9°26′6.33″S159°57′4.46″E / 9.4350917°S 159.9512389°E / -9.4350917; 159.9512389
The Matanikau Offensive, from 1–4 November 1942, sometimes referred to as the Fourth Battle of the Matanikau, was an engagement between United States (U.S.) Marine and Army and Imperial Japanese Army forces around the Matanikau River and Point Cruz area on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign of World War II. The action was one of the last of a series of engagements between U.S. and Japanese forces near the Matanikau River during the campaign.
In the engagement, seven battalions of U.S. Marine and Army troops under the overall command of Alexander Vandegrift and tactical command of Merritt A. Edson, following up on the U.S. victory in the Battle for Henderson Field, crossed the Matanikau River and attacked Japanese Army units between the river and Point Cruz, on the northern Guadalcanal coast. The area was defended by the Japanese Army's 4th Infantry Regiment under Nomasu Nakaguma along with various other support troops, under the overall command of Harukichi Hyakutake. After inflicting heavy casualties on the Japanese defenders, U.S. forces halted the offensive and temporarily withdrew because of a perceived threat from Japanese forces elsewhere in the Guadalcanal area.
^Number estimated by adding the numbers of six battalions (500 men each) to the 800 troops from the augmented Whaling Group battalion, and rounding up to account for support units involved. This is the number most likely actually engaged in the battle, not the total number of Allied troops on Guadalcanal, which at this time numbered over 20,000.
^Number estimated by counting the reported half strength of the 4th Infantry Regiment (about 800 troops) plus the 200 or so more rear-area support troops sent into the battle as it was going on.
^Griffith, Battle for Guadalcanal, p. 223.
^Frank, Guadalcanal, pp. 416, 724. The U.S. counted 239 bodies in the Point Cruz pocket and Frank adds that Japanese records record the total number of deaths for the entire operation as 410 although some of these may have occurred shortly before the operation commenced.
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