Quote Originally Posted by Tuna View Post
Total through August 1942 when the battle for Guadalcanal started was 11708.
That's a bit of a strawman. Unless you're talking pipe tobacco for MacArthur or salve for Halsey's skin ailment, chances are virtually nil that any item made it half way around the world from the factory to an active theater in a few weeks - especially so in the desperate days of 1942 where shipping was frequently the greatest constraint. No amazon.com for troopies in those days.

As to the Guadalcanal carbine anecdotes of other posters: am I the only one who understands that Guadalcanal was occupied continuously from Aug 7, '42 'til at least June '45? As the rollup of SW Pacific bases gathered steam, the garrison on Guadalcanal dropped from about 20,000 in March '45 to just under 5,000 by the end of June. On the latter date, a report shows more carbines on the island than personnel. Without a date, such stories are useless in answering our trivia question (that expanded from the OP's question about action in Oct '42).

As to questions about when the marines or navy got this or that piece of equipment, unsourced claims are similarly useless, no matter how boldly asserted.