MarineSidPhillips.com: The Battle of the Tenaru River

The night of August 21, 1942 grew strangely still but for the Tenaru River. On the river’s west bank, the Marines tried to stay awake, their guns pointing toward the east and the unknown. Suddenly, Japanese infiltrators appeared in their midst. Sid remembers the Marine line erupted in a wall of gunfire that slammed into a frenzied Japanese brigade charged and splashed across the river. Sid’s squad moved their mortar into

The aftermath from the
Battle of the Tenaru River.

position and at the crack of dawn, joined the fight, their fellow Marines cheering as the mortar’s explosions decimated what Japanese soldiers remained. When the battle ended, Sid waded amongst the Japanese bodies and found photos of Marines and their families in the enemy’s packs, souvenirs the Japanese had looted from earlier battles. Sid and his comrades burned the photos and took souvenirs from the Japanese. Now, the shoe was on the other foot. NEXT>>