[5] The Japanese were taken by surprise, and by nightfall on 8 August the 11,000 Allied troops—under the command of Lieutenant General Alexander Vandegrift—secured Tulagi and nearby small islands as well as an airfield under construction at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal.

[7] The first Japanese attempt to recapture Henderson Field failed when a 917-man force was defeated on 21 August in the Battle of the Tenaru.

The next attempt took place from 12–14 September, ending in the defeat of the 6,000 soldiers under the command of Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi at the Battle of Edson's Ridge.

After his staff officers observed the American defenses around Lunga Point, Hyakutake decided that the main thrust of his planned attack would be from south of Henderson Field.

That evening, after learning that the left and right wing forces were still struggling to reach the American lines, Hyakutake postponed the attack to 19:00 on 24 October.

Over two consecutive nights Maruyama's forces conducted numerous unsuccessful frontal assaults on positions defended by troops of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines (1/7) under Lieutenant Colonel Chesty Puller and the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 164th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hall.

[13] At 05:30 on 4 November, two companies from the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson, landed by boat at Aola Bay, 40 mi (64 km) east of Lunga Point.

Carlson arranged for rear echelon personnel at Aola to resupply his patrol with rations every four days at a prearranged point on the coast.

[17] At first light on 6 November, Carlson and his command group, two of his companies, and a group of native scouts and carriers commanded by Major John Mather of the Australian Army and Sergeant Major Jacob C. Vouza of the Solomon Islands Police Force set out from Aola on the patrol.

At the Reko, Carlson learned that the local Christian mission had recently been raided by Japanese troops who had killed two of the missionaries before moving west.

Pushing across the river with one platoon of troops, Carlson encountered a small group of Japanese who shot and severely wounded the native scout leading the Marine column.

[18] On 8 November, the column continued through the jungle to the northwest, striking the coast at the Kena River, and made camp at the village of Tasimboko, 15 mi (24 km) from Aola Bay.

The next day they crossed the Berande and Balasuna rivers and reached the village of Binu—10 mi (16 km) southwest of Tasimboko—in the afternoon.

On the way, the Raiders encountered a small group of Japanese soldiers and killed three of them before arriving at Binu in the afternoon of the same day.

[20] In the meantime, Hyakutake ordered Shōji to abandon his positions at Koli and rejoin Japanese forces at Kokumbona in the Matanikau area.

At 10:00, Company C, which had marched directly west toward the village of Asamana, encountered a large body of Shōji's troops camped near the Metapona River.

[21] As Companies D and E moved in C's direction, both encountered large concentrations of Shōji's soldiers and by 12:30 were involved in intense firefights.

McAuliffe reported to Carlson that soon after he had made contact with the Japanese forces, he and one of his squads had become cut off from the rest of his company.

A short time later, however, the rest of D Company arrived at the base camp, led by Gunnery Sergeant George Schrier, after successfully disengaging from the firefight.

By this time, however, Shōji's units were no longer in the area, having continued their march deep into the interior of Guadalcanal en route to the Matanikau.

[32] As Carlson's battalion was ending its patrol, Shōji and his surviving troops were reaching friendly positions west of the Matanikau.

In addition to the losses sustained from attacks by Carlson's Raiders, a lack of food and tropical diseases felled many more of Shōji's men.

By the time Shōji's forces reached the Lunga River in mid-November, about halfway to the Matanikau, only 1,300 men remained with the main body.

Carlson claimed that his troops killed 488 Japanese soldiers and captured or destroyed large amounts of equipment, including two howitzers and various small arms and ammunition.

In the second week of March 1943, the 2nd Raiders were declared unfit for combat duty, although this finding was never announced in an official document.

In spite of the high fallout from disease, Carlson's troops generally felt that they had performed well as a unit during the patrol and had accomplished their mission.

[3] Lieutenant Cleland E. Early of Company E described the long Guadalcanal patrol and the effect on his unit: "Enduring the living conditions was worse than the combat.