The Last Belt: Mitchell Paige and the Ridge at Guadalcanal

I. The Edge of Defeat

At 11:20 AM on October 26th, 1942, Private First Class Mitchell Paige fired the last belt of ammunition through his Browning .30 caliber machine gun. For nine hours, he had clung to a battered ridge south of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, fighting off wave after wave of Japanese attacks. His squad was gone—every man killed or evacuated. Paige was alone, surrounded, and out of ammunition. Thirty yards away, Japanese soldiers advanced, their victory almost certain.

Paige had no rifle. No grenades. Just a .45 caliber pistol and seven rounds. The airfield behind him—the key to controlling the Solomon Islands—was at risk. If the ridge fell, Henderson Field would fall. Guadalcanal would fall. The Allies would be cut off. Australia would be isolated. Paige did not retreat.

He crawled from his pit and scavenged a Japanese Nambu Type 92 machine gun from a dead enemy. He found ammunition among the bodies and turned the weapon against its former owners. For the next three days, Paige held the ridge using only enemy weapons, fighting alone, refusing to surrender.

II. Born for Battle

Mitchell Paige was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, in 1918. He grew up in a world of hard work and discipline, values that would serve him well. At eighteen, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, completed training at Parris Island, and was assigned to the Fourth Marines in Shanghai, China. There, Paige learned infantry tactics, weapons, and survival. He qualified as expert with the M1 Garand rifle and the Browning .30 caliber machine gun, earning his promotion to Private First Class in 1939.

Transferred to Pearl Harbor in 1940, Paige was present when the Japanese attacked on December 7th, 1941. His unit defended the perimeter, but did not engage directly. For eight months, Paige trained for amphibious operations, mastering the skills that would soon be tested in the Pacific’s deadliest battles.

III. Guadalcanal: The Crucible

In August 1942, Paige joined the Seventh Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, as a machine gun squad leader. The division was preparing to invade Guadalcanal, a strategic island where the Japanese were building an airfield. If completed, Japanese bombers could threaten the sea lanes between America and Australia.

The First Marine Division landed on August 7th, capturing the airfield—renamed Henderson Field. But the Japanese counterattacked, landing reinforcements nightly and launching waves of assaults to retake the field. The Seventh Marines arrived on September 18th to reinforce the defensive perimeter.

Paige’s Company H was assigned to a ridge south of the airfield—a critical position overlooking a ravine and jungle. Intelligence warned the Japanese would attack from this direction. Paige’s squad dug in, building a three-foot-deep, six-foot-wide pit for the Browning machine gun, fortifying it with logs and sandbags, and preparing fields of fire. By October 24th, the position was ready: 3,200 rounds of ammunition, eight grenades, six M1 Garands, and Paige’s .45 pistol.

IV. The Assault

On October 25th, intelligence reported a massive Japanese force—5,000 to 7,000 soldiers—moving toward the southern perimeter. Their plan: attack at night, break through American lines, and capture Henderson Field. If they succeeded, Allied ships would be driven away, and the Marines would be destroyed.

The attack began at 2:30 AM on October 26th. Japanese artillery and mortar fire battered the Marine positions for thirty minutes, then infantry advanced in screaming waves. Paige’s machine gun opened fire, mowing down attackers at 50 to 200 yards. The Browning’s long bursts cut through the densest concentrations, but the Japanese kept coming.

Hours passed. At 5:15 AM, a mortar round wounded two of Paige’s ammunition carriers. They were evacuated. At 6:30 AM, another round killed the assistant gunner and wounded another carrier. Paige and Private John Totman remained. At 7:45 AM, Japanese infantry broke through the Marine line 100 yards to the right, cutting off Paige and Totman. Retreat meant disaster; Paige stayed and fought.

The machine gun overheated. Steam vented from the water jacket. Paige poured water from his canteen to keep the gun firing. At 9:20 AM, Totman was killed by rifle fire. Paige was alone. With four belts left, he fired in short bursts, targeting leaders and the closest enemies.

At 10:35 AM, Paige fired his last belt. The machine gun was empty. Japanese soldiers saw the gun stop and advanced. Paige drew his .45, firing seven rounds—five hits, two misses. The pistol was empty. Surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned, Paige faced a hopeless tactical situation.

V. The Weapons of the Fallen

Paige assessed his position. Dead Japanese soldiers lay within fifteen yards, their weapons scattered. Crawling to the nearest body, Paige took a Type 99 Arisaka rifle and forty rounds. He returned to his pit, loaded the bolt-action rifle, and fired, dropping enemy soldiers with each shot.

