Guadalcanal
The Seabees begin work on an airfield immediately after landing, but the entire area proves unsatisfactory. The earth is swampy and tree stumps with deep tangled roots slow the process of clearing the ground. The effort here will soon be abandoned and a shift to Koli Point will ensue and be completed by December 3.
The 1st Battalion, 164th Infantry, and the 2nd Marines, less the 3rd Battalion, resume the advance. By afternoon they have moved forward against the retreating Japanese to a point about 2,000 yards west of Point Cruz, or about 4,000 yards short of Kokumbona. Division headquarters halts the advance since enemy troops have landed east of the perimeter and plans no further westward movement until that threat from the east has been removed. At 1500 the 3 battalions dig in at Point Cruz to hold part of the ground they had gained.
Gen Rupertus takes command of the Koli Point operation. The Lunga area is divided into two separate sectors, one east of the Lunga and one west of the river. Rupertus takes the east sector and Brig-Gen Edmund B. Sebree, Assistant Commander of the Americal Division, having just landed prior to the rest of his division, takes the west. Both will report directly to division headquarters.
Gen Rupertus with the regimental headquarters and the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, reaches Koli Point. The 164th Infantry, less the 1st Battalion, and B Company, 8th Marines, leave the Ilu River line at 0600 to march to the objective 7 miles to the east with Gen Sebree accompanying. The 2nd Raider Battalion, having just landed, and the 147th Infantry are ordered to advance overland toward Koli Point to intercept the Japanese units moving eastward. The 164th regimental headquarters and the 3rd Battalion bivouac for the night on the west bank of Nalimbiu River. The 2nd Battalion advances northward along the west bank for about 2,000 yds before stopping for the night, still not having made contact with the 7th Marines.
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