Landing Craft

....continued
--The next boat back is qn LCP/L or R, but no identifying number can be seen. The furthest back boat is an LCP/L and is numbered P11-17. AP-11 was USS Barnett (later APA-5) and was at Guadalcanal.
--from the USMC monograph at Hyperwar: HyperWar: First Offensive: The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal (ibiblio.org)
Here is the second error, this one I am 100% sure of.
"A rescue force of landing craft moved with difficulty through Japanese fire, urged on by Puller who accompanied the boats on the destroyer Ballard (DD-660) [sic: should be DD-267; DD-660 USS Ballard was not commissioned until the following year--ed.]. The Marines were evacuated after fighting their way to the beach covered by the destroyer's fire and the machine guns of a Marine SBD overhead."

Here the author, Henry I. Shaw, Jr., identifies the destroyer that Puller was on and that provided gunfire support as the DD-660 Ballard, then has a correction that it was the DD-267 Ballard as DD-660 had not yet been commissioned. The actual DD-267 Ballard was a WWI Clemson class DD. She had been converted to an AVD (Seaplane Tender) in August 1940 being recommissioned as AVD-10 in January 1941.
Morrison, in his Guadalcanal volume of History of US Naval Operations in World War II, lists the destroyer Monssen, DD-436 as the destroyer Puller was on. The Wiki article on Munro lists the Monssen as being the initial gunfire support ship assigned to the boats (incorrectly) and again as the ship Puller was on that fired in support to cover the evacuation (the Ballard was actually the initial gunfire ship assigned).
I went to "Chesty, The story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC" for a more Indepth description of the action. USS Ballard AVD-10 had been assigned to provide gunfire support for the landing, she was driven off by an air attack which required evasive action. (most accounts mention the boats had to avoid air attack on the way in but give no details). The coordinating units that were trying to force crossings of the Matanikau, 2/5 and HQ company and C company 1/7, under Col. Edson, and the 1st Raider Battalion under LCol. Samuel B. Griffith, with XO Maj. Kenneth Bailey, had been stopped. The landing in the enemy's rear could now not be supported. Puller realized the Marines were trapped behind Japanese lines and went to get boats to extract them. When the Marines were cut off, their situation was discovered by a Marine SBD flying over that spotted "help" spelled out by their white t-shirts. Puller in the meantime had signaled the DD-Monssen which was patrolling offshore, and it sent a launch to pick him up. Puller returned to the area on Monnsen, followed by Munro's boat detachment, and contacted the Marines by semaphore light. There are various explanations as to why the companies were out of communication, in this monograph damage to the division HQ during the bombing raid had knocked out comms. History of the U.S. Marine Corps in WWII Vol I - Pearl Harbor to Guadacanal PCN 19000262400_4 (marines.mil)
A Marine, "Sergeant Robert D. Raysbrook, stood out on a hillock of the ridge and semaphored for attention." He continued to stand exposed to enemy fire to relay communications from the officer commanding the cut off Marines and then relayed fire direction orders by semaphore to the Monnsen. Platoon Sergeant Anthony P. Malanowski, took a Browning automatic rifle from a casualty and remained behind to singlehandedly covered the withdrawal of the three companies towards the beach until he himself was overrun and killed by the Japanese. The naval gunfire from the DD-436 was decisive in allowing the Marines to break contact. The author of the "Chesty" book went to the NHC and pulled the Monnsen's logs and proved it was she that fired in support of the Marines on September 26 and on the 27th during the withdrawal, as Morrison had correctly stated.

There were a large number of high awards given for this small of a fight. Munro-MoH, Evans-Navy Cross, Samuel B. Roberts-Navy Cross, Sergeant Robert D. Raysbrook-Navy Cross, Platoon Sergeant Anthony P. Malanowski-Navy Cross, Samuel B. Griffith-Navy Cross (for leading the 1st Raider Bn in its attempts to cross the river where he was wounded by machinegun fire, he'd also be awarded a DSC for action at Enogai Point, New Georgia, Solomon Islands, while supporting US Army units), during the action his XO Maj. Kenneth Bailey was killed. Bailey was awarded the MoH for his defense of Edson's "Bloody Ridge", on the nights of 12/13 and 13/14 September. Col. Edson commanding 2/5 during the Matanikau fight would also be awarded the MoH for the Edson's Ridge fight.

 

You were right about the second error; DD-660 was USS Bullard, not Ballard. Ballard (DD-237/AVD-10) served through the war and was scrapped shortly after it ended, as were most of her class. Ballard as an AVD had only two 3" guns so would not have been nearly as effective in gunfire support as a destroyer.

I find coincidences amusing and surprisingly common. I've just been reading A Glorious Day in Our History about the battle of Midway, which included a photo of Ballard. Before the battle she was stationed at French Frigate Shoals; her presence frustrated a Japanese plan to use the atoll for submarines to refuel a couple of H8K "Emily" four-engine flying boats to reconnoiter Pearl Harbor. After the battle, Ballard rescued a boatload of survivors from the carrier Hiryu.

 

I know what you mean about coincidences, I'd read what you just related about the Ballard when I was trying to verify the error. From Wikipedia: "Ballard performed picket duty during the Battle of Midway, and on 14 June 1942 rescued 35 Japanese seaman from the carrier Hiryū who had been adrift since their ship sank on 5 June."

Also, though I didn't mention it because I was getting a little long winded. When looking at the last picture I posted, because it was of an LCM(2), I noticed the LCV at right center marked K26-7. AK-26 was USS Alhena (AKA-9), a few months later after being repaired for a torpedo hit, my dad's uncle (grandmother's brother) sailed for Guadalcanal with 3d Tank Battalion from New Zealand aboard USS Alhena and made the Bougainville landings from her! He was a great guy but batshit crazy over an incident that happened on Guam. When I was a small kid. I'd go stay on my great-grandparents farm from time to time during the summer. Grandma Harp used to warn me when she put me to bed, and Horace was there, "darling don't get out of bed no matter what 'till morning. Somethin' bad happened to Horace in the war and if he see's shadows at night he'll hurt you 'fore he realizes where he's at."



Two photos of the torpedo damage to USS Alhena AK-26/AKA-9 at Guadalcanal, from Navsource.





And to get weirder, after she was torpedoed by I-4, the USS Monnsen took her in tow!
"She was unable to make any headway and drifted throughout the night and the next day. Monssen (DD-436) came alongside on 1 October and took Alhena in tow."

I didn't mention it in earlier posts but the gallant USS Monnsen was lost on the night 0f 12/13 November during the first Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

 

To go a little further back in history, the British in WWI developed the X-lighter, about 100' long, with a bow ramp somewhat like the LCPR, mainly suitable for men or horses, not aware of them being used for vehicles. They're mentioned in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_craft along with some other early examples.

Between the wars they built a few Motor Landing Craft which were intended to carry light tanks Motor landing craft - Wikipedia ,ramped craft similar to LCMs and with an early waterjet propulsion system. Three of these were used at Narvik with the interesting variation that they were carried by a battleship, along with a few French H39 tanks. Boats and then tanks were offloaded using the ship's booms.

 

The Japanese were also early pioneers of landing craft, having good designs and using them in the 1930s.
Hopefully tom! is still around and can comment, but I found this wiki article to start

Daihatsu-class landing craft - Wikipedia