Cold Open

It’s late in the morning of August 8th, 1942, on the island of Guadalcanal, in the southwestern Pacific.

27-year-old Marine Captain Bill Ringer hacks through the thick vegetation with his machete.

Guadalcanal is a 2,000-square-mile island of mountains and dense jungle. The heat is unbearable, the ground is like a swamp, and insects have already bitten every exposed patch of Ringer’s skin.

But he can’t stop or turn back. He’s part of Operation Watchtower, the first major U.S. offensive in the Pacific War. Alongside the rest of the 5th Marines Division, Ringer’s mission is to try and take a half-built airfield from the Japanese.

But Ringer has to make it through the undergrowth first.

Suddenly, Japanese planes roar overhead.

Ringer and the other Marines drop to the ground and flatten themselves into the mud. But the Japanese don't seem to spot them.

Instead, the planes keep flying directly out to sea. Ringer waits until he's sure they've gone, then signals for his men to continue.

It's not far to the edge of the jungle. And pushing aside the last of the leaves and vegetation, Ringer gets his first look at their target. The airfield is just a muddy runway with some ramshackle huts alongside it. But Ringer knows it could help decide the war in the Pacific. Whoever holds it will have air superiority over the crucial supply line between Australia and the United States. So if the Allies are to triumph, they have to take this airfield.

Ringer checks his weapon and then moves forward quickly, expecting gunfire at any moment. But as he advances, there's only silence. The airfield seems completely unguarded.

And when Ringer and his team reach the huts, they find freshly cooked food and personal belongings scattered across the tables. The position has clearly been abandoned in a hurry. But the Japanese can't have gone far. And that makes Ringer nervous.

Because if there's one thing he's learned about his enemy, it's that they don't give up without a fight. Taking this airfield has been easier than he expected. But Captain Ringer knows it's not over yet.

As expected, the Japanese will soon launch a counterattack, and Captain Bill Ringer will be killed defending the airfield. But he will be just one of thousands of soldiers to die on Guadalcanal in the six months of bitter fighting that will follow, before the battle for the island is finally decided on January 14th, 1943.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is January 14th, 1943: The Evacuation of Guadalcanal.

Act One: Waves of Bullets

It’s just after 1 AM, on October 24th, 1942, on Guadalcanal, two and a half months after American Marines seized a crucial airfield there.

Hunkered down behind a small wall of sandbags, 25-year-old Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone stares into the darkness of the jungle. His hands grip a heavy machine gun. While on the ground by his feet, fellow Marines get some much-needed rest. Basilone wishes he could join them, but it's his turn on watch.

Basilone is guarding part of the perimeter that separates Japanese forces from the American-held airfield behind them. The narrow pass here is a critical part of the line, so the Marines have set up two gun positions to defend it. With four heavy.30-caliber machine guns between them, the Marines should be able to create an impassable killing zone—as long as they can keep firing.

Ever since the Americans took this airfield, the Japanese have been trying to take it back. And after each failed attack, they seem to come back with more men. Now, as many as 30,000 Japanese soldiers are on the island, and it'll be up to Marines like Sergeant Basilone to fend them off.

But the blackness of the night is almost impenetrable. Dark clouds obscure the moon, meaning Basilone has to rely almost entirely on his hearing to sense danger. And sometimes, the jungle plays tricks on him. Rustling in the undergrowth could signal another Japanese attack—or it could just be a rat, foraging in the darkness.

All evening, he's been spooked by false alarms. Now, though, he’s sure he can hear movement. Basilone nudges the men at his feet awake. If he’s wrong, he’ll have to pay for their bad moods in the morning. But almost as soon as the other Marines are on their feet, Sergeant Basilone hears a terrifying war cry.

He squeezes the trigger, firing almost blindly into the darkness. His muzzle flash illuminates the jungle, revealing hundreds of Japanese soldiers swarming toward him.

Basilone sweeps his heavy machine gun from left to right, bullets cutting through the Japanese like a blade.

