Evening star., 1942-09-07
BY BERNARD RILEY,

WITH THE UNITED STATES
NAVY IN THE SOLOMON IS
LANDS, Aug. 10 Delayed During
the past three days 1 saw United
! States Marine Raiders capture the
| islands of Tulagi, Gavutu and Tan
ambogo.
The marines went about the job
in a cold d-blooded, deadly manner.
/ They annihilated the Japs almost to
the last man and the fighting ended
last night with the marines firmly
holding all three key islands in
Tulagi harbor.
The Japs used all the tricks that
pect, but their trickery was no match
for marine tommygunS, knives, bay
onetS and bravery.
I never saw such cool, de-
termined bunch as those marines.
Thank the Lord they are on our
side instead of fighting against us.
First of all, I had better make it
clear that these marine shock
troops are raiders Don't ever make
the mistake of calling them Com
mandos or you're likely to be nursing
sore jaw. If you want to talk
to them, say Hey, Marine" or Hey,
Raider" never say Hey Com
mando." They don't like it.
Sprayed With Blood.
These raiders are picked for their
size and toughness. All seem to be
above feet tall and hard as nails.
In training they get sprayed with
animal blood thrown in their face,
to see If they can take it. 1t was
good training, because for the past
three days there was plenty of
bloodshed. The raiders were out to
kill Japs and they killed plenty.
I got in on the fight through
coincidence. was temporarily
aboard a transport en- route to my
own ship at sea off the Solomons and
got to go ashore. I wouldn't have
missed it for the world.
Early in the morning of August 7,
with clouds hiding the moon, our
transport slipped into Tulagi Harbor
undetected and our planes swooped
down to strafe and bomb the islands
while our escorting warships shelled
the shore.
We showed off from our transport
and went over to another transport
to take aboard some raiders. They
quickly scrambled over the side and
took seats in the bottom of the boat
Most of them lit cigarettes and
crouched there calmly. There
wasn't much talk Looking back
from my post in the bow, all could
see was helmets and shoulders of
marines with their rifles between
their knees.
My boat was the first which
headed toward Tulagi. We had
hoped to make landing at 7:55
am, which was the time the first
bombs fell on Pearl Harbor eight
months before.
Fire Came From Hospital.
We started to land at the south
west corner of Tulagi, near the hos
pital, but as we approached machine
guns started firing from the hospital
windows. This was our first expe-
rience with Jap trickery. We pur-
posely had not bombed or shelled
the hospital, but the Japs were US
ing it. They opened fire, but their
bullets fell short We turned away
and landed farther up the beach out
Of range.
AS our boat hit the sandy shore
the first marine jumped out. He was
a husky fellow with a long black
beard which must have taken six
months to grow. I don't know
whether he was private or an off,
Ger. All the marines in speaking to
each other used first names.
Others kept jumping ashore. They
took last long drags on their Gig
arettes, grasped rifles or tommy guns
and plunged into the woods which
covered most of Tulagi. After few
seconds we could hear them Shoot
ing. They were as cool as could be
and obviously knew their jobs.
We went back to the transports
and loaded guns and crews and
landed them ashore. The marines
were still pouring into the woods
and there was intermittent firing.
All this time, in fact all day the 7th
and 9th, our planes were overhead
bombing and straf1ng in front of the
advancing marines. 1t was really
reassuring to see those planes.
While our boat was going towarc
the shore we received an air-raic
alarm and in the distance we saw
the splashes of bombs dropping
around our transports across the
channel off Guadalcanal. I saw two
japanese planes plunge to the ses
in flames and heard that at leas
IA were downed.
Destroyers Shelled Two Islands.
After we made few trips W,
were told to stand by our transpor
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