The Daily Alaska empire., 1942-10-15

when the first wave of Marines landed on Tulagi We could hear destroyers pumping high explosives into the beach. Then the barrage lifted, the Marines landed, and tiny South Sea Island became the first battlefield in Americas first offensive in World War IT.
 Already tank lighters were pulling up with their iron monsters Am phibian tractors, which the Marines call "alligators," chugged ashore, equally at home on land or water. A steady stream of Marines was pouring out of the boats. By lO45 Combat Group B, under Colonel C.. B. Gates, was landing and lining up for it's advance to the southwest. Scattered rifle shots marked the advance of the Marines as they famed out through the tall grass and coconut grove.
 We counted on the laps arriving to bomb us about noon, figuring it would take that long for them to organize a flight of bombers in Rabaul and fly them down to'Guad- alcanal. Our guess was only a few hours off; in mid-afternoon burst ing bombs and a sky full of flax announced their arrival. Rising-sun bornbers attacked our ships in the roads, without hitting any. Sew eral were shot down An hour and half later the Japs attacked again with dive bombers this time They hit one of four destroyers. Two Japs more were shot down.
 First Advance Slow
 That first day advance was slow There were no contacts with the enemy, for their whereabouts was unknown (we later learned they had scurried to the hills and the thick grass and deep feeders of the Ilu River made a cautious advance imperative. At 1900 Headquarters arrived on the shore and set up Command Post in a palm grove south of the east branch of the Ilu. There we bivouacked for the night.
 On the second day August 8, the Marines on Guadalcanal pushed westward to take possession of the big new airfield which the Japs had obligingly built for us and to occupy and defend the area around Lunga Point. Combat Groups A and B completed the operation during the day, meeting no resistance until one group reached Kukum There south of the area occupied by the Marines, they ran into snipers and machineguns in dugouts manned by Japanese. The area was quickly mopped up, but nightly Jap patrols slip into our lines.
 It became apparent after the first day that the Jap forces in the Lunga area had run to the hills when the American onslaught be- gan on August 2. AS we moved into the camps we found evidence that they had left in hurry Meals were still on the table, personal gear was tossed in all directions, valuable equipment was left intact. Ammuni- ton dumps, Pompoms, artillery. fuel, radio equipment, trucks, cars, re- frigerating equipment, road-rollers, electric power plant-all were found as the Japs had set them up and used them, except for the damage done by naval gunfire and bombing. A fine airport, with runway 14O0 yards long already completed, was almost ready to receive planes.
 At noon on the 9th our visitors in the sky returned, this time bent on daring raid. As our transports dispersed out to the open sea the Jap bombers came in. Almost skim ming the waves they lunged in among the transports and cargo ships. I was watching from the beach of Guadalcanal and saw the big bombers burst into flames as they ran into murderous anti-air- craft fire from the ships. One, two, three-then I lost count in the con- fusion of the battle. Some ran the gauntlet of ack-ack and headed for open sea, Snly to fall prey to our Navy fighters darting at them from high above. We heard that forty bombers had started on their mis- sion; we heard that only a few re- turned to their bases. Certainly their losses were enormous In their sui cidal raid over the strait they hit one of our transports. The Japs