And when the attack ends, the narrow pass is choked with the bodies of the fallen enemy. But it's not over yet. Basilone knows another assault won’t be long. But the Marines have to clear their firing paths before then—otherwise the Japanese will be able to use the bodies of their comrades as cover to move forward. So, Basilone and the other men scurry out of their dugouts and drag the dead aside.

Basilone has barely gotten back to his machine gun when he hears another battle cry. And soon, the silence of the night is broken by renewed gunfire. Mortars and grenades rain down on the Marines as they fire into the jungle. And suddenly, there’s a nearby scream, and the second machine gun position falls silent. Basilone scowls—he knows they won’t be able to hold the Japanese back firing from a single position. They’ll be overrun. So, he has to do something.

Grabbing his gun, he lifts it off the ground. It’s more than 90 pounds of hot metal, but Basilone doesn’t hesitate. Because their only hope of survival is for him to get to the other gun nest.

It's 200 yards away through heavy fire. Still, Basilone sees no other option. It may look like a suicide mission, but unless he can reach it, they'll all soon be dead anyway.

Basilone wishes the other men in his position luck and then jumps over the sandbags.

Hauling the heavy gun, he sprints across the mud with bullets whizzing through the air around him. The ground erupts in explosions. And through the flashes of fire, he can just make out the other machine gun nest ahead, its sandbags scattered, dead Marines lying slumped over their weapons.

Leaping past them, Basilone heaves his machine gun into place. The Japanese are closing in. So whirling around, he opens fire, carving a deadly path through the enemy and throwing them back.

For hours, Basilone and the other Marines desperately hold the line. But as the battle wears on, ammunition stocks run dangerously low, and their supply lines are cut off by Japanese forces advancing behind the line. Armed only with a pistol and a machete, Basilone repeatedly runs through hostile terrain to reach supply points before returning with new belts of ammunition.

By the time reinforcements arrive at the Marines’ position, only John Basilone and two others are left alive. Their efforts have helped keep the airfield behind them in American hands. But the Japanese won’t give up on Guadalcanal. Another onslaught will come soon. And this time, it won’t come from the ground. But from the sea.

Act Two: Waves of Fire

It’s late on November 15th, 1942, off the coast of Guadalcanal in the southwestern Pacific, three weeks after U.S. Marines held off an attack on their position.

On the bridge of the battleship USS Washington, 53-year-old Admiral Willis Lee peers out across the dark waves. He’s wrestling with an impossible decision. Thanks to his battleship’s state-of-the-art radar system, he knows there's a large vessel not far ahead. But he doesn't know if it's Japanese or American, and he'll soon have to decide whether or not to open fire.

Despite repeated requests for identification, there's been no answer from the mystery ship on the radio, only the dispiriting buzz of static.

So Admiral Lee waits as long as he dares. But just as he is about to give the order to engage, gunfire lights up the darkness. In the brief flash of light, the identity of the other ship is instantly clear.

It’s an American destroyer—and it’s in urgent need of Admiral Lee’s help.

Only two days ago, the Japanese and the U.S. fleets engaged in the largest night battle of the Pacific War so far. In their latest attempt to take Guadalcanal, the Japanese have dispatched a large fleet consisting of two battleships, a light cruiser, and 11 destroyers. The fleet's orders were to wipe out the U.S. aircraft on the ground on Guadalcanal with a huge naval bombardment. 7,000 fresh troops would then be able to land on the island unopposed.

But Allied intelligence caught wind of the attack, and a powerful U.S. fleet was sent to intercept. And on the night of November 13th, 1942, the two forces met off the north coast of Guadalcanal. Explosions, gunfire, and artillery lit up the night for 40 brutal minutes. By the end of the fighting, only nine of the 27 ships involved were still in one piece. The American ships came off the worst, with just one light cruiser and one destroyer still capable of battle. But the Japanese did not press home their advantage, and instead of proceeding to bombard the airfield on Guadalcanal as planned, the Japanese Admiral decided to retreat. So, despite the heavy American losses, the Allies saw the battle as a victory.

