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If any battle marked the turning point of World War II in the
Pacific, most experts agree that the six-month land, sea and air
battle for Guadalcanal was the one. American naval strategists drew
a line in the sand at Guadalcanal because enemy aircraft flying from
that island could cut-off Allied supply lines to Australia.
During the Guadalcanal offensive, the U.S. Coast Guard served an
important role through its specialties in maritime transport,
amphibious landing and small boat operations. On ‘the Canal,' the
Coast Guard worked seamlessly with its U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine
Corps counterparts and, for the first time in its history, commanded
and manned a U.S. Naval Operating Base, or NOB. Coast Guard Lt.
Cmdr. Dwight Hodge Dexter commanded NOB “Cactus,” the code name for
Guadalcanal's naval base. At its peak, NOB Cactus included about
thirty LCPs, also known as Higgins Boats, and a dozen bow-ramped
tank lighters. About 50 officers and enlisted men manned the
operation, which included an odd collection of coconut plantation
buildings, homemade shacks and tents; and log-reinforced dugout
shelters for surviving air raids, naval bombardment and artillery
shelling.
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Cover of the March 1943 Coast Guard Magazine reads: “Jap
Trophy-Comdr. Dwight Dexter, USCG, displays autographed flag taken
from Jap soldier.” (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy image)
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On the morning of Aug. 7, 1942, exactly eight months
after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the first American
amphibious operation of World War II was about to begin. The
cloud cover of the previous days and circuitous voyage from
Wellington, New Zealand, had hidden the invasion fleet's
movements from enemy aircraft and submarines, so Japanese
forces on Guadalcanal received no forewarning of an
impending attack. The fleet entered Sealark Channel near the
landing beaches and front line warships began shore
bombardment of enemy positions on the island. The waves of
Marines coming ashore greatly outnumbered the combined
strength of Japanese military forces and civilian
construction personnel responsible for building the enemy's
new airfield. The Japanese beat a hasty retreat from their
shore positions into the jungles of Guadalcanal. Within a
day of the landings, the Americans had captured the
partially completed airstrip and established a defensive
perimeter around the airbase.
Dexter was a natural
leader who was devoted to his crew. When the enlisted men on
board troop transport Hunter Liggett heard that he would
command Guadalcanal's small boat operations, several
volunteered to serve with him. On Aug. 8, 1942, Dexter came
ashore with the first 24 Coast Guardsmen to serve at NOB
Cactus. He set up his headquarters in the former manager's
house for the Lever Brothers coconut plantation, which was
located within the Marine's defensive perimeter at Kukum,
east of Lunga Point. The white frame structure was in good
condition considering the naval bombardment that had
softened up the beaches the day before. Near Dexter's
headquarters, his men built a small tool shed for servicing
their landing craft and machinery. They also built a signal
tower out of coconut logs and a makeshift shelter located
underneath it built of packing crates with a tent roof. This
shelter housed Coast Guard heroes, including signalmen
Douglas Munro, later recipient of the Service's only
Congressional Medal of Honor, and Ray Evans, later recipient
of the Navy Cross. The rest of Dexter's men had similar
shelters or tents, but all lived close to the log-reinforced
bomb shelters.
NOB Cactus held a variety of titles.
In the Presidential Unit Citation awarded to the First
Marine Division, Reinforced, the added word “Reinforced”
refers to the Coast Guard unit. NOB Cactus also formed part
of Transport Division 7 and it had the moniker of “Local
Defense Force and Anti-Submarine Patrol, Guadalcanal-Gavutu.”
These names indicate the variety of missions carried out by
Dexter's unit. NOB Cactus served primarily to run supplies
and troops from transport ships to the beaches of
Guadalcanal, but Dexter's men and landing craft performed
far more missions than merely supplying the troops. They
provided an important radio and communications link between
land forces and offshore vessels. They navigated the waters
of Guadalcanal and islands as far distant as 60 miles to
land Marines and retrieve them when necessary. They inserted
reconnaissance teams led by British Colonial Forces officers
behind enemy lines. In the aftermath of aerial dogfights
above and naval battles on the surface of nearby Iron Bottom
Sound, NOB watercraft took to open water to retrieve wounded
Americans and Japanese prisoners. For a time, NOB personnel
fitted their landing craft with depth charges and conducted
nightly anti-submarine patrols. Coast Guard personnel also
pitched-in to defend American positions by serving artillery
pieces and providing infantry support. The men even trawled
off the beaches, catching fresh fish to supplement the
meager menu of Marines at the local mess hall.
