Evening star., 1942-09-30
BY TOM YARBROUGH,

BY TOM YARBROUGH,
Associated Press War Correspondent.
AT SEA OFF THE SOLOMON
ISLANDS, Sept. Is Delayed. -
United States Marines have JUS
finished beating off a powerful Japa
nese offensive aimed at the Guadal.
canal Island airdrome - the very
heart and soul of power in tn,
entire Solomon Islands group.
When this ship pulled out, Amer
lean defenders, without sleep foi
two nights and two days, had re-
pulsed wave after wave of attacking
troops with rifle and machine-gun
fire. It remained to be seen whether
the Japanese, standing bold and
stubborn in undetermined numbers
on three sides of the airdrome by
the sea, would launch another
assault after dark the third night
possibly with reinforcements from
the sea.
The japanese must have been
counting on such reinforcements
and the United States Navy must
have intercepted them, for the word
comes now that the japanese have
practically ceased fire and that the
footsore, tired and sleepy marines
are holding their lines.
1t was rough fight and no words
OF praise are too high for those men
and boys who stood and slugged it
out through the long hours Of the
night.
Had Rusty POcketknife.
At the peak of the fighting the
Japanese had advanced within 200
yards of spot in the woods where
our little group of correspondents
listened and watched. Enemy snip
ers were in the trees and underbrush
all around us, firing continually. 1t
was a bad time to be armed with
nothing but rusty pocketknife.
Now, after good nights sleep
and couple of good meals, it Is
possible to see the whole thing more
effectively.
This is Tuesday. The fighting
started Saturday night.
At dusk we had a conference with
Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner,
commander of the South Pacific am
phibian force, and Maj. Gen. Alex
ander A. Vandegrift, commander OF
the marines. Admiral Turner, like
any other admiral, refused to talk
about the future in specific terms,
but said: 'It will be tougher before
1t gets better"
Asked if it would be healthy for
a correspondent to stick around, he
said: IF you like 1t hot, yes"
A little later Lit. Col. Merrill s.
Twining came by and said with a
merry grin: I'VE might be able to
cook up a little excitement for you
tonight"
Slept With Shoes On.
Having learned to take hint, we
went to our hard, fiat hunks to get
as much rest as possible before the
show started.
1t was shoes on" that night. All
was soon quiet in the press tent, but
we had dozed only about an hour
when yellow flare lit the sky In the
direction of the sea.
A corporal stuck his head In the
tent and said quietly:
We expect naval gunfire. Go up
the ridge and take cover"
Pretty soon shells started coming,
1t was a clear night, with stars
twinkling in the sky. Parakeets and
cockatoos had gone to roost and the
only sounds were of quiet voices and
shells-a distant boom as they left
the Japanese ships, then whiz, and
then bang.
We lay fiat on our stomach anc
didn't care much about ants anc
other crawling things that shared
the ground with us.
With the brassiest impudence al
their command, the Japanese usee
their ships searchlights freely, pok.
ing the beam around on all sides
One OF them stopped few seconds
on a tree below which I was lying
Shells promptly came closer and !
moved to foxhole a bit farther
down the way.
The bombardment lasted IS min.
utes, but as far as We could tell il
did no harm.
Jap Troops Move Up.
We were facing the sea on tn,
north side of Guadalcanal Island
When the bombardment lifted ther,
was a sudden burst of firing at ou
riaac
cracked and cracked with gradual,
increasing intensity.
In precise coordination with tn,
naval force that had slipped in
Japanese land forces had moved IL,
and were mixing it with our forwar,
lines. That continued about 9
minutes and was followed by NOR
flares. more searchlights and NOR
naval bombardment.
The second shelling was more in
tense, but didn't last as long a
the first. When the shelling stopped
the firing in the woods back of u
boiled up again and continued in
termittently the rest of the night
Now and then We could hear tn
Japanese naval guns resume thei
6re in the distance, but did nc
hear the shells whistle or burs
They were after some target il
another direction-possibly Tulae
Island ABOUT 20 miles across tn
way
Dawn Brings Raid Warning.
A single enemy plane kept fly
ing over us back and forth. A
long as it was around there wa
no sleep because it probably wa
spotting for naval guns.
BY this time a secondary line ha
been formed and it was dangerou
to walk around Men were lyin
fat, lingering their guns and keep
ing their ears and eyes sharp fc
snipers. Word was passed tbs
some japanese had filtered through
The nightly chill had set in, bu
those who had not brought JACKIE
Just had TO take 1t because it wa
not safe to go back to the pres
tent on account of snipers. ]
spite of the chill some of us lay O
the ground and caught maps whe
the small arms fire in the wooc
let up. We pondered the fact ths
it was only about four hours unit