80 Days to go.
Up at 0800 today. Meeting Squeeky, Spud Cod and Plunger at the Mendana. We are off for a tour of the Eastern Battlefields of Guadalcanal. The Tour starts at 0900. We are the only 4 on the tour. We start up at the US / Solomons memorial. It is on one of the higher points at Honiara. You can see the location of a lot of the action from here. The memorial has all sorts of stuff about the action. I will post pictures.
We head to the eastern-most point of the action, Red Beach. It is here the US forces landed unopposed. The name was only a code name. The other beach where they landed on the Island of Malaita was called Blue Beach. They only had time to get about half of the men and equipment ashore. They then had to stop and retreat to the south as they were in danger of being attacked by the superior Japanese Navy. It was August 7th 1942. By the close of August 9th they had taken their primary objective, the airfield. The airfield was 90% completed by the Japanese. After taking the field it was quickly named by the Marines after one of their own Aviators, Major Lofton Henderson who was killed at the Battle of Midway. They wanted to ensure they had the naming rights over the Army and the Navy. Lofton Henderson Airfield was now the US landing strip.
Next was the site of the US Hospital. There are Quansett huts spread throughout the area. You can see it was a large facility, however very basic.
The next place we went to was the “ Tenaru River” site. This was the scene of the counter offensive by the Japanese. The only problem was it was actually the Ilu River, the US had got their rivers mixed up. To confuse this even more the US Marines called it the Alligator River. Of the 917 Japanese attacked the US forces at the mouth of the river. Their attack however was not well planned. They attacked from the sea side and they walked into an established defensive position. All but 128 were killed. When we returned to the road from the rivermouth we could see the edge of the airfield. Thefighting took place only about 200 metres short of the airfield.
After this we went to the airfield itself. There is a memorial garden. We drove around the airfield, passing the remaining air control tower. It was destroyed 13 times by the Japanese. Next to this is a Memorial for the Battle at Bloody Ridge or Edsons Ridge. More on that in a moment. Then we went past the area where the US had their HQ. It was housed in what was the Japanese Pagoda. They then moved after destroying the Pagoda when they realised it was being used as a landmark for artillary barrages of the airfield.
Bloody Ridge runs between two hills, Hill 1 and Hill 2.They are numbered as the US discovered them. Bloody Ridge is between the high ground, Mt. Austen, and the airfield. It was held by the Japanese who were forced back towards Mt. Austen. They counter attacked, the US troops were forced back from Hill 1 across the Ridge to Hill 2. Standing on Hill 2 you can still see depressions of the foxholes. There has been some recent grass fires and Squeeky finds a bullet casing, centre fire of unsure calibre, but is of the size used during WW2. There were over 3,000 Japanese troops attacked the ridge which was defended by 840 US soldiers led by Merritt A Edson. This is the only area where hand to hand combat takes place. Eventually the US hold off the attack. Over 600 Japanese lose their lives. US casualties are reported to be 59.
This was the last site of the Eastern Battlefield tour. We returned to Honiara and had some lunch and regrouped for a drive to Dukes house, high on a ridge over looking Iron Bottom Sound and the Slot. Those of you “Googling” some of this stuff will know what those terms mean.
We have a great barbeque at the Dukes, then settle down to watch Crows v somebody in the AFL and then Manly v some Qld team in the Rugby League. They are both semi finals. Neither of them were semi interesting.Well that was an interesting Saturday.
I am writing this for my family and myself. I could write more on the Battlefields and Naval Battles that took place here that I have learnt about. However as no-one else is commenting I think I shall just commit it to memory. Those people who know me will be surprised that I have written so much. I am not usually this demonstrative.
Up at 0800 today. Meeting Squeeky, Spud Cod and Plunger at the Mendana. We are off for a tour of the Eastern Battlefields of Guadalcanal. The Tour starts at 0900. We are the only 4 on the tour. We start up at the US / Solomons memorial. It is on one of the higher points at Honiara. You can see the location of a lot of the action from here. The memorial has all sorts of stuff about the action. I will post pictures.
We head to the eastern-most point of the action, Red Beach. It is here the US forces landed unopposed. The name was only a code name. The other beach where they landed on the Island of Malaita was called Blue Beach. They only had time to get about half of the men and equipment ashore. They then had to stop and retreat to the south as they were in danger of being attacked by the superior Japanese Navy. It was August 7th 1942. By the close of August 9th they had taken their primary objective, the airfield. The airfield was 90% completed by the Japanese. After taking the field it was quickly named by the Marines after one of their own Aviators, Major Lofton Henderson who was killed at the Battle of Midway. They wanted to ensure they had the naming rights over the Army and the Navy. Lofton Henderson Airfield was now the US landing strip.
Next was the site of the US Hospital. There are Quansett huts spread throughout the area. You can see it was a large facility, however very basic.
The next place we went to was the “ Tenaru River” site. This was the scene of the counter offensive by the Japanese. The only problem was it was actually the Ilu River, the US had got their rivers mixed up. To confuse this even more the US Marines called it the Alligator River. Of the 917 Japanese attacked the US forces at the mouth of the river. Their attack however was not well planned. They attacked from the sea side and they walked into an established defensive position. All but 128 were killed. When we returned to the road from the rivermouth we could see the edge of the airfield. Thefighting took place only about 200 metres short of the airfield.
After this we went to the airfield itself. There is a memorial garden. We drove around the airfield, passing the remaining air control tower. It was destroyed 13 times by the Japanese. Next to this is a Memorial for the Battle at Bloody Ridge or Edsons Ridge. More on that in a moment. Then we went past the area where the US had their HQ. It was housed in what was the Japanese Pagoda. They then moved after destroying the Pagoda when they realised it was being used as a landmark for artillary barrages of the airfield.
Bloody Ridge runs between two hills, Hill 1 and Hill 2.They are numbered as the US discovered them. Bloody Ridge is between the high ground, Mt. Austen, and the airfield. It was held by the Japanese who were forced back towards Mt. Austen. They counter attacked, the US troops were forced back from Hill 1 across the Ridge to Hill 2. Standing on Hill 2 you can still see depressions of the foxholes. There has been some recent grass fires and Squeeky finds a bullet casing, centre fire of unsure calibre, but is of the size used during WW2. There were over 3,000 Japanese troops attacked the ridge which was defended by 840 US soldiers led by Merritt A Edson. This is the only area where hand to hand combat takes place. Eventually the US hold off the attack. Over 600 Japanese lose their lives. US casualties are reported to be 59.
This was the last site of the Eastern Battlefield tour. We returned to Honiara and had some lunch and regrouped for a drive to Dukes house, high on a ridge over looking Iron Bottom Sound and the Slot. Those of you “Googling” some of this stuff will know what those terms mean.
We have a great barbeque at the Dukes, then settle down to watch Crows v somebody in the AFL and then Manly v some Qld team in the Rugby League. They are both semi finals. Neither of them were semi interesting.Well that was an interesting Saturday.
I am writing this for my family and myself. I could write more on the Battlefields and Naval Battles that took place here that I have learnt about. However as no-one else is commenting I think I shall just commit it to memory. Those people who know me will be surprised that I have written so much. I am not usually this demonstrative.
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