4851 Here’s Diana at the Guadalcanal American Memorial. The circle with the star has a plaque at its center honoring the unknown soldier. The block of granite at the right is the entry sign to the memorial. The one to the left is one of the monoliths listing the major battles of the campaign.
4854 This is the view down the valley from the memorial site, which is also the sight selected by the Marines to look at the Japanese troops.
4871 This is the hill down which Mitch Paige charged carrying his .30 Cal. machinegun, chasing the charging Japanese troops.
4900 This is the view from the Japanese observation post on the slope of Mount Austen. From this point you can see not only Henderson Field but both Fighter Fields 1 and 2. Not in the picture but visible is the port and our ship.
Nov 12 – At Sea. Today we will sail through important waters during WWII. For me one of the highlights of the day was sailing past Bougainville, the sight of my father’s largest, second and last battle. I wish we were stopping but we’re not. It’s just a sail by but I did get to see it. It was in this area that coastwatchers, often in remote locations and on Japanese held islands, provided important and timely intelligence regarding the movements of Japanese navy, army and aircraft units during the battle.
Nov 13 – Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. That
Solomon Islands is a nation that consists of a large number of islands in Oceania lying to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu. It covers a land area of 11,000 square miles. The country's capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. We will be docking there. It’s part of the Solomon Islands archipelago, which includes Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island. All these islands are considered Melanesian
In 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit them He was a smart cookie and in order to get Spain to fund more expeditions he started the rumor that he was well on the way to finding Solomon’s Mines and that’s how the name came to be Islas Salomón. By 1893, the United Kingdom had established a protectorate over what was then known as "the Solomon Islands". During the WWII, the Solomon Islands campaign (1942–1945) saw fierce fighting between the United States and the Empire of Japan, such as in the Battle of Guadalcanal.
The island group became self-governing in 1976 and independent shortly thereafter, keeping the name Solomon Islands. They are a constitutional monarchy. You’ve probably heard of their present monarch, the Queen of Solomon Islands. She’s also known as Elizabeth II of Great Britain. I’ll bet you’ve never heard of their Prime Minister, Gordon Darcy.
Since the themes of this trip for me seem to be indigenous people and WWII, I think I’ll expand a bit on the events of 1942-1945 on or near Guadalcanal. When WWII started, most plantation owners and exporters were evacuated to Australia and those activities were terminated. Some of the most intense fighting of the war occurred in here. There were sea, air and land battles taking place over an extended period. Officially, as taken from the certificate awarding the battle streamer to the 6th Field Artillery, my Dad’s outfit, the Battle for Guadalcanal lasted from August 7, 1942 to February 9, 1943. This is the longest single battle fought by American troops and the first American land offensive in WWII as the ground fighting in Europe did not start until later. Simultaneous naval shelling and amphibious landings at Red Beach on Guadalcanal signaled the start of the battle. This was a pivotal point in WWII as the Japanese advances in the Pacific were halted and the Allies were finally able to go on the offensive.
Its position at the southern end of The Slot made Guadalcanal a prime location for staging operations in the Solomon Islands. I’m sure you’ve heard of Pappy Boyington and his Black Sheep, VMG-214, if only from the TV show “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. The dialog was full of references to both ‘The Slot’ and ‘Espiritu Santo’. The latter usually in a derogatory context because it was the HQ for Marine fighter units in the area. The Slot was the nickname for New Georgia Sound when the infamous ‘Tokyo Express used it to supply the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal. During the Battle for Guadalcanal, about 26,000 of the 36,000 Japanese troops on the island were killed or missing, 9,000 died of disease and the rest were captured.
The reason Guadalcanal was so important was that the Japanese had selected it as the site for a major airfield. Since they had the Allies on the run and had an impressive string of victories against them they became overconfident. Consequently most of the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal were engineers (about 3,000) accompanied by a small detachment of less than 300 soldiers.
