Evening star., 1942-11-16

tion on Guddalcanal Island in
the SolomouS the 1Ueek of Octo-
Der I-18 1Uds Uritten by Serqt.
James w. Hurlbut, Marine Corps
combat correspondent from Ar
hn9ton, Va. 1t 1oas released bu
the Nary Department yesterday
and distributed by the Associated
Press.
GUADALCANAL, Solomon Is
lands, Oct. 18 (Delayed) 1t ha.
been quiet in this powder keg of the
Pacific since daWn-but we've still
got our fingers crossed.
Even though it's unusually uuiet
we welcome breathing spell. The
last week has been the most hectic
seven days of martial activity our
harrassed correspondents have had
to undergo-let alone cover.
There are only five of us here
now-two civilians and three Ma
rine Corps combat correspondents
but 10 men, pooling their activities,
couldn't possibly have kept adequate
track of last weeks events.
In brief, here's day-by-day sum-
mary of those events:
Sunday, October 11-An American
naval force intercepted Jap war
ships-carrying supplies and re-
inforcements-in a night battle, in
f1icting heavy damage. The enemy's
surviving ships fed
Monday, October 12-American
boats we're dispatched to rescue
survivors of the sea battle.
Tuesday, October 13.-Jap bomb
ers twice in the afternoon dropped
bombs. but caused little damage
At $40 pm, Jap land artillery went
into action. The first of a night
long series of single enemy plane
raids then began.
Shelled by Jap Warship.
Wednesday, october 14-Shortly
after ! am, Jap warships shelled
us two hours while enemy planes
dropped bombs. The shelling ceased
after 3 am, but the bombing raids
continued past 5 am. Nipponese
Zero planes then strafed our air.
field and engaged our flyers in dog
fights. Two mass Jap bombing at
tacks followed.
Thursday, October 15-At 2 am,
enemy naval shells pounded us for
one hour. Later in the morning
our bombers attacked enemy trans
ports which had begun to unload
troops and supplies.
Friday. October 16-Immediately
after midnight, enemy warships
shelled us for the third straight
time, but it lasted only one-half
hour and inflicted only slight dam
age. New fighter and bomber planes
arrived at supper time to reinforce
our air forces. Enemy bombers at
tackled later in the night.
Saturday, October 17-Jap planes
attempted to raid us, but all of the
hombers. plus four out of eight
zeros, were shot down. Two Amer
ican warships poured thousands of
rounds of shells into the japanese
positions on Guadalcanal for three
hours and 20 minutes.
cThe quiet atmosphere. re-
ferred to In the first paragraph
Of this story. has just been dis
turbed by two flights of enemy
bombers. Before they got over
us, at least three were knocked
down and two more were blasted
before the enemy disappeared.
Only few bombs we're dropped,
these apparently causing no dam
age. The final "score" will not
be available until our pilots re-
turn
Went to Search for Survivors.
The naval battle off our coast last
Sunday night started the week off
with a bang. From one of the is
lands coral ridges. we could tell
only that two opposing forces were
throwing shells at each other at a
furious rate. For over an hour the
entire skyline was ablaze with the
white light of shellfire, punctuated
by occasional dull red f1areups. The
fighting was taking place too far
away to hear the sounds of the big
naval guns.
Early Monday we boarded boats
dispatched to the battle area to pick
up possible survivors. We came
upon one of our destroyers which
had participated in the battle. The
decks were crowded with survivors
from another American destroyer
the only one lost in the engagement.
More than 100 men had been res
cued and only a few of these had
suffered injuries.
Crew members of both ships
agreed that our force had all the
best of the fight. Survivors said,
I'VE hit everything we saw; there
were five of them and we got them
ALL; "our ship put torpedoes into a
big baby after we were hit. saw
her blow to bits"
From information cleaned in our
five minute stay on the destroyer,
we learned that American warships
surprised japanese force OF two
cruisers and three or four destroyers
loaded with supplies and reinforce
ments. Our ships inflicted terrific
damage on the enemy. One or two
of their surviving ships fled in less
than an hour, closely pursued by our
vessels.
Leaving physicians aboard the de-
stroyer, We then made a further
search OF the area. We found noth-
ing. however, and finally headed for
home with what proved to be bare
ly enough gasoline to make the f,ar-
Dor.
It was nearly dusk then and We
decided to stay home.
Rereille was at 4:30 am. the next
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