 September 18, 1942, 43 days after the start of the Guadalcanal campaign, Marines from the 7th Marine Regiment arrived to Guadalcanal and instantly jumped into action. Major General Alexander Vandergrift wanted to conduct a counter-offensive to push west past the Montenacal River, a strategic area heavily guarded by the Japanese. General Vandergrift's original strategy was for the 1st Marine Raiders, along with the 5th and 7th Marine Regiments, to attack from the east along the river, while three companies from the 7th attempt to attack from the rear. On September 23, Vandergrift began his attack, but every attempt across the river, the Marines were pushed back, causing a 10-day stalemate. The stalemate came to an end after the Japanese were ordered to attack the Marines on October 7. After the two days of Japanese attacks, the Marines crossed the river, but no Japanese were found. The reason for this was because the Japanese already moved west into a ravine, that they felt was a good defensive position against any attack, especially from the coast. Yeah, not so much. The Marines with massive artillery firepower, along with well-placed machine gun fire, killed almost 700 Japanese soldiers at the ravine. That's almost six times more than the number of Marines lost over the entire battle. The strategy and bravery shown by the Marines at the ravine turned the tide, ending in an American victory.