The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-10
ISEA-AIR HEROES
 SWAP NOTES ON 'SOLOMONS WAR

officers who have been decorated twice for operations up "the slot" in the Solomons-one on the sur- face and one in the air--met here today for the first time and com pared notes on their experiences as shippers. respectively, of can" and patrol bomber.
 They were Comdr. Benjamin Katz of Ellsworth Ave) Cambridge, Mass, and St. Paul, Minn.. captain of a new Fletcher-type 2,lo0-ton destroyer. who had just received a Navy Cross to go with his previous ly won Silver Star, and It. Fred H. Gage of Pensacola, Fla, pilot and commander of one of the big amphi- bious night-patrol bombers. Game has won the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal.
 Katz, who is 39. short and slight of build, with dark hair and rubby complexion, and Gage, 26, tall, blond and husky agreed that the Japs lost probably up to half of the 10000 troops they were believed to have had on Kolombangara and Vella Lavella.
 Most of the Jap losses were suf- fered when American forces shot up the barses and destroyers on which the enemy was attempting first to reinforce and then to evacuate his troops, ard Katz and Gage both had hand in this.
 Won the REC Gage and his cohorts nightly pa- trol the air over the Central and Northern Solomons, reporting move ments of any Japanese forces, and even attacking in their slow, cum bersome amphibians. They also have made a number of daring rescues and it was for one of these-when he set his plane down in enemy territory to pick up four men-that he won the DEC.
 Katz and other destroyer skip pers. responding to the plane re- ports, intercept and engage Jap destroyers and barges attempting to run troops and supplies through the Solomons. The result has been catastrophe.
 Katz, who skippered his destroyer up the slot in at least 25 round trips, including 10 within IA days, was part of the force led by Capt. Thomas Ryan of New Orleans which broke up the Japs' last big attempt to reinforce the Kolombangara- Vella Lavella area on the night of Aug. 17-18. It was for this opera tion that he won the Navy Cross. A citation signed by Admiral Will liam F. Halsey. Commander South Pacific Force, said the destroyer task group intercepted and routed 8 Jap force composed of four de- troyers and 8 large number of landing barges.
 'Comdr. Katz' ship attacked the Japanese force in the face of con- tinuous gun and torpedo fire" the | citation said. By his skillful han ding and the accurate gun and torpedo fire of his vessel, he ma terially contributed to the destruc- tion of two destroyers, four large barges and a number of smaller ones, and damage to a third de- stroyer without damage to his ship"
 Japs Lost Thousands Katz, describing the operation himself, said the Americans first engaged and routed the Jap de- stroyers and then returned to work over "a whole slough of barges." We stayed there all night and pretty well cleared out the area. Very few, if any, troops got ashore. The Japs must have lost thousands of troops in that and other engage ments with our destroyers during the reinforcement and later evacu- ation of those islands"
 Katz spent number of very sat- Sifying nights in the Solomons, in- cluding the night of the second bat tie of Kula Gulf-for which he won the Silver Star-and the four nights he bombarded Munda and Villa, but he also had one very disappoint- ing night.
 That was on Oct. 6 when he led a group of three destroyers up to position north of Vella Lavella to intercept force of nine Jap com batant ships leading a number of barges down for eyacra'icn p"r- poses. Katz' group got there just too late to take part in the llgnt in which a numerically inferior U. s. force sank a light cruiser or de- stroyer lead. two other destroyers, probably sank still another de- stroyer and damaged two or three more.
 We got there just in time to see one Jap blow up completely and two or three others sinking" Katz said.
 Katz, a graduate of Annapolis in the class of '26 started the war as a communications officer in New York City. Later he was assigned to Iceland convoy runs as communi- cations officer on the battleship Idaho. Then he was given command of the old four-stack destroyer Dallas on the Casab,anca run until last Jaunary, when he came to the Sclomons with his present com- mand.
 One of lis most important oper- atiors in the South Pacific was in July when his and other destroyers traversed Gizo Strait for the first time to rescue more than l60 sur- yivcrs Of the cruiser Helena from then Jap-held Vella Lavella.
 Gage, a naval reserve, also is veteren of the Solomons. He won lis Air Medal for pilcting his plane in two stratirg and bombing runs on enemy craft. Gage, as a reserve. is one of that group which Katz says flor all practical purposes are running our Navy" since they make up three-quarters of the officer per- sonnel
 MORTALITY OF WATERFOWL