Untold Stories: One Marine Stood Against 1000s of Japanese at Guadalcanal
“Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, [Paige] manned his gun, and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire against the advancing hordes [of Japanese] until reinforcements finally arrived.”
One man who made the Corps proud that he claimed the title of Marine was Mitchell Paige. Today we honor all the brave US Marines who fought and died throughout our nation’s history, from 1775 up into our present day, including my great-uncle Bruce Webb, who died in Vietnam. There are countless stories of Marine heroism—from Fr. Capodanno the “Grunt Padre” to Chesty Puller to “Manila John” Basilone to Daniel Daly to the Monford Point Marines. But today I’m going to focus on Paige.
He was born in 1918 to Serbian immigrants as Mihajlo Pejic, and he was raised on American patriotism and stories of Serbian heroism, according to History Collection. From the time the young Pejic—who later anglicized his name—saw a parade of U.S. Marines, he knew what he wanted to do when he grew up. So great was his enthusiasm that he walked some 200 miles from his home in Pennsylvania to Baltimore, Maryland, and a Marine recruiting center. He enlisted on Sept. 1, 1939.
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The Japanese needed Guadalcanal to disrupt supply lines and communications, and the Americans couldn’t let that happen. …Marines were stranded without even all of their supplies and munitions as the Japanese brought in reinforcements and aimed to retake the airfield. The airmen and Marines in Guadalcanal soon found themselves in a desperate weeks-long fight that History Collection calls “sheer hell.”
The American high command was considering giving Guadalcanal up for lost. As War History Online said, “If that was what they wanted, they should not have sent in more Marines or Mitchell Paige.” The 7th Marines under legendary Chesty Puller arrived, and Paige with them. Puller once famously said, “All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time.” That seems to describe Paige’s attitude too in the following conflict.
Paige noticed from his foxhole on Oct. 25 that a “massive line of assembly lights” was visible in the forest. … But by 2 am, the Japanese were only a few hundred yards away. So Paige crawled from one US machine gun to the next, warning his unit…. Following the first attack, the Japanese swept the American left flank. In the dark, Paige suddenly realized he was the only Marine from his company still manning his machine gun line.
Alone, surrounded by a vicious enemy, his gun shot from under him, Paige didn’t back down. US Marine Mitchell Paige was supposed to hold the line, and that’s what he was doing, even with no one else to help him.
History Collection explains, “Paige found himself manning a machine gun position by himself, that was surrounded by an entire Japanese regiment. … Paige was facing an estimated 2,500+ Japanese opponents.
He found and commandeered a gun from the different company. He also found some riflemen, … But with the help of the riflemen and several wounded Marines, Paige had gotten to his objective: a machine gun.
Paige’s last stand found the Marine alternating between four machine guns…“During that stretch, he singlehandedly broke a Japanese attack that threatened his battalion’s command post.” But that wasn’t all—Paige also charged down a hill to disrupt a Japanese regrouping.
War History Online:
“During this final stand, Paige swung his gun and fired at a group of Imperial soldiers who had overrun his position. Shooting into their backs, he was able to stop them before they could crest the hill and make their way to the battalion command post.
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When the charge reached the bottom of the hill, there was nothing left for them to shoot. Ten hours after the initial charge, Mitchell Paige was still holding the line.”
Reinforcements arrived. In February 1943, the Japanese finally evacuated Guadalcanal, ultimately leading to multiple Allied victories in the Solomon Islands. For a few hours, the fate of the war in the Solomon Islands, perhaps the war against the Japanese, rested upon one man—one Marine. And that Marine held the line.
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