I’ve decided that Guadalcanal means too much to me for me to remain in any way current with my journal so I’m starting a separate journal on Guadalcanal. The Guadalcanal Campaign was a wide-ranging affair involving numerous sea, air and land battles. I’m going to concentrate on the battle for the island. I’ll tell you the story of the Battle of Alligator Creek to illustrate how things can go in war and how they went in the South Pacific. There are a lot of similar stories in every campaign down here and probably those in Europe as well. There are several famous battles on Guadalcanal alone, Bloody Ridge, Hill 27, Mt Austen, The Matanikau River, Defense of Henderson Field, The Gifu (The heaviest fortified Japanese position on the island), Galloping Horse Hill and the Final Pursuit. These are just the major battles; many other smaller skirmishes took place. There’s always been a disagreement about which provided the toughest fighting conditions, the islands of the South Pacific with their thick jungles or the islands of the North Pacific like Iwo Jima with their rocky volcanic soil and lack of real cover. I think the diseases encountered in the south swing the decision to the south but that’s just personal opinion. Both conditions were terrible.
It should be noted here that the greatest enemy of a combat soldier in the South Pacific was the jungle and its inhabitants, mainly the insects, parasites and various diseases. For every two men killed in action, five were victims of disease and other non-combat related problems. My Dad was “pointed out” after the battle for Bougainville. (That is, he had accumulated enough ‘points’ to be sent home. Points accumulated for various things, time in the combat zone, actual days in battle, medals awarded, etc. Sort of like the mission limit for bomber pilots in Europe.) They tried to send him home after Guadalcanal because he had contracted a very bad case of malaria. He resisted being sent home because the rest of his outfit was staying. However, after Bougainville was secured, he had accumulated the necessary points and he had no choice. Home he went. He left 1.5 months before the end of the war and spent over 4 months in the hospital recuperating from the malaria. He had reoccurrences of it for over 20 years. He spent over three years in the area, hard to imagine in these hot, humid conditions.
On August 7, the assault on Guadalcanal began when the Marines landed at Red Beach, a crescent shape sandy area just east of the airfield the Japanese were building on the north coast of the island. They were worried about landing there because its shape would expose them to extremely dangerous fire from their flanks if the Japanese had developed defensive positions there. Intelligence had estimated that there were over 7,000 Japanese troops there. In reality, there were less than 300 Japanese soldiers on the island, the balance, about 3,000, were engineers working on the airfield. Since the ranking commander in the area was from the Navy, they went there anyway. It started out easily enough as the Marines hit Red Beach. Their worries proved unfounded. They waded ashore unopposed because when the Japanese saw the 11,000 Marines coming, they decided to run into the jungle and hills to wait for the Marines to leave. They also decided to abandon all their construction equipment and supplies where they stood. When the Marines came ashore, they moved towards the airfield and when they arrived found the bounty of Japanese equipment already in place. They would use this equipment and their own to complete the airfield.
I guess turnabout is fair play because Japanese intelligence about the US strength on the island was also wrong, but in the other direction. They underestimated the number of Marines that landed and sent less than a thousand reinforcements down The Slot, on the ‘Tokyo Express’, to land on the island. This gave them a force of about 1,200 soldiers and 3,000 engineers to face the Allies 11,000 Marines.
The first Japanese counter attack of the campaign took place on August 21. It’s officially called the Battle of Tenaru but it took place at the mouth of the Ilu River. When the Marines came ashore, they carried hastily hand-drawn maps that misidentified the Ilu as the Tenaru. By the time the error was discovered all the reports had been filed and in the days before word processors, the editing involved in correcting the name in all the reports would have been monumental so it remains the Battle of the Tenaru. Because there were so many of them in the river, the Marines called it Alligator Creek.
Before dawn on August 18, 200 Japanese attacked the Marine positions at the mouth of the river. Only a few of them made it across the river and they were driven back or killed. Japanese artillery fired on the Marine positions and the Marine’s artillery fired back.
The battle ended when a group of the Marines crossed the river upstream and launched an attack on the Japanese positions from their flank and rear. They took only 14 prisoners, the remainder of the Japanese detachment, over 800 men, were killed. The Marines lost 35. This battle ended the myth of Japanese invincibility that had grown strong when they had success after success prior to Guadalcanal.
