A U.S. Marine operation on Japanese forces west of the Matanikau was carried out between 23 and 27 September by parts of three U.S. Over two consecutive nights Maruyama’s forces conducted numerous frontal assaults on positions defended by troops of the first Battalion, seventh Marines underneath Lieutenant Colonel Chesty Puller and the U.S. Over the next one hour and 23 minutes, the two battleships fired 973 14-inch (356 mm) shells into the Lunga perimeter, most of which fell in and around the 2,200 m2 (24,000 sq ft) space of the airfield. A few small groups of Japanese broke by way of the American defenses however had been hunted down and killed over the following a number of days. Despite the heavy harm, Henderson personnel were ready to restore one of many runways to operational condition inside a number of hours. Despite the U.S. victory off Cape Esperance, the Japanese continued with plans and preparations for their large offensive scheduled for later in October. The action pressured the Japanese to retreat from their positions east of the Matanikau and hindered Japanese preparations for his or her deliberate major offensive on the U.S. Between 6 and 9 October a bigger drive of Marines successfully crossed the Matanikau River, attacked newly landed Japanese forces from the 2nd Infantry Division under the command of Generals Masao Maruyama and Yumio Nasu, and inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese 4th Infantry Regiment.
Thus, on 8 October, the 2,837 men of the 164th Infantry Regiment from the Americal Division boarded ships at New Caledonia for the trip to Guadalcanal with a projected arrival date of 13 October. On 13 October, a convoy comprising six cargo ships with eight screening destroyers departed the Shortland Islands for Guadalcanal. Throughout the day of 15 October, a string of CAF aircraft from Henderson bombed and strafed the unloading convoy, destroying three of the cargo ships. There are lots of theories about what occurred the day of the assassination. Air attacks by CAF aircraft from Henderson Field sank two of those destroyers later that day. Thus, at dusk on 23 October, two battalions of the 4th Infantry Regiment and the 9 tanks of the 1st Independent Tank Company launched attacks on the U.S. The Japanese Navy promised to support the Army’s planned offensive by delivering the necessary troops, gear, and provides to the island, and likewise by stepping up air assaults on Henderson Field and sending warships to bombard the airfield. To guard the approaching convoy from assault by CAF aircraft, Yamamoto sent the 3rd Battleship Division, underneath the command of Takeo Kurita, from Truk to bombard Henderson Field.
The Japanese convoy reached Tassafaronga Point at midnight on 14 October and began unloading. At 01:33 on 14 October, Kongō and Haruna, escorted by one light cruiser and nine destroyers, reached Guadalcanal and opened hearth on Henderson Field from a distance of 16,000 meters (17,500 yd). U.S. Marine and Army items armed with rifles, machine guns, mortars, and artillery, casino jackpot slots together with direct canister fire from 37 mm anti-tank guns, “wrought terrible carnage” on the Japanese. Heavy machine-gun fireplace greeted a nauseous and bloody Waverly B. Woodson, Jr. as he disembarked onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. A German shell had simply blasted apart his landing craft, killing the man next to him and peppering him with a lot shrapnel that he initially believed he, too, was dying. During the action three Marine firms had been surrounded by Japanese forces close to Point Cruz west of the Matanikau, took heavy losses, and barely escaped with assistance from the destroyer USS Monssen and touchdown craft crewed by U.S. Seventeen SBD-three Dauntless dive bombers and 20 F4F Wildcats at Espiritu Santo were shortly flown to Henderson, and U.S. Army and Marine transport aircraft shuttled aviation gasoline from Espiritu Santo to Guadalcanal.