 After delivering more forces during the next month the Japanese mounted a major ground offensive on <unk> , led by <unk> , in late October 1942 at the Battle for Henderson Field , but it resulted in an even more decisive defeat for the Japanese . <unk> later stated that <unk> 's assault on the ridge in September was the only time during the entire campaign he had doubts about the outcome and that had it succeeded , " we would have been in a pretty bad condition . " Historian Richard B. Frank adds , " The Japanese never came closer to victory on the island itself than in September 1942 , on a ridge <unk> up from the jungle just south of the critical airfield , best known ever after as Bloody Ridge . " 
