Meanwhile, Munro withdrew his boats to Lunga Point as ordered, carrying with him injured sailors and Marines, among them Navy coxswain Samuel B. Roberts, who had been mortally wounded while using his landing craft to draw Japanese fire away from the Marines. Meanwhile, the U.S. Marine Corps landing force came under attack in a Japanese counter-offensive and quickly found itself encircled on a hill. With the Marines in danger of being overrun, "Monssen" opened fire on the Japanese positions with her caliber guns, managing to clear a narrow corridor to the beach. Using "Monssen"s signal lamp, Puller ordered the Marines to fight their way to the shore. At Lunga Point, the landing craft were instructed to return and extract the besieged Marines. Commander Dexter asked Munro and Evans if they would take charge of the mission, to which Munro answered, "Hell yes!" As the boats under Munro's charge approached the recovery points, they came under heavy fire from Japanese forces at a ridge abandoned by the Marines. Munro used a .30 caliber machine gun aboard his landing craft to direct suppressing fire against the Japanese positions as the other boats recovered the American forces. With Japanese troops moving against the beach, Munro piloted his boat closer to shore to act as a shield. Though the initial extraction was successful, one of the LCTs became grounded on a sandbar. Munro directed the other LCT to help extricate the grounded vessel as he maneuvered his own boat to shield the Marines from Japanese fire from the shore. Munro was shot in the base of his skull and lost consciousness. The LCT was ultimately freed and the boats resumed their withdrawal. When out of range of Japanese forces, Munro briefly regained consciousness before succumbing to his wounds. According to Evans, his dying words were, "Did they get off?" Evans said later that "... seeing my affirmative nod, he smiled with that smile I knew and liked so well, and then he was gone". Munro was buried on September 28, 1942, the day after his death, on Guadalcanal. In a letter to James Munro, Hurlbut described Munro's grave as being marked by a wooden cross constructed by Evans. According to Munro's biographer, Williams, the public details of Munro's actions were first chronicled in "The Seattle Times" on October 15, 1942, though initial reports did not reveal Munro had been killed in action.