During the Battle of Cadarkanal in the Pacific War, on August 21, 1942, Japanese forces were decimated on the banks of the Tenaru River. U.S. Marine Corps medics treated the surviving Japanese soldiers on the battlefield and sent them home. Scattered bodies of dead Japanese soldiers were carried on stretchers and collected in one place.
Private Andy Pollini found two wounded Japanese soldiers and received four of his comrades to tend to their wounds. One of the Japanese soldiers suddenly rolled over and wounded an American soldier, and Pollini immediately killed the two wounded Japanese soldiers with his rifle. An American medic was also killed by a wounded Japanese soldier who pulled a grenade while trying to help a wounded Japanese soldier. General Vandegrift ordered all Japanese rescue efforts to cease and wounded soldiers to be shot dead on the spot. A Marine who survived the brutal battle warned, "Only dead Japs are good Japs!" he warned.
During the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific War, at 1:30 a.m. on August 21, 1942, U.S. Marines heard the footsteps of Japanese troops rushing toward them from the opposite bank of the Tenaru River and gave the order to begin shelling the island. At the same time, a volley of fire was fired from the barrel of a Japanese gun from the opposite bank. Immediately afterward, Japanese soldiers flooded out of the coconut grove with bayonets and charged toward the sandbar, shouting "Hurray! and charged toward the sandbar. Running and throwing grenades, they quickly filled the entire estuary. At first, about 500 Japanese soldiers soldiers charged. The Japanese troops were rounded up in their entirety under the intense fire of the American troops. One of the surviving Japanese soldiers expressed, "It was like a fly attacking a turtle, and the fly was completely helpless against the turtle! He described it as "like a fly attacking a turtle, and the fly was completely helpless against the turtle! Realizing that an assault from the sandbar was unlikely to succeed, the Ichiki advance party ordered a crossing of the Tenaru River at 3:10 a.m. and charged the right flank of the American position. In the onslaught, only eight men managed to invade the American positions. Japanese soldiers frequently threw hand grenades to destroy American lights. After a night of fierce fighting, half of the Ichiki advance party was killed or wounded, and most of the officers were killed in action. The Ichiki advance party still did not retreat until dawn.
In the early morning hours of August 21, twelve Dreadnought dive bombers repeatedly bombed the coconut orchards where the Ichiki advance party was holed up. U.S. troops crossed the upper Tenaru River and surrounded the southern part of the Ippiki advance party, trapping the Japanese remnants in a small area along the coast, where the Marines killed them one by one. at dusk on August 21, the last moments of the Ippiki advance party approached. The Marines sent a platoon of light tanks to cover the assault across the sandbar. The tanks knocked down palm trees, killed Japanese defenders, and disintegrated desperate Japanese soldiers. The tanks drove over the dead and wounded soldiers, their footprints caked with blood and flesh. The Ichiki advance party was crushed in a coconut grove where they died in battle.
Only a handful of Japanese soldiers remained in the coconut grove, and they surrounded the severely wounded Ichiki and ordered him to burn the military flag. By the time American tanks spotted the remaining group of Japanese soldiers, the Japanese flag was already ablaze. One by one, the Japanese soldiers were killed. Just before he was killed, Kiyonao Ichiki pulled out his saber and cut his stomach. Only eight of the wounded escaped back to the remaining Japanese units. The battle at the mouth of the Tenaru River lasted about 16 hours and ended at about 17:00 p.m. on August 21. Approximately 777 Japanese soldiers were killed, and the battle ended with 34 American dead and 75 wounded.
No comments:
Post a Comment