Both sides continued to land reinforcements until the air operations from the island gave the Allies the edge in air superiority that allowed them to prevent further landings of troops by the Japanese.
If you’ve seen the movie ‘The Pride of the Marines’, you saw this battle depicted. Three men, Al Schmidt, Johnny Rivers and Lee Diamond were manning a machine gun on the east bank of the river almost at the beach. Johnny was killed nearly at the opening of hostilities but Al and Lee continued to man the gun. A Japanese mortar hit their position, disabled Lee’s hands, and blinded Al. They realized that between them they had one good pair of hands and two good eyes so, despite their injuries, Al continued to operate the gun while Lee directed his fire. They manned that gun until the end of the action. Each received the Navy Cross for their bravery and willingness to continue fighting even though badly injured. This is the second highest award the Marines can give. Only the Medal of Honor is higher. Mitchell Paige was awarded one for his actions near Mount Austin in Defense of Henderson Field later in this campaign.
Finally, we get to the tourism. As we disembarked the ship there were two local bands, one on either side of the gangway, taking turns playing and dancing. It was like a Guadalcanal Battle of the Bands. Our tour today was organized by a fellow passenger, Jim Allen. He has arranged for John Innes, a longtime resident of Guadalcanal, to come from his home in Australia to lead us on a tour of US battle sites on the island. John has written three guides to these sites on the island and has done years of research to find the exact locations and events of these battles including interviews with survivors, island residents who lived through it and official military reports. He has been extremely successful in his efforts and in the back of his book gives the latitude and longitude of the sites so you can easily find them if you can get to the island and hire a car.
Driving east along the shore to the Matanikau River, turned inland and went uphill to our first destination, The Guadalcanal American Memorial. John told us several stories about the memorial itself and its construction. The memorial was built using donations from private parties and with support from the Solomon Islands, US and Australian governments. A hilltop with a great view of several battle sites, Sea Horse, Galloping Horse, Savo Island, Iron Bottom Sound, and the Matanikau River, was selected. After the site was selected, they approached the island government about acquiring the land and were told that sadly they would have to pay for it. The price was $158. Of course, they quickly sent that amount but the check was later returned, uncashed, with a letter saying that the Solomon Islands government had donated the land to the people of America. There is about 80 tons of South Australian granite in the monoliths that have been carved with the history of the campaign. The granite was shipped to Guadalcanal free by the Royal Australian Navy.
However, the most interesting story was of the construction itself. While they were excavating for the base of the monument they discovered human remains. Further research showed that this spot was designated Hill 73 on the maps carried during the Marines invasion of the island. It is also the site where a combat patrol of Marines spent the night before the First Battle of Matanikau (Initially it was just the Battle of Matanikau, but there were several thereafter so it was given a number). The next morning the Japanese spotted the Marines and mortared the hilltop. The Marines suffered only one casualty, Sgt. John Branic. Could the remains be his? Short answer, they were and that was verified by DNA comparison to a surviving cousin. Branic was returned to the US and buried in Arlington National Cemetery almost exactly 64 years after he died on Guadalcanal. The memorial committee had selected the site for exactly the same reason as the Marines selected it in 1942 the view. The Marines’ selection was for tactical reasons, the committee’s for the beauty of the view. Amazing!
While we were at the memorial, Mr. Innes gave us an over view of the entire Guadalcanal Campaign, from the Invasion of Guadalcanal in August 1942 to the Japanese nighttime Evacuation in February 1943. In addition to all the land battles, there were seven naval battles large enough to be named including two carrier-air battles. His presentation was done in great detail and totally without notes. I guess that’s the advantage of over 20 years of research and investigation.
