Evening star., 1942-11-10
BY WILLIAM NIPPLE,

| Dy ALS
| Associated Press War Correspondent.
WITH THE UNITED STATES
FLEET IN THE SOLOMONS AREA
Oct. 26 Delayed The anti-air.
craft guns are silent and cooling
now. Sweating men, deaf from the
battles thunder, are taking theil
first time of in nearly IL hours
! at battle stations for quick coffee
and sandwiches.
And our task force-carrier in
tact-is pushing steadily onward.
In three hours today our naval
forces in this area knocked down
104 Japanese planes in the widest
maddest, most sustained sea- air bat
| tie this part of the Pacific has pro-
I duced.
Officers and men who have fought
through the Coral Sea, Midway and
| other battles in the Solomons say
We've never seen anything like the
hellish inferno which broke loose
today"
It was the largest bag of enemy
planes ever shot down in one day
by American forces, topping the
record Of 90 by combined Army
Navy, Marine and Anti-Aircraft
Forces August "a in the Guadal-
canal area.
Today's great total was accom-
plyished by the fleet alone las q
salute Navy Day." as one officer
put it.
Moreover, this is a conservative
estimate, for it does not include AZ
probable Japs shot down and dozens
believed to have fallen into the
water, out of gasoline.
Jap Carrier Severely Damaged.
In the task force I was with oul
planes and ack-ack bagged a total
of 81 for sure. The planes got 2t
| certain and probable and the
AAs got 25, with % more probables
Other units shot down the remain.
ing SO.
At the same time that our AA ane
fighter planes were picking off waves
of attacking enemy planes our owr
fleet air arm smashed heavily a.
Japanese carriers and warships.
AS far as we know now, one large
enemy carrier was severely damaged
by four heavy bombs. Bomb hit!
also were made on another Jap car
rier, which was badly damaged. On,
heavy cruiser was hit and was las
seen burning. A Jap battleship alst
was hit and many Jap planes de-
Tending their ships we're shot down
There is no doubt that our flee
came out on top in this engagement
and inflicted a major defeat on tn
Japanese. We lost only one destroyer
which was torpedoed. CThe Nav.
subsequently reported the loss o
the United States aircraft carrie
which was in another section of tn
task force)
Very few of our own planes wer,
believed shot down in battle. al
though a number ran out of gaso
line and had to alight on the water
but most of these pilots were res
cued.
The whole encounter took plac
east of the Stewart Islands an,
north Of Santa Cruz Island.
Both our forces and the enem
apparently had been searching 70
each other.
Crucial Engagement.
It developed into another of thos
strange battles of modern nava
warfare in which rival carriers will
protecting ships remain out of sigh
Of each other while planes-almos
meeting on attack missions -attemp
to sink or cripple each others sur
face vessels, especially carriers.
Before this battle we senset
aboard this cruiser-one of tn
ships assigned to protect a carrier
that it would be crucial engage
ment in the Solomons area. Th
Jap fleet was supporting an all-ou
offensive against our positions o.
Guadalcanal. Tulagi and Gavut'
and we must not lose.
We did not lose. The back o
the Japanese feet may not be bro
ken at this moment, but it at leas
has serious curvature.
The firing OF our AA guns was S
heavy that their puffs darkened tn
!; sky and shut out the sun. Into thi
umbrella of lead and steel cam
the Jap planes, desperately tryin
to get close enough to dump thei
bombs and torpedoes.
You'd see Jap streak in anon
tracer bullets and then he woul
suddenly waver like a falling lea
} burst into flames and plunge int
J the sea. A majority of the ia
pilots never lived to tell of pene
trating both our fighter plane an
ack-ack screens. It also is likel
that most Of the others fell into tn
ocean, out of gas.
In one short interval an enem
| plane was burning rs yards off ou
starboard beam, another Is yard
ahead and . third close to the por
! side. In addition to this the enem
was strafing US and Japanese sub
marines showed up to discharg
torpedoes. This gives rough ide
Of the intensity Of the battle.
The Japs departed from the con