Carlson's patrol was an operation by the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion of
the U.S. Marine Corps under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Evans
Carlson. It took place from 6 November to 4 December 1942 during the
Guadalcanal Campaign, which aimed to deny the Imperial Japanese Army use
of the Solomon Islands as bases for threatening the supply routes
between the U.S. and Australia, and to assist the offensives against
Japan. In the operation, the 2nd Raiders attacked forces under the
command of Toshinari Shōji, which were escaping from an attempted
encirclement in the Koli Point area on Guadalcanal and attempting to
rejoin other Japanese army units on the opposite side of the U.S. Lunga
perimeter. In a series of small unit engagements over 29 days, the 2nd
Raiders (who had been trained to operate as a guerrilla force) killed
almost 500 Japanese soldiers while suffering only 16 killed. The
raiders also captured a Japanese artillery cannon (pictured) that was
delivering harassing gunfire on Henderson Field, the Allied airfield at
Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. Seventeen raiders were wounded, and many
others developed malaria, dysentery, or other illnesses; one lieutenant
said that the living conditions were worse than the combat.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson%27s_patrol>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1789:
Pope Pius VI appointed Father John Carroll as the first
Catholic bishop in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carroll_(bishop)>
1939:
As part of their plan to eradicate the Polish intellectual
elite, the Gestapo arrested 184 professors, students and employees of
Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderaktion_Krakau>
1963:
Nguyen Ngoc Tho was appointed to head the South Vietnamese
government by the military junta of General Duong Van Minh, five days
after the latter deposed and assassinated President Ngo Dinh Diem.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Ngoc_Tho>
1995:
Madagascar's Rova of Antananarivo, which served as the royal
palace from the 17th to 19th centuries, was destroyed by fire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rova_of_Antananarivo>
2004:
A man attempting to commit suicide parked his car on the
railway tracks in Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, England, causing a derailment
that killed seven people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufton_Nervet_rail_crash>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
presidentialness:
The quality of being presidential; suitability for the presidency.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/presidentialness>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I write to reach eternity.
--James Jones
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Jones>
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