Evening star., 1943-04-23
BY IRA WOLFERT.

A great many OF the men of Tor
pedo 8, no doubt, felt that night on
Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, that
this could very well be their last
on earth. And, at best, even if the
best of luck was with them, they
were In for very remarkable time
the next day. They were going vio-
lently to get the most violent kind
Of revenge for Midway. But the
mechanism of the healthy human
mind for escaping from what 1t
can't do anything about anyway ex-
cept, maybe, worry is hardworking,
skillful and generally successful in
the kind of well-integrated man the
vell-nourished American way has
produced.
So, after getting chow, a very
rugged chow ornamented in slip
perry way by some captured Jap
victuals, most of the fellows wan
dered a few hundred yards down
to the Tenaru river where quite a
big battle had been fought two days
before and plenty of Jap souvenirs
were available for the brisk bar
gamer.
The fellows got their souvenirs
and then lay down on the ground
under the planes. There was ma
chine gun ard rifle fire going on
sporadically all around them and
they argued awhile about which was
ours and which theirs and finally
learned to tell the light caliber
Jap guns by the thick, plopping
whistle they made as they went off.
Then. just as they were drowning
of, Jap submarine opened up on
them with three-inch and five-inch
shells and everybody made a scram
take-oh for a foxhole. The shells
didn't land anywhere near them and
they spent some time arguing about
Just where those shells had landed,
and about just how funny everybody
had looked making tracks for a
hole. The argument kept getting
euieter and quieter and pretty soon
even the last man there was sound
asleep, sleeping as deeply and sweet
y ON that awful earth as If he had
not the least notion that the day
coming might likely be his last.
Return to Carrier.
In the morning, Torpedo 8 went
back to the carrier which was ma
neuvering into a better position to
hit the Japs who were still skulk-
Ing under the banks of weather out
there somewhere.
Like so many of the great events
Of war, this vast, venomous, vastly
violent effort to strip the Jap bat
tie feet of its air power began on
q squeaky, petulant note. There
was a doubtful contact report. A
search plane was radioing its base
that 1t was seeing an enemy carrier
force and our people had inter-
eepted the message
1t might have been spots before
that unknown planes eyes. but there
the message was and it had to be
looked into. Our people at sea could
not look into 1t by remote control
or by asking anybody If they used
the radio, they'd give away their
positions. They had to go see for
themselves.
Swede felt pretty sure it would be
wild goose chase He told Bruce
Harwood that and told Bruce he
had had enough of chasing the
goose the day before. This would
have to be Bruces goose. Bruce
took off after it with seven planes.
Then, about 20 minutes later, con-
firmation of the contact report
came in. There were actually Jap
ships out there, one of the task
forces into which the battle feet
had split up on coming into the
arena. But the task force was not
In the place where Bruce was mead
ing and there was Bruce. taking
seven of the deadliest known weap-
ons against ships at sea for an
airing over empty water.
Throwing a Sunday Punch.
Right on top of that came the
news that opened up all the radios
The Japs were throwing q Sunday
punch. The Sunday punch was not
only on its way, but heading fol
the carrier. There was no point
now In maintaining radio silence
The Japs knew where everything
was.
So orders to cancel the strike
were radioed to Bruce and orders
were given to all planes on boare
to get up into the air. Bruce never
got the message, fortunately, be-
cause if he had the Jap battle fleet
might never have been hit in the
heart or, anyway, would certainly
not have been hit that day, and
so instead of turning back, the
fight from Torpedo went hustlinS
on its way. But the planes on board
got their orders all right and took
off like a football from a boot
without waiting on the order OF
their going
And all this time Swede was in
air plot, standing first on one foot
and then the other, thinking one
minute 1t would be maybe, and the
next that 1t would be no and never
getting a yes, getting the wind, the
weather, and the course, speed
bearing and distance of the enemy
force, but never getting yes. Unit
finally he got the yes and ran to
the flight deck and found the deck
uproarious with take -offs. the planes
of Torpedo in the melee and
taking on, too.
Clear the decks for action!'
That was the way it looked, like
movie Illustration Of that order
the gunners swinging out their guns
ripping the "bloomers" of them anc
the plane handlers getting the
planes the hell up into the al,
where they belonged. The plane
crews weren't even waiting to get
fight gear or navigation gear. Bu
Swede thought nix on that, and
ran below for his stuff. This vcs