The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-12-04


dived out of my cot in the Press
Club correspondents tent) and
hit the slit trench (our seventy
four dugout.)
But l soon discovered that
Roscoe usually fell short of the
runway, and only sent up
harmless showers of dirt But he
makes a terrific noise. Marines
who used to throw themselves
flat on the ground when Roscoe
came over, now just looked up
curiously-and they say they
can see the projectile arc
through the air. Darned if l can.
Only press guys here now arc
Francis Mccarthy of United
Press, Jack Bowling of the Chi
cago Sun, and yours truly. We
exchange morning insults-with
Bowling as usual coming out on
top. The correspondents make
morning toilets by putting on
Marine shoes, and washing their
teeth in chlorinated water. Jim
Hurlburt MARINE Correspond
en) drives up in his jeep to
take us down to the waterfront
to greet incoming reinforce
ments.
This time the rumor is right.
Right off shore stand landing
barges. We can see from the
beach the troops look tough and
fit. Our boys on shore (the Ma
rines) laugh fit to kill as the
troops hit the Water--face down,
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. as we'd done
the morning of Aug. 7th when
we never knew when the Japp0
would start sniping. These new
boys have most Impressive
fighting uniform-green, about
the color of the Marine work
suit.
Out to the ship this morning
for pictures-and the rope lad
der swung against the side of the
ship, cracking the ground glass
in my four by five graphic.
Range finder knocked haywire,
too. Don't need range finder to
locate free lunch aboard ship.
Mccarthy and Bowling beat me
to it. Food tastes pretty swell
after corned beef stew, the only
fresh meat in tie past two weeks
was a hunk of crocodile steak
not bad, though. No beer aboard
ship.
Condition yellow" sounds
about noon while we are aboard.
Anchors up and by the time we
get Condition red" (Tojo over
head) we're making fancy pat
terms on the water. We dodge
the bombs but fires are start
ing on the island. They don't get
far. Underbush has been cleared
around Henderson Field and the
palm trunks aren't inflammable.
A few fronds that fall from
the palm tops, some 30 TO so feet
above ground. soon burn them
selves out.
Misunderstanding they are old
timers-tell the newcomers they
can expect raids "a hours a
day. | can't let that pass, and
boy, do those kids look relieved
when l tell them that couple
of raids a day will be all they
can look for. There would be
Louie the Louise" who buzzes
over on a nuisance raid how and
THEY'VE recognize him by the
miss in his motor and-of
course, Maytag Charlie, who
drops 1O0-pounders.
Japs fight mostly at night. !
Just get to sleep on my cot un-
der mosquito netting when who
ooo-o-oo-carrrrrumph boom! ]
hit the deck, and hear Mccarthy
and Bowling scrambling for the
slit trench.
Another whoooo-o-carrumph
boom! on the other side of the
tent. A Marine sticks his head in
the tent, and yells Air raid!'
AS if we didn't know. | crack
my shin on an empty bomb crate
we've been using for a typewrit-
er stand. After the all clear, we
curse our way back to bed-and
when the next bomb falls, I'm
damned if / get up. Don't get hit
either.
Our anti-aircraft starts chat
tering, but Maytag Charlie and
his pals are out of range. One
of their bombs hit our ammuni-
ton dump, and for the next half
hour. so calibre machine gun
bullets whine around our tent.
Had a bad moment last night.
Our camp is a mile and a half
from the Marines headquarters
where I 60 to develop film at
night. Id just fumbled through
the developing and started to