Battle Report: After a continuous day of fighting on September 12-13, 1942, units from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Japanese Battalions again tried to clear the ridge south of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. The ridge was held by troops from the 1st US Raider and 1st US Parachute Battalions. At 1845, two Japanese platoons emerged from the jungle onto the east central ridge and took fire from B Company, 1st Paratrooper Division. By 2000 hours, there was an intense struggle for the paratroopers east of the ridge to hold the line. Reinforcements from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division came up the trail from the northwest at 2100. Shortly thereafter, the Japanese assaulted the central ridge and by 2145, two Japanese platoons had broken through the east central sector of the ridge and headed toward the airfield. The American units were being assaulted all across the front line. The combined forces of the paratroopers, raiders and marines were able to slow the Japanese advance by 2230, despite a small breakthrough that was stopped at midnight. At 0215 hours, three Japanese platoons had broken through the American line. Due to excessive casualties, the US forces stood down shortly after that given the Japanese a measure of victory.

Analysis: This 50-turn scenario was played using 4th edition rules; victory objectives involve US step loss and/or Japanese unit exit. This is similar to Scenario # 12 that covers the first night of fighting for the ridge, although the length gives a little more time for the disoriented Japanese to get to the north edge of the map for exit points. Disorientation also led to an early arrival for the American Marine reinforcements, as a Japanese infantry unit stumbled into the five-hex perimeter that allowed reinforcement entry, so they were in the game fifteen turns ahead of schedule. This made things a bit non-historical due to the early arrival (by 7 hours from that of the actual battle) of the Marine reinforcements. When the first Japanese unit managed to exit north on Turn # 12, the US could no longer get a victory; now, the game changes to the US attempting to save a draw by limiting Japanese exit. To win, the Japanese now needed either at least 8 units exited or 12 US steps eliminated. So, the US went into a “step-saving” mode by blocking Japanese units in the jungle and positioning them to assault with US first fire and ambush. The best approach for the Japanese is to avoid the jungle and take the ridge, which provides a clear path to the north edge, but this is no small effort since the US units have the mobility to block effectively. Nonetheless, the Japanese were able to coalesce strong enough assault groups to inflict sufficient step losses for victory by Turn 32. The scenario ended in a Japanese victory with thirteen step losses for the US compared to 21 for the Japanese, who also had exited three units by that time.