He exhausted the ammunition, then crawled to another body, finding a Type 100 submachine gun and three magazines. Paige had never fired this weapon, but its operation was simple. He loaded a magazine and fired a test burst. The weapon worked.

Japanese soldiers regrouped sixty yards away, preparing another assault. Paige moved to a new position behind a fallen tree, avoiding detection. At 11:05 AM, the Japanese attacked. Paige waited until they were forty yards away, then fired the Type 100 on full automatic. Three fell instantly. He reloaded and fired again, two more down. The Japanese returned fire, bullets striking the tree. Paige stayed low, firing his last magazine as the attackers closed to twenty-five yards.

He crawled to another dead soldier, finding a Type 92 Nambu machine gun with two magazines. Paige set up the weapon, firing at advancing Japanese. The machine gun rattled, dropping more attackers. The thirty-round magazine emptied in thirty seconds. Paige reloaded, firing again. The Japanese attack faltered and retreated.

For the next three hours, Paige scavenged weapons and ammunition, finding another Type 99 rifle, grenades, and a second Type 100 submachine gun. He positioned these weapons at various locations, creating the illusion that multiple Marines defended the ridge.

VI. Alone Against the Horde

At 2:30 PM, the Japanese attacked again—forty soldiers moving up the slope. Paige engaged from his original pit with the Type 92, then moved to a new position, firing the Type 100, then moved again. The Japanese, confused by fire from multiple directions, believed they faced a strong defense. The attack was repulsed after twenty minutes. Paige killed seven more attackers, using enemy weapons more effectively than their owners.

At 5:00 PM, as the sun set, Paige heard American voices. A Marine patrol from Company G arrived, sent to investigate the silent left flank. The commander had assumed Paige’s position was overrun. Instead, they found Paige alive, wounded, surrounded by dead Japanese, weapons, and spent ammunition.

Shrapnel from a grenade had hit Paige’s arm and shoulder, but adrenaline kept him fighting. The patrol leader asked where his squad was. Paige replied, “They’re dead.” He had fought alone for eight hours. The lieutenant insisted Paige needed medical attention, but Paige refused, warning that the Japanese would attack again after dark.

At 6:15 PM, a rifle platoon arrived to reinforce the position. Paige briefed the platoon sergeant, described the terrain, Japanese approach routes, and showed how to operate the Type 92. Then, finally, Paige was evacuated to the battalion aid station.

VII. The Night Holds

Medical personnel treated Paige’s wounds, cleaned and bandaged them, and gave him morphine. He refused to rest, insisting the Japanese would attack again. At 10:30 PM, firing erupted on the ridge. Paige left the aid station without permission and returned to his position.

The rifle platoon was engaged in heavy fighting, running low on ammunition. Paige manned a .30 caliber machine gun, firing at attackers in the darkness. When the gun was empty, he picked up a rifle and continued fighting. The battle lasted until 3:00 AM on October 27th. The Japanese withdrew. The Marines held.

Paige remained at the position for two more days. The Japanese launched four more attacks on October 27th and 28th. Each was repulsed. By October 29th, the Japanese suffered catastrophic casualties and withdrew. The battle for Henderson Field was over. The Marines had held.

VIII. The Medal and the Truth

During the battle, Paige fired thousands of rounds using both American and Japanese weapons. He killed thirty-eight Japanese soldiers, most with enemy weapons. His actions prevented the Japanese from breaking through and capturing Henderson Field.

The battalion commander submitted Paige for the Medal of Honor, which he received on May 21st, 1943, in San Francisco. The citation praised his extraordinary heroism, gallantry, and leadership, noting he continued to direct fire until all his men were killed or wounded, fought alone, and led a bayonet charge. But the citation did not mention Paige’s use of Japanese weapons or the technical details of his resourcefulness.

Captain Lewis B. Dida, Paige’s company commander, wrote a separate, classified report detailing how Paige scavenged enemy weapons and ammunition, holding his position for eight hours. The Marine Corps kept this report secret, unwilling to publicize that a Medal of Honor recipient had been forced to use enemy weapons due to supply failures.

IX. Legacy and Lessons

After the war, Paige was promoted to platoon sergeant and assigned to training duties at Camp Pendleton. He taught lessons learned at Guadalcanal: fire discipline, ammunition management, position selection, and the importance of knowing how to operate enemy weapons.

