August 21, 1942 – Guadalcanal: "Remember that we didn't start this war, but we are going to end it to our own liking." Armed with those words, the men of the 1st Marine Division landed on the island of Guadalcanal to seize its strategic airfield. Japan sent the elite Ichiki Regiment to dislodge them. Now, on August 21, the clash has come. After midnight, on the banks of Alligator Creek, the Marines pour a "wall of fire" into assault after assault of Japanese soldiers. By dawn, the attack would be shattered, and 800 of Ichiki's men would lay dead, the first major land defeat of Japanese forces. As one Marine corporal quipped: "They ain't supermen."