 Believing that the Japanese might be retreating to the south coast of Guadalcanal , on the morning of 1 February Patch landed a reinforced battalion of army and Marine troops , about 1 @,@ 500 men under the command of Colonel Alexander George , at <unk> on Guadalcanal 's south coast . The U.S. troops were delivered to the landing location by a naval transport force of six landing craft tanks and one transport destroyer ( USS Stringham ) , escorted by four other destroyers ( the same destroyers that were to have joined TF 18 three days earlier ) . A Japanese reconnaissance aircraft spotted the naval landing force . Believing that the force posed a threat to that night 's scheduled evacuation run , an airstrike of 13 Aichi D3A2 " Val " dive bombers escorted by 40 Zeros departed Buin , Bougainville to attack the ships . 