In 1945, Paige requested a transfer to a combat unit, joining the Second Marine Division for the battle of Okinawa. He participated in mopping-up operations, then returned home in December 1945, discharged as a master sergeant. He married, raised four children, and worked in a steel mill. Paige rarely spoke of Guadalcanal, and his family knew little of the details.

In 1960, a Marine Corps historian contacted Paige while researching the Guadalcanal campaign. The historian had read Captain Dida’s report and wanted to interview Paige about his use of Japanese weapons. Over three days, Paige described scavenging weapons, operating the Type 92 machine gun, Type 100 submachine gun, and Type 99 rifle. He explained that using enemy weapons was common when American ammunition ran out or when Japanese weapons were better suited to the situation.

Paige said any competent soldier could figure out the enemy’s weapons in minutes. The Type 92 was easier to operate than the Browning, the Type 100 was reliable, and the Type 99 rifle was well made. The only challenge was ammunition, which was not interchangeable. Paige used only what he could scavenge.

The historian asked how many Japanese Paige killed with enemy weapons. Paige said he did not count during the battle, but after, Marines counted thirty-eight bodies around his position. Ten to fifteen were killed with American weapons, the rest with Japanese arms.

X. Recognition and Memory

The historian’s book, published in 1962, included a chapter on Paige’s actions, “Fighting with Enemy Weapons.” It received praise from military historians but did not reach a wide audience. In 1987, the Marine Corps declassified Captain Dida’s report. Historians wrote articles about Paige’s use of Japanese weapons, bringing this aspect of his Medal of Honor action to light.

In 2000, Paige spoke at the Marine Corps Heritage Center in Quantico, Virginia, to an audience of Marines, historians, and veterans. He described the Japanese attacks, the loss of his squad, and his decision to use enemy weapons. Asked if he’d been trained to use Japanese weapons, Paige replied no—he learned by necessity. “When you’re surrounded and out of ammunition, you learn fast.”

Asked if modern Marines should train on enemy weapons, Paige said yes. “You never know what situation you’ll face in combat. You might be cut off. You might run out of ammunition. You might need to use whatever weapons are available. If you don’t know how to operate those weapons, you die.”

XI. The Final Salute

Mitchell Paige died on November 15th, 2003, at age eighty-five. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His Medal of Honor was displayed at his funeral, attended by more than five hundred Marines. The Commandant of the Marine Corps delivered the eulogy, describing Paige’s actions at Guadalcanal, including his use of Japanese weapons to hold his position for eight hours alone.

After the funeral, the Marine Corps updated its training curriculum. All machine gun crews now receive familiarization training on foreign weapons—operation, maintenance, and ammunition identification for the most common adversary arms. The course is named in honor of Mitchell Paige.

The Marine Corps Museum at Quantico has a display dedicated to Paige’s actions at Guadalcanal. It includes a Japanese Type 92 machine gun, Type 100 submachine gun, and Type 99 rifle—examples of the weapons Paige used. A plaque describes how he scavenged enemy arms and used them to defend his position. It concludes: “Private First Class Paige demonstrated that a Marine fights with whatever weapons are available. When American ammunition ran out, he used enemy weapons. When those ran out, he would have used rocks. A Marine never quits.”

XII. The Lesson

Mitchell Paige was a machine gunner who ran out of ammunition and kept fighting. A Marine who was surrounded and cut off but refused to retreat. A soldier who used his enemy’s weapons against them for three days because he had no other choice. Paige killed thirty-eight Japanese soldiers at Guadalcanal, most with Japanese weapons.

He proved that in combat, the weapon does not matter as much as the man using it. A trained soldier can fight with any weapon. A determined soldier will fight with whatever is available.

That is the lesson of Mitchell Paige: adaptability, resourcefulness, determination. When the situation changes, you change. When your weapons fail, you find new weapons. When you are alone and surrounded, you keep fighting.

XIII. Epilogue

Mitchell Paige’s story is more than a tale of heroism. It is a testament to the spirit of the Marine Corps and the enduring truth that courage, ingenuity, and willpower can turn the tide of battle. His actions saved Henderson Field and, perhaps, the entire campaign for Guadalcanal.

Today, Marines across the world learn from Paige’s example—not just how to fight, but how to adapt, improvise, and overcome. His legacy lives on in every Marine who refuses to quit, no matter the odds.

And in the halls of the Marine Corps Museum, among the rifles and machine guns that once belonged to the enemy, the story of Mitchell Paige endures—a reminder that sometimes, the greatest weapon is the will to never give up.