Guadalcanal
Japanese artillery and aircraft are active throughout day. Veterans name this day 'Dugout Sunday'. Japanese planes bomb and strafe Lunga Point in 7 separate attacks. Early in the day Fighter Strip No. 1, having no matting or natural drainage, becomes unusable because of heavy rains. As the runways dry out later in the day, the American planes take off to challenge the Japanese. By evening 22 planes have been shot down with 5 more going down to anti-aircraft fire.
The Americans reorganize the perimeter. The 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and the 3rd Battalion, 164th Infantry, divide the front between them. The Marine battalion occupies the sector from the Lunga River to a point about 1,400 yards to the east covering the south slopes of Bloody Ridge. The army battalion takes over the sector in low-lying rough jungle between the Marines' left (east) flank and the right flank of the 2nd Battalion, 164th Infantry. The 3rd Battalion, 164th Infantry, puts 3 companies in line: L on the left, K in the center and I on the right. 60-mm mortars are placed behind the lines to put fire directly in front of the barbed wire. The 81-mm mortars, placed behind the light mortars, are to hit the edge of the jungle beyond the cleared fields of fire or about 60 - 100 yards further. 4 37-mm guns cover the junction of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 164th. The 164th regimental reserve consists of only 175 men of the Service and Antitank Companies, bivouacked in the 3rd Battalions' old positions. To the west, in the next sector, the 5th Marines swing their line southwestward to close with the left flank of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines. During the day soldiers and marines strengthen their positions, improve their fields of fire, and clean and site their weapons.
Maruyama prepares to attack again. 2 infantry regiments are to attack in line: the 16th on the right, the 29th on the left. They attack along the entire front of the 2 American battalions which had defeated the 29th Infantry the night before. Supported by machine-gun fire, groups of 30 to 200 assault the perimeter in the darkness. One strong attack hits the junction point of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 164th Infantry, but are driven off by canister from the 37-mm guns and from the fire of 3rd and 2nd Battalions, 164th Infantry. About 250 Japanese are killed in this attempt. One company and one platoon forming the division reserve move south to support the battalion in line, but all the attacks which continue throughout the night are beaten off. At daylight the shattered Japanese forces again withdraw into the cover of jungle.
Oka's force, which had been seen crossing Mount Austen's foothills day before, strikes north at the attenuated line of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, east of Hill 67. The Japanese break through at one point, but before they can consolidate their postions, Maj Odell M. Conoley, a Marine staff officer, leads headquarters personnel, special weapons troops, bandsmen, and 1 platoon of the 1st Marines, into a hastily contrived counterattack and drives the Japanese off the ridge.
These unsuccessful night attacks of the Japanese mark the end of the ground phase of the October counteroffensive. The Japanese begin a general withdrawal around October 29. Around 2,200 Japanese have been killed. Among the dead, Gen Yumio Nasu and Cols Furumiya and Toshiro Hiroyasu, commanders of the 29th and 16th Regiments respectively. 164th Infantry reports 26 killed, 52 wounded, and 4 missing throughout October.
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