From the memorial, we proceeded back to the coast, crossed the Matanikau River and drove past the site of the WWII hospital, now the island’s main medical facility, to Wright Road where we again turned inland and uphill. On the way up, we paused at the ridge where Mitch Paige displayed his heroism. While his advance position was being overrun by the Japanese the night before, he had moved from machine gun to machine gun encouraging his men and firing at the advancing enemy. After being cut off behind the Japanese advance, he continued firing at them from behind. In the morning, he gathered some Marines near him and made his charge from behind enemy lines downhill. He was carrying his .30 Cal. Machine gun with bandoleers of ammo draped over his shoulders, toward the advancing Japanese from behind. Although his helmet was pierced several times by bullets he was unharmed, but in the process, he killed many of the Japanese from behind. Apparently, in the heat of battle they hardly noticed he was behind them and those who did were quickly killed.
We continued to the location on the North West side of Mount Austen, the site of the Japanese observation post. It was here that another of those hard to believe incidents occurred. Mount Austen was important because from their observation post there the Japanese could see all three US airfields, Henderson, Fighter 1 and Fighter 2 plus Iron Bottom Sound. Iron Bottom Sound (The ocean between Guadalcanal and the Florida Islands was so littered with sunken ships of all sorts that it was dubbed Iron Bottom Sound). This allowed them to observe Allied troop, aircraft or shipping movements. It was decided this observation post had to be eliminated and the task was given to the 2nd Marine Rader Battalion.
They embarked on the famous ‘Long Patrol’ in which the entire battalion, about 1,000 men, accompanied by about 250 Solomon Islander scouts and porters, spent 30 days behind enemy lines, chasing and fighting the Japanese whenever they could find them. Near the end of the patrol, they found themselves in the upper Lunga River area at the base of Mount Austen. A small scouting party was sent to check the fortifications at the observation post. They came back to report that they had found unoccupied Japanese foxholes there. Three hundred Marines were moved to take over the empty positions and wait to see what would happen. As luck would have it, the Japanese returned from a short foraging mission not realizing that the Marines had taken over their positions. Consequently, they walked directly into the trap. In a two-hour fight, all the Japanese were killed.
The Marines set up a defensive perimeter and began singing patriotic songs. The Solomon Islanders asked if they could join in the singing and the Marines said they could. The only song they all knew, the SI men had learned in church, Onward Christian Soldiers. This must have confused any Japanese that heard them, especially if they understood English. After another battle with the Japanese in the morning, the patrol returned to the US lines because they were running low on supplies and ammunition.
One Marine who was wounded in the battle at the summit was contacted by John Innes to be interviewed. He agreed and during the interview, John invited him come to Guadalcanal. He said he would if John could find the place where they sang that evening. John found it and in 1997 Bill Fisher returned to the site and identified not only that spot but also the spot where he was wounded. In 2006, Bill died and his wish was that his ashes would be sent back to that same spot to be scattered. That was done and once more the sound of Onward Christian Soldiers was heard on the mountain. This time it was sung by people from nearby Barana Village, members of the Solomon Islands military and police, the island’s Prime Minister and the USA Consul Agent. Six red poppies were placed at the site where he was buried to represent the six Marines who died in the battle and whose unrecovered remains are still on the mountain. Bill’s ashes were contained in an artillery shell that rested on an American flag. That flag was returned to the USA and presented to Bill’s widow. We stopped for a few moments at that site while John told us told us this story. That was one of the great features of this tour; we not only got the historical story but also the subsequent stories of the participants and places.
From the observation point, we drove back down to Barana Village the site of the Gifu. Here the villagers had set up tables with relics of WWII they’ve found while gardening or just walking around the area. There were mess kits, helmets grenades ammunition, personal items and canteens from both the Japanese and Allied military. There were bottles of all sorts of undetermined origin. Some of the Coke bottles were new but some were bottled in the USA. That was easy to determine because each bottler used to have his location molded into the bottom of each bottle.
From the village we walked along a narrow footpath to the peak of Mount Austen. The Japanese observation post that was taken by the Marines back in August was on the northwestern slope of the mountain. At that time, the Allies did not have sufficient numbers to hold the mountain and that’s why they returned to the secured beachhead. It is now December and more Marines have landed as well as the Tropic Lightning and Americal Divisions of the Army. The Allies planned a big offensive in January that made eliminating the Japanese presence from the mountain and the Gifu essential because any move they made would be observed from there. On December 8, the command of the Guadalcanal Campaign passed from the Marines to the Army. There was no evidence that the Japanese were on the mountain in any strength but the Gifu was on the opposite slope of the mountain and well behind Japanese lines.