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An artist's depiction of the NOB Cactus mission to save an ambushed Marine battalion at Point Cruz, Guadalcanal. Official recognition for this Coast Guard operation included a Medal of Honor, two Navy Crosses, and a number of Purple Hearts. Franklin D. Roosevelt later recognized all members of Dexter's Coast Guard unit with the Presidential Unit Citation as part of the First Marine Division. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy image.)
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The men of NOB Cactus used the dugout bomb shelters
frequently due to aerial bombing, naval shelling and
artillery bombardment that took place on a regular basis.
Under cover of darkness, Japanese naval units from their
base at Rabaul, New Britain, regularly attacked Guadalcanal
and its defending Allied warships. The men on the Canal also
suffered through daily air attacks, which tore up the
airfield and prevented transports from lingering off the
beaches for any length of time. In fact, Dexter maintained a
captured Japanese three-barreled machine gun, referred to by
a British observer as a “Chicago piano,” to defend against
air attacks. During the initial stages of the campaign,
enemy artillery and sniper fire also hounded the men at NOB
Cactus. The Japanese had salvaged a deck gun from one of
their grounded ships and mounted it in the jungle highlands
commanding the airfield. Nicknamed “Pistol Pete” by the
Americans, the Japanese used this gun to lob several rounds
per day at American positions until an American air attack
finally silenced the gun. After dark, the Japanese also sent
aircraft over Guadalcanal to bomb the Marines and prevent
them from enjoying more than a few hours of uninterrupted
sleep. Due to the constant shelling and bombing, the NOB
Cactus crew aptly named their nearby lagoon, “Sleepless
Lagoon.”
During his command of NOB Cactus, Dexter
made sure his men had plenty of food and supplies and
trained them in air raid drills, digging foxholes and the
use of slit trenches for cover.
One of the men later
wrote about Dexter, “I felt I could stand the bombings,
shellings and artillery so long as he was there. He gave us
the feeling of safety that only good officers can give to
their men.”
In the condolence letter to Coast Guard
Medal of Honor recipient Douglas Munro's parents, Dexter
referred to Munro as “one of my boys.”
Later in the
letter he wrote that “[Munro's] loss has left a very decided
space in which I feel will never be filled . . . .”
Like many who served in the early part of the Guadalcanal
campaign, Dexter contracted malaria. In November 1942, when
the disease finally got the best of him, Dexter rotated back
to the United States. He had earned the respect and
admiration of those who served under him at NOB Cactus. Some
of his men broke down and cried when he finally announced he
was redeploying for home. The Navy awarded Dexter the Silver
Star Medal for his command of NOB Cactus.
His medal
citation aptly concludes, “By his courage in the face of
great hardship and danger, he set an example which was an
inspiration to all who served with him.”
When Dexter
departed Guadalcanal, the battle had entered its fourth
month, but by then the Americans had become experienced
jungle fighters and secured their position on the island.
The defeat of Japanese forces on the Canal appeared assured
by late 1942 as elements of the U.S. Army relieved the
malaria-ridden First Marine Division. In early 1943,
commander of U.S. forces on Guadalcanal, U.S. Army Gen.
Alexander Patch declared the island secured of all Japanese
military forces.
Guadalcanal was a killing field that
consumed thousands of men, hundreds of aircraft and dozens
of front line warships. Even though the U.S. Navy had
triumphed earlier in 1942 at the pivotal naval battle at
Midway, the struggle for Guadalcanal proved the first true
test of all branches of the American military against
determined enemy forces within Japanese-held territory.
After Guadalcanal, the Allies would remain on the offensive
for the rest of the war and the Japanese would fight a
lengthy retreat all the way back to their home islands.
Dexter returned to the States having lived through a
lifetime's worth of vivid and often horrific experiences.
For the remainder of the war, he rose through the officer
ranks at bases within the United States. His post-war
assignments included a tour in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where
he had lived as a child. He also served as commander of the
high-endurance cutter Dexter, which is unrelated to his
family. In September 1959, he retired from the Service as a
rear admiral, after a 35-year career. Dexter was a member of
the long blue line and served in the Coast Guard with
distinction both in combat and in peacetime.
Writer's
Note: This story is dedicated to the late Retired Cmdr. Ray
Evans, Guadalcanal veteran and Navy Cross recipient, whose
first-hand recollections provided much of the information
for this story.
By William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2016
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