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At daybreak on August 21st, Ichiki showed no signs of withdrawl, but in no condition to make another attack. With daylight was also resolved that there was no other Japanese unit available to make an assault. The decision to release the division reserve, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines was made. Reinforced by a platoon of light tanks, the battalion would cross Alligator Creek well inland and then sweep forward, outflanking the Japanese. Due to the terrain, the tanks would have to cross over the sandbar.

At about 0950 hours, first contact was made with Ichiki's detachment and, as the Marine report stated, made their "customary bayonet charge", following another newly-made Marine custom, the marines broke the attack and then closed in to kill the survivors. Steadily pushing forward and overcoming pockets of resistance, Ichiki's men were soon pushed into a little triangle by the mouth of the lagoon.

All morning long, the 2nd Battalion had been exchaning fire and picking off unwary Japanese. With the sounds of gradually increasing firing, the marines on the west bank soon saw parties of Japanese darting among the coconut trees, some dashed out onto the beach where they fell victim to the marines, or were strafed by aircraft. Others attempted to break out to the east, only to run headlong into Company C deployed in a blocking position.

The platoon of light tanks was soon sent over the sandbar at about 1500 hours and they cleared the beach and then swung into the coconut grove. Lacking antitank guns, the Japanese were reduced to confronting the tanks with grenades or magnetic antitank mines. One tank was disabled when a tread was blown off, but its crew was evacuated to the other tanks, who then resumed ravaging the grove. When the tanks returned back over the sandbar, Vandegrift later wrote, "the rear of the tanks looked like meat grinders".

In spite of the tank action, Japanese were still fighting in the grove. According to the Japanese Defense Agency official history, Colonel Ichiki burned the regimental colors and committed suicide. One Japanese survivor reports that he last saw Colonel Ichiki walking towards the front line, a trip from which he did not return, to the survivor's knowledge. This is entirely plausible and perhaps explains the paralysis that seems to have gripped the detachment after the failure of the night attack.

By 1700 hours, cautious patrols started across the sandbar and linked up with the 1st Battalion. Marines began to move onto the sandbar and the grove to gawk at what they had wrough and to collect survenirs while corpsmen moved among the bodies. But a number of Ichiki's men chose to use their last breaths in an attempt to kill one more American. They shot a few marines and one Japanese sergeant started a brief meeting of the commander of the 1st Marines and the commanders of the 1st and 2nd Battalions by discharging a pistol into their faces---without effect---before committing suicide. Seeing this as final evidence of Japanese treachery, the marines answer was brutally simple. Lining up on the banks of Alligator Creek, riflemen sent corpses twitching with round after round while other marines moved into the grove and along the beach, ensuring that all of Ichiki's men joined their commander in death.

During the battle, one Japanese soldier surrendered and twelve wounded soldiers, including one officer were taken prisoner. Marine losses totaled 44 killed and 71 wounded. Scattered along the beach, sandbar and the grove were the bodies of 777 Japanese. The marines also captured 10 heavy and 20 light machine guns, 700 rifles, 20 pistols, 2 70mm guns, 12 flamethrowers and a considerable quantity of demolitions equipment. They were particularly happer to relieve Ichiki's men of a large number of much needed shovels.

Between August 22nd and 29th, some 128 survivors of the Ichiki Detachment made their way back to Taivu Point. On the 22nd a radio message was sent, informing the 17th Area Army of the Ichiki's Deatchment "almost annihilated at a point short of the airfield". At first, this message was greeted with disbelief, not until the 25th, when a dispatch by the senior surviving officer, Lieutenant Sakakibara, was the extent of the disaster recognized.