The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-09-08

they disappear behind palms. Ther shoot upward again. With all thu ships firing at once, and the plane. , making a concentrated attack, thu beach head became mass of flame smoke and flying debris.
 When the barrage eased up thC Marines began going ashore Through our field glasses we saw them dashing up the beach, bayo. nets fixed, and drive on into tht palms.
 Observation planes cruised back and forth above the islands, direct, ing the naval fire. We were Ion tar get" consistently.
 The bombardment continued un. abated for more than two hours.
 Behind the landing Marines wert tanks with their hard hitting weap- ons. Soon came the report, ''We'vt taken over. There is no opposition.
 There was opposition in the in- terior, however. From the mair beach head, groups of Marines di- vided to move into the inetrior oi Guadalcanal.
 One group crossed the Fly, Tenaru and Lunga rivers and captured heavy short batteries. Lunga river held the Japanese torpedo boats and our dive bombers eliminated them promptly. Not sigle one ap' peared in our sector.
 We heard that in Gulagi harbol IT seaplanes and some patrol boat: were bombed on the water. A large four motored Japanese seaplane was reporetd bombed of Gavatu.
 It is 10:30 a. m. now, and the tni- tial phase of the recapture of the Solomons has been completed.
 Because of the gunflre l cant hear thing with my right ear The cotton had been knocked out ad my helmet is askew.
 Don't worry about the ear," saic the gunery officer. Tt will be al right in two or three days. Mea' while stick around. I thik we are goig to have some fun. Jap bomberS are prboably on their way already from Rabaul or BogSinville oi both"
 Where Custer Was Hit
 Headouarters, United States Paci- fic Fleet, Sept. 5-(UP)-Delayed)- Joe James Custer, United Press War correspondent, was wounded while covering the battle of the Solomon Islands from the deck of q United States warship, it was announced today.
 A shell fragment lodged behind Clusters left eye, which may be blinded. Custer was sent to 8 hos. pital somewhere in the southwest | Pacific.
 One of two United Press corre- spondents from the Hanalulu Bureau assigned to the American naval and marine forces which at- tackled Japanese positions in the Solomons, Custer probably has seen as much naval action in the Pacific as any war correspondent. His com panion, Robert Miller, still Is with the fighting forces in the Solomons
 A veteran on Pacific coast and Hawaiion news beats, Custer was a reporter for a Honolulu newspaper when the Japanese raided Pearl Harbor. A few days later, when the excitement had abated, he craved more action.
 He applied to the United Press in Honolulu for an assignment which would provide action.
 A month later Custer went with naval task force on secret mis- sion. It proved to be the attacks on Marcus and Wake Islands.
 From atop the sky tower" of carrier Custer covered those initial American thrusts at the Japs. Dur ing weeks of successive alerts and attacks he accumulated an idea of life abroad an aircraft carrier under combat conditions.
 Back in Honolulu a month later, he wrote the first-eye-witness ac- count of the Wake and Marcus Is- land attacks. He followed this with series of dramatic, flrst-hand dis pitches describing American forces in air-sea warfare. Editors praised them for their abundance of control detail.
 Since then Custer has sought every opportunity to accompany U. S. Naval units headed for action.
 He was born in New York City June g, 1909 and received his first practical newspaper training on the San Francisco Bulletin. Later he worked on the San Francisco Chron- icle, then did publicity for time. Eventually Custer left the mainland and worked for several Hawaiian newspapers.