Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1943-12-31

/ wv NJ FedtuFe-1nTOuRn special arrange
ment with Golfers Weekly.l
Not until the history of the war
is written will it be known how
close we came to getting driven
out of Guadalcanal. The Japs could
have done it by coming down in
=, force, but even their minor efforts
were tough enough, hundred
Zeros at time being faced by far
smaller groups of our planes.
"Our fliers from all branches
army, navy and marines-went up
there and shot them down." says
Vice Admiral Mccain. Those
young pilots took a beating un-
equaled in the annals Of war. With
out relief, they fought day after
day, night after night, for weeks. y
The toughest job was getting IN
supplies, and there were dozens of
instances of heroism in that work.
In the early stages of the invasion,
the planes at Henderson Field We're
running short of fuel, mainly due
to losses of stored gasoline from
enemy bombing 1t was finish for
the marines if the Japs got air
control.
"We held conference with the
commanding officers of the small
seaplane tenders" says the ad-
miral. "They were converted from
old four-stack destroyers, leftovers
from the First World War. We
asked the shippers to estimate how
many drums of gasoline each could
carry. One by one they quoted
their figures. Finally, Commander
John Alderman spoke up and said;
I'll take exactly twice that much
Gasoline Gets Through
"We didn't ask how. We simply
gave him the job. He really loaded
that ship of his with gasoline. One
small bomb from Jap plane would
set him off. He ran his ship
through the Jap gauntlet, in the
dead of night, at full speed, and
landed the gasoline at Lunga Point,
near Henderson Field We learned
later that the planes on Guadal-
canal would have been bone dry
next morning if he hadn't got
| through.
"On his way back from a Sec
ond trip, in which he eluded an
interceping force. he was over
taken by Jap bOmDers. He shot
down four of them, but one of
the remaining five scored hit
on his stern that put the rudder
out of commission. He man
aged to wabble the ship over to
Tulagi, put into cove, tied up to
cliff and concealed the ship
with trailing tree branches and
vines. While hidden there, ne
managed to imprOvise a make
sEift rudder and finally got the
ship back to safe port where
she has since been repaired and
is again in service. That's the
kind of boys we had out there
On Guadalcanal, the marines
were learning fast, too. 1T was
tough at first" says the admiral,
with the Japs setting off their
silly fireworks and trying to fool
the boys with cries Of Hey, joe
but the marines soon caught on TO
that and proceeded to invent tricks
the Japs would never in a tn ~
sand years have dreamed up. The
outstanding fact of this war is the
versatility, adaptability, courage
and toughness of American boys.
Presumably-before the war. that
is-they were considered our soft
est generation. Rather, they go
back to the pioneers"
1t was shown clear at Guadal-
canal that the Phys were no match
for the Zeros, and a point was
reached when it was necessary to
use a few bombers as reconnais-
sance planes in "hot" sectors. Even
though the fighters were knocking
the faster and more maneuverable
Zeros out of the air at the rate Of
eight and nine to one, the loss OF
the one plane, multiplied over daily
battles, soon became serious. A
crisis was reached on Guadalcanal
when they were finally down to
five fighters and Is bombers. 1t
was then that huge task force If
the Japs was reported 300 miles off,
with battleships, carriers, destroy
ers and cruisers.
1--WE had about so ships in the
harbor at Espiritu Santo," says the
admiral, but we soon got them
out of there and scattered over tae
sea, leaving only two that had
few anti-aircraft guns and might |
do us some good. We evacuated |
our huts and took to slit trenches
and waited. Our bombers being
used as scouting planes kept re-
porting the steady progress of the
Jap fleet straight for us-and then,
fol no reason | was ever able 20
understand, they turned around and |
went back!
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