But the Japanese did not give up entirely. With their feared battleship Kirishima leading the charge, they made one more attempt to break through the American lines.

It is this second attack that Admiral Lee has just discovered. And as the Washington gets closer to the fighting, he can see the Japanese once again have the upper hand. Three American destroyers are already on fire or sinking, and the Kirishima is now focusing its vast destructive power on the USS South Dakota.

Admiral Lee expects the Kirishima to spot his ship and engage at any moment. But in the darkness, the Japanese don’t seem to have noticed the arrival of the Washington. They seem so preoccupied with the South Dakota that Lee's enormous ship can sneak up undetected.

It’s a tactical advantage Admiral Lee has no intention of squandering. He quickly commands his men to move the Washington in closer. Then, he uses every weapon he has to bombard the Japanese battleship. Taken totally by surprise, the Kirishima has no time to muster any meaningful defense. And after suffering severe damage, the Kirishima’s only option is to flee. But the Japanese ship won’t get far. The damage it's taken is too great, and a few hours after the battle, the Kirishima capsizes and sinks beneath the waves.

Any Japanese hopes of bombarding the airfield on Guadalcanal go down with the ship. Instead, American planes on the island turn from hunted to hunters—taking off, they pursue the remaining Japanese naval forces and drive them from the seas around Guadalcanal. Of the 7,000 troops that the Japanese hoped would turn the tide on the island, only around 2,000 of them reach shore. But having lost most of their ammunition, supplies, and equipment, they are as much a burden as a reinforcement to the Japanese on Guadalcanal.

So the huge assault by the Imperial Japanese Navy has all been for nothing. Thanks to Admiral Lee and the other brave officers and sailors of the U.S. Navy, this will be the last time the Japanese try to retake Guadalcanal. But no one will be able to predict what the Japanese generals decide to do next.

Act Three: Retreat

It’s January 14th, 1943, on Guadalcanal, two months after the sinking of the Japanese battleship Kirishima.

40-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Kumao Imoto leads a small squad of mostly untrained reservists through the jungle. He checks over his shoulder to see if his men are keeping up with him. They’re on an important mission—but only Imoto knows what it is.

A few months ago, Japan had 30,000 troops on Guadalcanal. Now, less than a third of that remains. Thousands have died attempting to retake the airfield from the Americans. But in recent weeks, the island has been almost entirely cut off by the Allies, and many of the Japanese men have now also succumbed to sickness and starvation.

Rather than risk losing them all, the Japanese generals have decided to withdraw from Guadalcanal entirely. And it’s Imoto’s job to deliver the orders.

Earlier today, he and a battalion of a thousand fresh troops landed on the island to oversee the evacuation. Accompanied by a small squad of soldiers, Imoto then set off into the jungle.

It takes him more than a day to reach the Japanese lines. And he’s shocked by what he finds. When Imoto first heard about the evacuation, he wept at the idea. But when he sees the state of Japanese troops, Imoto understands. The vast majority can barely stand, let alone fight.

Still, when he delivers the evacuation orders, at first, Imoto is met with a barrage of insults. Retreat is shameful, and the Japanese commanders on Guadalcanal won’t allow it—better to launch a final suicidal attack on the enemy and at least die with dignity.

But Imoto is insistent, and eventually, after a day’s persuasion, the officers relent. And the operation can go ahead. Over the course of three nights in early February, more than 10,000 men will be taken off the island.

In their propaganda, the Japanese authorities will claim that this retreat is a tactical ploy. But there’s no hiding the fact that thousands of Japanese soldiers were sacrificed in a failed attempt to reclaim the island. And that the Allies have won a major victory. For the first time in the war, they have pushed the enemy back. And the Japanese will never return to Guadalcanal following their retreat, which began on January 14th, 1943.

Outro

Next on History Daily. January 15th, 1919. A storage tank filled with millions of gallons of molasses bursts in Boston, unleashing a wave that kills 21 people.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.