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Sgt Lynn Rutt
to remember
Marine BGen Samuel Blair Griffith.
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Contact Info
Home Town Lewiston
Last Address Lewiston
Date of Passing Mar 27, 1983
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Last Known Activity:
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY Washington 4 February, 1942 Cited in the Name of The President of the United States THE FIRST MARINE DIVISION REINFORCED Under command of Major General Alexander A. Vandegrift, U.S.M.C.
CITATION: "The officers and enlisted men of the FIRST MARINE DIVISION, REINFORCED, on August 7 to 9. 1942, demonstrated outstanding gallantry and determination in successfully executing forced landing assaults against a number of strongly defended Japanese positions on TULAGI, GAVUTU, TANAMBOGO, FLORIDA and GUADALCANAL, British Solomon Islands, completely routing all the enemy forces and seizing a most valuable base and airfield within the enemy zone of operations in the South Pacific Ocean. From the above period until 09 December, 1942, this Reinforced Division not only held their important strategic positions despite determined and repeated Japanese naval, air and land attacks, but by a series of offensive operations against strong enemy resistance drove the Japanese from the proximity of the airfield and inflicted great losses on them by land and air attacks. The courage and determination displayed in these operations were of an inspiring order."
FRANK KNOX Secretary of the Navy
Other Comments:
UNIT CITATION BATTLE OF EDSON'S RIDGE (1-2 p36)
HEADQUARTERS, FIRST MARINE DIVISION FLEET MARINE FORCE C/O POSTMASTER, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. 19 September, 1942. DIVISION BULLETIN NUMBER 40a-42
Commendation of Raider Battalion, Parachute Battalion, and Eleventh Marines for action against the enemy of 13-14 September. 1942.
1. The Commanding General desires to commend the outstanding efforts of the Raider Battalion. the Parachute Battalion, and tne Eleventh Marines during the enemy attack on the First Division positions on Guadalcanal Island on the night of September 13-14, 1942.
2. On that night the Raider Battalion with the First Parachute Battalion attached, having been assiged the mission of occupying and defending a key position a1ong a ridge located about one thousand (1000) yards south of the Guadalcanal air field, had scarcely moved into the position when the enemy launched an attack on it and broke through the front lines. The situation of forward units havIng become untenable, a skillful withdrawal to the reserve position was effected.
3. During the period from 1930 on the 13th to 0000 on the 14th the enemy launched a series of ferocious assaults on the reserve position. each culminating in fierce hand to hand combat in vhich both attacker and defender employed bayonets, rifles, pistol., grenades and knives. The Parachute Battalion, hastily reorganized into two companies after its withdrawal from the main line of resistance, counter-attacked the enemy advancing on the left of the reserve position to extend that position to the left and to straighten the line then being held by the Battalion Reserve. This counter-attack was carried out successfully in that the enemy was forced to vithdraw into the edge of the woods fronting the reserve position, this flanking movement which had threatened the whole position having been halted. During this courageous attack the Parachute Troops suffered casualties estimated at 40%.
4. Throughout the night the Eleventh Marines supported the Raiders and Parachutists by nine hours of almost constant artillery fire of the greatest accuracy and effectiveness, and greatly assisted them in standing off the attacks of the enemy. The morning of the 14th found the enemy, retreating and the reinforced Raider Battalion in complete control of the field of battle.
5. Almost without exception the officers and men engaged in this action proved themselves to be among, the best fighting troops that any service could hope to have, and in extending to tnem the salutation of the officers and men of the Division the Commanding General vishes to state that he considers i t a privilege and an honor to have had troops of this caliber attached to his command.
A. A. VANDEGRIFT.
Northern Solomon Islands Campaign (1943-44)/New Georgia Group Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1943
To Month/Year
October / 1943
Description This operation was fought during the Pacific war on this group of islands situated in the central Solomons. US forces invaded them as part of an American offensive (CARTWHEEL) to isolate and neutralize Rabaul, the main Japanese base in their South-East Area.
On 20 June 1943 a Raider battalion (, 5(f)) landed at Segi Point on the main island, New Georgia, and during the next two weeks there were other landings by US Marines and 43rd US Division on Rendova and Vangunu islands, and on western New Georgia, to seize a Japanese airstrip at Munda point. Despite the US Navy's intervention, which resulted in the battles of Kula Gulf and Kolombangara, 4,000 reinforcements were successfully dispatched to the commander of the 10,500-strong Japanese garrison, Maj-General Sasaki Noboru. Most reinforced Munda, which became the focus of Japanese resistance, and their night infiltration tactics unnerved the inexperienced US troops. Non-battle casualties, caused by exhaustion and ‘war neuroses’, increased alarmingly, and when the commander of 14th Corps, Maj-General Oscar Griswold, arrived on 11 July he reported the division was ‘about to fold up’. The 37th US Division was brought in, Griswold replaced the worst affected units, and he then launched a corps attack on 25 July. Fierce fighting followed but by 1August the Japanese, outnumbered and outgunned, had withdrawn inland. This time US Navy destroyers prevented more reinforcements reaching them when, on the night of 6/7August, they sank three Japanese transports (battle of Vella Gulf).
Munda now became the base of Marine Corps squadrons which supported landings on Vella Lavella on 15 August. These bypassed and isolated Sasaki's garrison now gathering on Kolombangara after further US reinforcements, elements of 25th US Division, had failed to destroy them on New Georgia. On 15 September Sasaki was ordered to withdraw. In a brilliantly organized evacuation 9,400 men out of the 12,500 on Kolombangara were rescued by landing craft, and the following month those on Vella Lavella were also evacuated.
The campaign proved costly for the Americans who had 1,094 killed and 3,873 wounded with thousands more becoming non-battle casualties. Excluding the fighting on Vella Lavella, 2,483 Japanese bodies were counted. Planned as a one-division operation, the Japanese garrison's ‘skill, tenacity, and valor’—to quote the campaign's official US historian—eventually made it one where elements of four had to be used. ‘The obstinate General Sasaki,’ the same historian concludes, ‘deserved his country's gratitude for his gallant and able conduct.’
