TDIH: Suicide Charley at Guadalcanal

On this day in 1942, the Battle for Henderson Field begins. Marines in the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines stand as the last line of defense between the Japanese and an all-important airfield on Guadalcanal.

Company C took the brunt of the attack that night, but our Marines staunchly held on.

As the Japanese retreated, someone reportedly hoisted a flag made from an old, white parachute. It bore a skull and crossbones and the words “Suicide Charley, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.”

The legend of Suicide Charley was born!

The Battle for Henderson Field was just one of several brutal conflicts during the multi-month Guadalcanal campaign, of course. At the time, Marines under Lt. Col. Lewis “Chesty” Puller had been tasked with establishing a defensive perimeter around the southern end of the airport.

Perhaps no one could foresee just how bad the Japanese attack, when it came, would be?

The Japanese soldiers were relentless: Their commander had told them that the battle would be “decisive” and one “in which the rise or fall of the Japanese Empire will be decided.”

When they attacked at 10 p.m. on October 24, they fought accordingly.

“The Japanese poured forth from the shadows at the edge of the jungle,” historian Jon T. Hoffman explains, “running headlong toward the double-apron barbed wire and the muzzles of American guns. The defenders opened up with everything they had and called down mortar and artillery barrages.”

It was dark, rainy, and muddy, which complicated everything. Worse, the Japanese were coming in waves. With 3,000 soldiers, would the Japanese force simply outlast Company C and the companies flanking them?

Puller put out a call for reinforcements, but by 3:30, six major assaults had been launched by the Japanese. At one point, Puller’s command post got a call that ammunition was running low.  “You’ve got bayonets, haven’t you?” he retorted.

Many would credit Puller’s “bulldog attitude” with keeping Company C together that night. “Puller’s presence alone represented the equivalent of two battalions,” Lt. Col. Merrill Twining later said.

But it wasn’t just Puller. Nineteen Marines in the Battalion earned Navy Crosses, Silver Stars, and Navy Commendation Medals that night. Twelve of these recipients were in Company C. (One Marine in Company D also earned a Medal of Honor.)

When morning dawned, the scene was stunning. Scores of dead enemy could be seen, sometimes with their bodies stacked two or three deep. Several hundred dead enemy were found within the Battalion’s lines, with another 1,400 in front of its position.

By contrast, 19 of Puller’s Marines had been killed. Of these, 9 were in Company C.

Sometime that morning, someone made the “Suicide Charley” flag, although it’s unclear exactly who made it. “It is my theory that the flag was made to signify that any enemy attacking Charley Company was committing suicide,” one Private remarked.

It was the beginning of the “legend” of Suicide Charley, which would again be seen at the World War II Battle of Peleliu. And today, of course, it is a staple of Company C, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.

“[I]t’s something to be proud of,” Marine Sgt. Cody Waldroup explains, “You don’t see it in a lot of units. In Suicide, there’s not a lot of chest pumping when it comes to being the best, it’s more of a [quiet] professionalism. . . . When you’re a part of Suicide Charley, you have the reputation to uphold.”

Company C has its nickname, a local journalist concluded recently, “because war is hell, and they have fought like hell ever since . . . . To get into Suicide Charley, a Marine looks inward and expects to go to a war and maybe not ever go home.”

Semper Fi, Marines.

Primary Sources:

• Andrew Dys, Holiday Special for Military Family (The Herald; June 20, 2010) (p. 1)

• Burke Davis, Marine! : The life of Lt. Gen. Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller, USMA (ret.) (1962)

• Cpl. William Jackson, History of Suicide Charley (U.S Marine Corps website; Feb 15, 2013)

• Jon T. Hoffman, Battle for Henderson Field: Lieutenant Colonel Lewis B. Puller Commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines (World War II Mag.; November 2002) (reprinted HERE)

• Major Gary Cozzens, USMCR (Ret), The Legend of Suicide Charley (Marine Corps History; Vol. 3) (reprinted HERE)