Early reconnaissance discovered this heavily fortified position. In fact, it was the heaviest ever established on the island. It was a series of connected bunkers with interlaced lines of fire between them. After three successive attacks were repulsed, it was decided to try to flank the position and occupy the low hill behind the Gifu. In fact, the low hill, Hill 27, was not defended because the Japanese thought it was safely behind their lines. After cutting off the Japanese in the Gifu, they shelled the area and then brought in tanks. After that it was no contest, the Gifu was neutralized and Mount Austen secured.
From there we drove back to the water’s edge and crossed the Ilu River to see the site of the Battle of Tenaru or Alligator Creek. I’ve already talked about that battle so I’ll just say that seeing the tranquil beach and slow moving river give no clue to the desperate battle that took place there. One little story from our visit was that John told us that the family that lives nearby would love to have our empty water bottles. We had a collection of half and one-liter bottles that we gave to a young boy that was playing under the house. As we drove away, he was lining up the bottles with a big grin on his face. Very cool!
From there we drove to Henderson Field to use the bathrooms. We also took that opportunity to buy some drinks and snacks. The former military airbase is now the main airport for the island.
Our next stop was at Bloody Ridge one of the most famous battles in the campaign. It was another case of the guy at the top not knowing what’s actually happening. The General in command thought the Japanese would attack at the same place they did in the Battle of Tenaru. Two Colonels disagreed with him, his Chief of Staff and the Battalion Commander. They both thought the attack would take place at Bloody Ridge, then called merely Hills 1 and 2. The General prevailed and reinforced the troops at the Ilu River. Not only that, guess where he moved his headquarters. That’s right, to Hill 1. The two Colonels conspired to save the day by telling the General that several units of Marine Rangers and Paratroops, who had recently arrived on the island, has seen a lot of combat and were tired. They should be sent to a ‘rest area’. That rest area was Hill 1 also.
The Japanese attack came the very next day exactly where the Colonels said it would. The Marine Rangers and ‘Chutes’ were there to defend the headquarters geeks and could be heard saying, “Some f****** rest area!” up and down the firing line. The first attack was somewhat disorganized as the Japanese troops got lost in the jungle. It was not successful but the Japanese did capture three Americans and tortured them the rest of the night to intimidate the Marines. The next night the attack was better organized but the Marines had time to reorganize and committed two 105mm howitzers to support the Marines. When the attack came, the commander pulled his troops even further back and let their fire plus the cannon fire chew up the attacking Japanese. Some did manage to reach the Marine’s line but too few to be of any effect. In the end, it was another defeat for the Japanese.
We viewed Bloody Ridge from the top of Hill 2. Hill 1 was about a thousand yards away. Atop Hill 2 is a Japanese Memorial to the units that were wiped out here. When we arrived, there were some Japanese at the memorial burying something and having a ceremony. We were told it was a religious service so we moved to the front edge of the hilltop toward Hill 1 for our discussion. All along the edge of the hill you can see foxholes and trenches that could still be used as fighting positions. A little further down the hill are some steel pigtails with barbed wire still attached. Must have been USA wire because it’s rusty but it’s still there.
It’s been a long, almost 8 hours, hot day but very impressive presentation and a great learning experience.
As we returned to the ship, it was difficult to get to the gangway. A large crowd of locals had gathered on the pier to see us off. Not only our pier but also the next one over was brimming with people wanting to watch us sail. They had a band on the pier to play a farewell show for us and Diana and Isabel, from the Ukraine, could not resist running out and dancing to the music. The locals went wild, clapping, smiling and cheering as they danced. It was nice to visit a place where Americans are still appreciated. As we sailed out of the harbor they waved, smiled and yelled, “Come back again!” Honestly I’d love to but I doubt I will.
Our entertainer was Paul Brogan, an Irish Comic. He’s always very funny.
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