Location Command Post Lt. Colonel Edwin A. Pollock

These pictures show the approach to the front lines of the 2nd battalion, 1st Marines in the battle of Tenaru, August 20-21, 1942.

It shows the general vicinity of where the battalion commander, Lt. Colonel Edwin A. Pollock, would have had his command post.

His Navy Cross citation states in part:

"When the troops under his command were subjected to a powerful and determined surprise attack at the Tenaru River, Lieutenant-Colonel Pollock, immediately leaving his Command Post, advanced through severe enemy mortar and machine-gun fire to a position in the front line, and while thus constantly exposed to extreme danger, directed the defense of our forces for a period of twelve hours. As a result of his excellent judgment and superb leadership, the men under his command destroyed practically the entire enemy force of seven hundred."

Much of the Tenaru episode in the TV mini-series "The Pacific" focuses on the 2nd battalion, 1st Marines, as does Richard Tregaskis’s book, Guadalcanal Diary.

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Source

• Text: Matthew Stevenson
• Photos: Matthew Stevenson
• Pacific Wrecks