Guadalcanal Day 5

Today is our last day on Guadalcanal. The final excursion was to Coffin Corner which is the part of Edson’s Ridge where John Basilone’s heroics won him the Medal of Honor. It had rained overnight and the track we were taking was steep and muddy. Cory chose to stay with the bus while Jim headed for Coffin Corner. We took the same path down and back. It was the path that the Japanese took to get in position to attack Edson’s Ridge.

After the Battle of Alligator Creek the Japanese landed additional troops on Guadalcanal east of the Tenaru River. Knowing what happened to the troops who tried to cross the Tenaru River where it entered the sea, these troops went inland to approach Henderson Field from the south. Colonel Edson anticipated that this would be the next direction of attack and established his defenses on what became known as Edson’s Ridge. We followed the track that the Japanese used to approach the ridge. It was extremely steep and slippery. The total climb was estimated to be over three hundred feet through thick heavy jungle terrain. At the top of the hill is the ridge that John Basilone moved about during the battle. During the two days of fighting the Japanese had 708 officers and men killed and 506 wounded while the marines had 90 men killed and 222 wounded.

While we were slipping and sliding in the mud up and down hills Cory spent her time with the bus driver. He took her up the hill to see a Japanese memorial. From the top of the hill he pointed out where some of the different battles happened and where the runways had been as well as some of the foxholes that were left. He also shared stories about his family, his work and life on the island.

When we returned to the busses we drove to Hill 1 on Edson’s Ridge. This was the southern most hill and it was the first hill that the Japanese attacked. The fighting here was fierce and eventually the marines pulled back over extremely difficult terrain to new defensive positions. There is a Japanese monument for the Japanese soldiers who lost their lives during this battle.

We returned to our hotel for a quick shower and our final packing. We had one final task to perform. When we first planned our trip to Guadalcanal the tour company we were going to use provided an opportunity to dedicate a tree in the memorial garden in the name a family member who served on Guadalcanal which I did. That was in 2020 and Covid caused the trip to be cancelled. We rescheduled the trip with the World War II Museum and deliberately lost touch with the other company. We also lost access to the tree location of the tree. Luckily we coaxed the location out of the other company and arranged to find the tree when we got to the airport (The Memorial Garden is located just across the road from the international Terminal. We easily found the tree and the associated plaque to my father. Our local guides joined us and took our picture by the tree. That was a most fitting conclusion to our fantastic trip to Guadalcanal.