John Basilone gets all of the publicity but this Marine deserves the same.
Video from the Medal of Honor Society: link
Personal Interview: YouTube link
Battle narrative:
The Japanese struck Hanneken's battalion at 3 AM on October 26. Company F was hardest hit. Vicious hand-to-hand fighting erupted on the battalion's front line as the Japanese tried to dislodge them from the ridge.
When a Japanese soldier thrust his bayonet at Paige's head, the sergeant threw up his left hand to block it. The razor-sharp blade cut deeply into his hand, nearly severing his fingers. In a lightning move, Paige drove his Ka-Bar knife into his attacker's neck, killing him instantly.
During the fighting, the two Marine rifle companies positioned behind Paige's platoon withdrew a short distance, isolating and exposing Paige's machine gunners. The repeated charges by the wild-eyed, bayonet-wielding Japanese took a heavy toll on the 2nd Battalion in the hours before sunrise.
When one of the machine guns was damaged beyond use, Paige braved enemy fire to bring up another one. The members of Paige's section fought valiantly, but the Japanese managed to kill or severely wound all of the men in the platoon expect Paige. In the third hour of the battle, Paige ran back and forth from one machine gun to the next in the darkness to deceive the Japanese into believing that there were still a lot of Marines on the ridge.
The Japanese ultimately succeeded in driving Company F from its position. As the Japanese swept past him, Paige remained at one of the guns. He swiveled it to the left and right, firing into shadowy figures that swept past his position.
The first flicker of dawn occurred after three hours of frenzied combat. The light of morning revealed a landscape blanketed with the dead and wounded bodies of American and Japanese soldiers. A lull settled over the battlefield at sunrise as Japanese officers rallied their men for a final assault.
Paige said the Japanese knew the lay of the land east of the Matanikau River very well and had a clear plan in mind when they made their attack. "They were hoping they could catch the Marines someday in a position like this where they could break through with enough people," he said. "There were no obstacles behind me," he said, adding that it was "just a straight shot through the coconut trees right down to the beach road."
Paige devised a plan for deceiving the Japanese into believing that American reinforcements were on hand. He draped two cartridge belts over his shoulder, and with one cartridge belt in his Browning machine gun, he unclamped it. Cradling his machine gun in his left hand, he charged down the hill. Before he did so, though, he shouted, "Fix bayonets and follow me!" to the Marines of Company G to his right rear. Paige then charged down the hill toward the Japanese firing his Browning machine gun from the hip as he went.
Paige spotted a Japanese officer and his guards standing up in the kunai grass below him. "He was firing at me as I was charging at him. He had probably as many as 18 men with him…. As I bounced down the hill I raked them and they all fell over." The officer, though, remained standing.
"The Japanese officer had exhausted his ammunition," Paige recalled. "He threw his revolver to the deck, and he started to pull his samurai sword as I approached him from about four feet away. One burst of the machine gun came right down his face and chest and as his samurai sword started out, [it] hit the sword and the scabbard."
At that time, the Marines to his right rear came charging down the hill with fixed bayonets. The executive officer of the 2/7 had scraped together rear-echelon troops and along with Marines from Company G, the Americans launched a counterattack, driving the Japanese back into the jungle. By that time, they knew the Japanese attack had been defeated and were yelling with joy. "It was the greatest sight I have ever seen in my life," Paige said. Ninety-eight Japanese dead lay on the ridge and another 200 in the ravine.
The Japanese decided in late December to withdraw from Guadalcanal. The extraction was handled skillfully in the first week of February 1943. As many as 10,000 Japanese soldiers were loaded onto destroyers and removed to safety. During the Battle of Guadalcanal the Japanese lost 25,000 men compared to 1,700 American dead.
After Guadalcanal was secured in February 1943, Paige was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to Australia. Vandergrift presented him with the Medal of Honor on May 21, 1943.
In addition to the usual accolades set forth in a Medal of Honor narrative for "extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action above and beyond the call of duty," Paige's citation mentioned that he had continued fighting with "fearless determination" after his gunners were all either killed or wounded. It described how he had shifted from one gun to another while maintaining a "withering fire against the advancing hordes until reinforcements finally arrived." Lastly, it noted how he had spearheaded a bayonet charge that resulted in the Japanese withdrawal from his battalion's sector. His valor was a reflection of the courage and bravery shown by the thousands of Marines who conquered Guadalcanal.
Semper Fi
Wolfhag
