Battle Report: Shortly before sunrise on November 1st, 1942, US Marines from the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 5th Regiment, 1st Division, and the Whaling Group, 1st Division moved west toward the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal in an effort to confront the remaining Japanese units, which had formed a loose defensive line along the west bank of the river. By 0515 hours, they had encountered elements of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 4th Infantry Regiment that were joined later by remnants of the 2nd Anti-Tank Battalion and 39th Field Road Construction Unit. As dawn broke, the Americans had created a gap in the center of the Japanese line and both infantry and HMG units had crossed. US scout units from the Whaling Group were on the south flank of the Japanese line, while the Americans entered the village at the river mouth on the north end of it. At 0700, an attempt by the Japanese to retake the village failed, and at 0800, reinforcements from the 3rd Battalion, 5/1, along with elements from the 2nd Regiment moved west toward the village, shortly before the Japanese artillery ran out of ammunition. At 1030, a thunderstorm came roaring in and drenched the battlefield for the next two hours, but this did little to slow the American push westward. After rejecting an attempt to turn their left flank, the Americans controlled both Japanese flanks and began to close the gap by 1215. Shortly after the rain ended, the Japanese found themselves surrounded, and their last infantry platoon was eliminated at 1330 hours. The Construction and AT platoons held on for another hour, but their leaders finally acknowledged total defeat, and the Americans had finally stabilized a 1K perimeter west of the Matanikau after over a month of fighting.

Analysis: This is a long scenario with 145 turns. Hex control and step loss are objectives for both sides. The scenario was played using 4th Edition rules and the village rules from Kokoda Campaign for the village hex at the river mouth. The scenario represents a real challenge for the Japanese player, as only nine US steps are needed for victory, but the Japanese are heavily outgunned. The US player can form a number of combined INF/HNG groups along with a “1” combat modifier to use the “16” DF column, while the best that Japanese can do is risk a 3-unit stack or accept use of the “11” column for the same grouping with the few officers that have combat modifiers. In this game, the US had 7 groups that were firing 16FP compared to just two 11FP groups for the Japanese. OBA is also strongly in favor of the Americans, and this disparity was even greater when an event removed the modest 16 Japanese OBA after only 16 turns. Compounding all this was the American control of initiative throughout most of the game; the Japanese only seized the initiative only eight of the 39 turns. All those factors along with some very timely die rolls gave the Americans an early victory. While different approaches can be used, e.g. a very aggressive Japanese rush to just try and get the nine steps needed for at least a draw, or a static defense using the jungle for adjacent fire and first fire when assaulted, it’s tough to say which is best. However, what is more apparent is that the Japanese will have an uphill battle to get a draw, much less a win. This imbalance is fair considering the actual history of the battle. In the end, The Japanese had lost 51 steps to just two for the Americans and were totally eliminated from the map. So, after 7 scenarios on the Matanikau River involving 458 turns, there were five draws and two American wins, and they finally had control of the west bank.