Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 6, 2012



Carlson's patrol was an operation by the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion of the U.S. Marine Corps under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson. It took place from 6 November to 4 December 1942 during the Guadalcanal Campaign, which aimed to deny the Imperial Japanese Army use of the Solomon Islands as bases for threatening the supply routes between the U.S. and Australia, and to assist the offensives against Japan. In the operation, the 2nd Raiders attacked forces under the command of Toshinari Shōji, which were escaping from an attempted encirclement in the Koli Point area on Guadalcanal and attempting to rejoin other Japanese army units on the opposite side of the U.S. Lunga perimeter. In a series of small unit engagements over 29 days, the 2nd Raiders (who had been trained to operate as a guerrilla force) killed almost 500 Japanese soldiers while suffering only 16 killed. The raiders also captured a Japanese artillery cannon (pictured) that was delivering harassing gunfire on Henderson Field, the Allied airfield at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. Seventeen raiders were wounded, and many others developed malaria, dysentery, or other illnesses; one lieutenant said that the living conditions were worse than the combat. (Full article...)

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