Mitchell Paige in Guadalcanal
1942 had been a generally grim year for the US and the Allies in the Asia-Pacific Theater, relieved only by the American naval victory at the Battle of Midway that June. The rampaging Japanese had run riot, capturing the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Hong Kong, Burma, Wake plus sundry other Pacific islands, much of New Guniea, and were threatening India and Australia. Things began looking even grimmer when news arrived that the Japanese were busy building an air base in Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.
In peacetime, there was nothing significant about the Solomons, but in wartime, they became vitally important. Japanese long-range aircraft operating out of Guadalcanal could disrupt communications and supply lines between America and Australia, and that was unacceptable. So a decision was made to seize the island before the Japanese airfield there became operational. Rushed planning was followed by a rushed Marine invasion in August of 1942, that caught the enemy off guard and seized the nearly completed airfield. It was hurriedly completed by its new owners and opened up for business as Henderson Field, named in honor of a Marine aviator.
The invasion of Guadalcanal started off well, but things soon took turn for the worse. Setbacks at sea made the waters around the island too dangerous for the US Navy, which hurriedly decamped. That left the Marines – who had not yet landed all their munitions and supplies from transport ships – stranded, just as the Japanese were rushing in reinforcements for a counterattack to regain control of the island. What followed next were weeks of sheer hell on earth. Desperate Marines, supported by a collection of plucky airmen flying off of Henderson Field, short of just about everything, fought off attacks by an enemy equally desperate to kick them off the island.
In September of 1942, Mitchell Paige arrived with the 7th Marine Regiment, under the command of legendary leatherneck Chesty Puller, to reinforce their hard-pressed brethren in Guadalcanal. During the night of October 25-26, Paige and his platoon were dug into their foxholes, when he heard and noticed signs of a heavy enemy activity and preparations somewhere out in the pitch dark of the jungle.
Correctly judging that a Japanese night attack was in the works, Paige did what he could to ready his men for the coming storm. It broke in the early morning hours. At 2 AM, October 26th, 1942, the relative quiet of the jungle night was shattered by the din of battle. Thousands of Japanese from the 16th and 29th Infantry Divisions made a desperate bid to overrun the 7th Marines, in order to capture Henderson Field. Their main route went straight through the position occupied by a platoon led by one USMC sergeant Mitchell Paige.