On August 7th I was at the ceremony at the American Memorial on Guadalcanal on the 71st anniversary of the invasion there. There were 3 American flags on the Memorial, each representing a Marine whose remains were recently found just a few hundred yards away. John Innes, a local historian and the MC, said that they died on October 9, 1942. Richard Frank's book indicates that the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 7th Marines was in the area at the time. Innes could not identify whose these Marines were because the next of kin had not been notified. I presume they were listed as Killed in Action at the time but were not recovered since the west bank of the Matinikau remained in Japanese hands for another month. It was a very somber ceremony but I was glad I was there to see it.

http://life.time.com/history/guadalcanal-rare-and-classic-photos-from-a-pivotal-wwii-campaign/#1

Great pictures from Life. I had not seen them before. It was surprising how may grassy areas there were on the hillsides.

"The Thin Red Line" is not a very good movie, but given those photos, it does a good job of conveying the landscape on the island.

I was interested to see that in one of the photos of Marines(?) standing in ranks near the end of the photos, they are holding 1903 Springfields. A little Google research informed me that although the US Army had completely replaced the 1903s by 1942, the Marines had not.

I don't believe that the Springfields were fully replaced by the Garand until 1st MarDiv went to Melbourne to refit after turning over Guadacanal to the Army.