The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-14

they went 10 CLlelr uOIlOEdpAS campaign
 | saw from the beach of Quadal- canal Island, standing in 6 cold drizzling rain, the grand and ter Eitle night battle between the United States and Australian warships and ! JapaheSe fleet.
 The Marines on the beach knew yell that their fate depended on Ehe outcome of the battle.
 The outcome was that at the cost Ws four cruisers the United States and Australian fleets protected the entire invasion transport fleet m ttis first big United Nations of- eensiye in the South Pacific.
 Not a ship, not single man m Nne invasion convoy was lost.
 Ydeut. Comdr. Henry B. Hene- berger. S0, of Winchester, Mass, whose wife lives at Newport, R. l., told the story of the battle as he sew 1t from aboard the Quincy where he was gunnery ofRcer. I am able to supplement it with what I saw from the Guada1Canal beach.
 It. was on the night of Aug. 8. - Hghe Marines had been ashore for one day. Everybody knew the Japs were going to attack. The convoy < was anchored in Lunga Bay, Spew- ing Out. its troops and spplies for the l, EolcmonS invasion. t Twenty miles away the little , American-A Australian fleet was on guard! f
 Two hours before the battle start ed T. was aboard the flagship of Rear Adm. R. K. Turner. I was the last man off his ship. l watched the smooth preparations made for g battle that, it was clear, was to be decisive.
 Adm. Turner sent me ashore with '& orders feT the beachmaster to clear of the Deach for the expected at- tack. Leaving the anxious gold braiders on the bridge, I showed oh ln cloudburst of rain.
 The fleet was deployed along . 25-mile stretch of the indispensable strait between Guadalcanal an6 Florida Islands, with Savo Island, 1( : square miles in area, lying in mid < channel at the western end.
 The convoy was sandwiched ir between protecting layers of war. ships, steaming slowly, one layer al each side of Savo Island, one guard. ing the western mouth, the othe1 the eastern mouth, so that the Jap anese would have to fight their way through to reach the troopshipS ant supply ships no matter from wha' Y direction they came.
 First Rumble of Guns @g A one-motored Japanese doa '. plane scared over the straits ana dropped flares. The next instant tn slky at the western end famed ans a few seconds later the first rumbl, of the cannonading reached tn beach where the Marines and sk stood silent in the rain, watchinl the warships belch smoke and f1am and pour their tons of steel at eacl other.
 Occasionally someone would asl his neighbor whether he though -, the Japanese would break through ' The drone of airplane motor = blended into the thunder of gun = when fleet of Japanese plane came over, dropping greenish-whit flares.
 The flares, the flame of the gun fire and the stabbing beams 0 searchlights lit up the islands wher . few years ago the natives wer among the worlds most primitive the high spots in their lives the oc casional feast of roasted enemy.
 Every minute the fire seemed t increase in intensity. W stood aw stricken. We saw the guns of tn allied fleet knocking out the enem searchlights.
 The Canberra burst into fam = and we heard explosions greate = than those of the guns. There wer ~. more explosions and other ship' which ones we could not tell ther epouted flames.
 @ Full Speed To Death
 There was 8 Hull. Then suddenl there was tremendous burst of fir from the eastern end of the strait 411C 4AotO1A& es1A4 tA4C b4A4NCAAAA%o WA going in to their death at full speec into the face of the enemy fleei Minutes seemed like hours befor the firing stopped. The gun flashe : dwindled and stopped. The plan = flares Sizzled out in the sea and tn = battle was over. The most import .- ant convoy, possibly, the the Unite
 States ever sent out, had been saved The Japanese had been beaten an the Marines were there to stay. Liutenant Commander Heneberge saw the battle from the forwar
 gllneery control tower of the Quincy
 which nearly became his tomb. H was in the glare of the searchlight
 which he saw from the beach,
 He remembered best the terribl din of the guns.
 = ''It was one big explosion from be
 acssS