses the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal, probably in late September or early October, 1942.
U.S. Marines suffering from malaria in a rough field hospital on Guadalcanal, probably in October, 1942.
A U.S. Marine guards Hill 80 on "Edson's" Ridge, Guadalcanal in 1942. The view is towards the south from whence the Japanese attacked during the battle in October, 1942.
A U.S. Marine patrol descends from "Edson's" Ridge, Guadalcanal, sometime in 1942. Henderson Field is in the background.
Marine positions south of Henderson Field in October in the area that was attacked during the battle.
During the lull in the Battle for Henderson Field, a Marine machine gunner takes a break for coffee, with his sub-machine gun on his knee and his .30-caliber light machine gun in position.
U.S. Marine 150mm howizter fires at Japanese forces on Guadalcanal west of the Matanikau River in late October, 1942.
U.S. Marine 105mm gun on Guadalcanal, September, 1942.
Anti-aircraft gun and crew of the U.S. Marine 3d Defense Battalion helping defend Henderson Field from Japanese air attack on Guadalcanal in October, 1942.

Miscellaneous, related photos

this view looking south over Point Cruz shows the jumble of sharp-grassed ridges, foothills and mountainous jungle which was Guadalcanal.
Aerial view of Henderson Field in late August, 1942.
Henderson Field on Guadalcanal as it looked in September, 1942.
U.S. Marine Sgt John Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the late October, 1942 battles on Guadalcanal.
SGT MITCHELL PAIGE receives the Medal of Honor from Gen Vandegrift as a reward for outstanding heroism while manning a machine-gun of the 2d Battalion, 7th Marines during the late October, 1942 battles for Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.
Henderson Field on Guadalcanal is bombed during the October 24-25, 1942 Japanese offensive.
Third from left, LtGen Thomas Holcomb, seventeenth Commandant of the Marine Corps, looks over a captured Japanese despatch-case during his front-line inspection of Guadalcanal in October 1942.