Evening star., 1942-10-15
War Writer
Tells Of Battle With
Jap Landing Party
Sergt. HurIbut, Former
DC. Newspopermon, Lives
Through the Cunning

f1he toIlotDing account OF &C.
tion IN the Solonlons tDas tDritten
by Sergt. James W. Hurlbut OF
100 ~. Trenton street, Arlington,
Va, Marine Corps combat cor
respondent at the scene. Ser0t.
Hurlbut is a former Washington
netospaperman.J
GUADALCANAL, Solomon Islands,
Sept. 28 Delayed Two Navy
men, two Coast Guardsmen and I,
in small boat, chanced on a Jap
anese landing party on the north
west tip OF Guadalcanal today, and
lived to tell about 1t.
Armed with 4 machine gun, we
set out shortly after 5 am. in an
open landing boat to pick up the
two-man crew of a Navy dive bomb
er which had been forced down at
sea OF Savo Island.
While on this mission We dis
covered the enemy landing party.
We moved up within 400 yards and
obtained . closeup view Of 1t be-
fore all he'll broke loose.
In our boat, in addition to myself,
were 1t. q. g. Arthur r. Gibson,
U. S. N. r.. Of Buffalo, N. Y, the
ofhcer in charge; Coxswain Samuel
B. Roberts Of Portland, Oreg.; Ray
mond j. Evans, signalman, 1st class,
Of Seattle, and D. A. Munro, signal
man, 1st class, Of Gle Elum, wash,
both Coast Guardsmen.
Boat Spotted.
The Navy flyers were reported to
be floating in q rubber boat between
Savo Island and Cape Esperance.
We arrived in the area shortly be-
fore 6 am. Four of our planes, in
cluding small Navy amphibian,
soon appeared overhead to help in
the search. -
Just after Sis am. we spotted an
object that looked like a rubber
boat. We moved up quickly. 1t
was q rubber boat. The planes
dove and circled over it, then headed
back to their airfleld.
But the boat was empty! Two
paddles lay across the thwarts and
a large, jagged hole was ripped
In the bottom-evidence that some
thing had happened to force the
two aviators into the water.
A strong tidal current moves
from the south shore Of Savo Island
diagonally across to the tip of Cape
Esperance. We thought the avia-
tors might have been carried ashore
and been captured, so we continued
our search in that direction.
1t took us more than an hour to
get to Cape Esperance. During
this time we saw no sign Of life in
the water or on shore, except for
a 6-foot sand shark that tagged
hopefully along beside US. When
we made the point, we were about
900 yards off shore.
Pretty Little Village.
We rounded the cape and there
in front Of us lay the pretty little
village OF Visale. We had never
seen it before, but we had learned
from natives that it had been a
Roman CATHOLIC mission.
1t was a beautiful sight. A 500
yard beach Of clean white sand
borderedsthe carve 81 the little bay
Back from the water severA gleam-
ing-white buildings with red roofs
nestled IN the tropical foliage. The
sun made dancing leaf shadows oni
the sand and little ripples slapped
daintily ut the beach.
Suddenly We discovered four large
Japanese landing boats bobbing at
anchor of, the west end of the
beach.
They looked grim. Almost so
feet long, they were painted black
above and red below the water line.
We had heard that more than 100
Jap soldiers could be crowded into
them. About mile further west we
could see another group of boats
off shore.
We lay to and studied the boats
and the beach. There was absolute
ly no sign of enemy activity-no
movements, no machine gun nests.
1T looks deserted someone said.
Lets take a closer look at those
boats
Slow Advance Ordered.
1t might not have been q wise
decision. but the chance to get a
close look at the enemy's water
transportation was too much of a
temptation. Signalman Evans got
INTO position at the machine gun
and 1t. Gibson ordered Coxswain
Roberts to move the boat forward
slowly. Munro and I stood at the
gunwhale with Springfield rifles.
we moved to point about 400 yards
from the beach and boats.
The boats got bigger and blacker
but we still were unable to see any
sign of life. Things were very still
too still. The only noise was the
chug OF our engine.
This Is close enough" ordered
1t. Gibson. Come about"
The coxswain swung the wheel
over and the boat cut in toward
shore. When we had straightened
out, we were less than 300 yards from
the beach, heading west.
They sure have a nice camp here
Munro whispered. I'VE ought to
take it away from them-What the
hells that?"
1nat was an angry buzzing
sound as though a hundred bass.
voiced horets were diving around our
ears. Little fountains of sea water
spurted up all around US. There
was sharp, metallic ping" as
something smacked into a steel plate
forward.
They're machine cunning U.S." 1t.
Gibson shouted. Hit the deck!"
Speed Engine to Escape.
It was a SllDerfl,o,is nrdHr As ma