| United States Marines disembark from Task Group X-Ray landing craft on Guadalcanal at the beginning of Operation Watchtower. Most carry M1903 bolt action rifles; at least 1 carries the M1928A1 Thompson submachine gun, and 1 carries the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). The 5th Marines (less 2nd Battalion) had crossed its line of departure and moved into the 5,000 yard (4500 meters) approach to the beach. Naval gunfire lifted inland as the craft neared the shore, and minutes later, at 0910 Hours, the assault wave hit the beach on a 1,600 yard (1,400 meter) front and pushed into the sparse jungle growth beyond. With Lieutenant Colonel William E. Maxwell’s (September 24, 1897 – May 11, 1974) 1st Battalion on the right (west) and Lieutenant Colonel Frederick C. Biebush’s (September 21, 1895 – January 10, 1957) 3rd Battalion on the left, the beachhead expanded rapidly against no opposition. A perimeter some 600 yards (550 meters) inland soon established a hasty defense. The line anchored on the west at the Tenaru River, and on the east at the Tenavatu River, and reached on the south an east-west branch of the Tenaru. Regimental headquarters came ashore at 0938 Hours to be followed 2 minutes later by heavy weapons troops. Landing of the reserve regiment, Clifton B Cates’ (August 31, 1893 – June 4, 1970) reinforced 1st Marines, already was underway. Beginning at 0930 Hours, this regiment came ashore in a column of battalions with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines in the van followed by the 3rd and 1st Battalions in that order. Artillery came next, and the units partially bogged down. The howitzer men admitted later that they had taken too much gear ashore with them. Prime movers for the 105 millimeter (4.1-inch) howitzers did not get ashore initially because there were not enough ramp boats for this work, and 1 ton (1,000 kilogram) trucks proved too light to handle the field pieces. Needed were 2-and-a-half-ton 6 by sixes and ramp boats to put these vehicles on the beach simultaneously with the howitzers. Such prime movers were authorized, but so were a lot of other things the Marines did not have. In spite of these troubles, the artillery units reached their assigned firing positions by making overland prime movers out of amphibian tractors that began to wallow ashore heavy with cargo. 1 in position, however, the gunners found the amphibian was a creature of mixed virtues: tracked vehicles tore up the communications wire, creating early the pattern of combat events that became too familiar to plagued wiremen. Meanwhile, the light 75 millimeter (3-inch) pack howitzers had made it ashore with little trouble, and the advance toward the airfield got underway. At 1115 Hours, the 1st Marines moved through the hasty perimeter of the 5th Marines and struck out southwest toward Mount Austen, the “Grassy Knoll.” Colonel Clifton B. Cates put the 1st Marines across the Tenaru at an engineer bridge supported by an amphibian tractor, and they progressed slowly into the thickening jungle. Behind, to extend the beachhead, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines crossed the mouth of the Tenaru at 1330 Hours and moved toward the Ilu. Neither advance encountered enemy resistance. Maxwell’s battalion, Vandegrift said, was moving so slowly it seemed they were expecting “to encounter the entire Japanese Imperial Army.” Marine Corps General Alexander A. Vandegrift (March 13, 1887 – May 8, 1973) gave the battalion commander Maxwell hell (and replaced him a few days later). Vandegrift visited the 5th Marines command post (CP) and told the Regiment’s commanding officer, Colonel Leroy P. Hunt (March 17, 1892 – February 8, 1968), that he wanted Marines on the banks of the Tenaru River, 2 miles west, by nightfall. That speeded things up. Maxwell returned to the United States, where he spent the rest of the war in training commands. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1687.jpg |
| Image Size | 228.94 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1600 x 1248 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Marine Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 7, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | |
| State or Province | Guadalcanal |
| Country | Solomons |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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