OCR Text |
Show SOLOMON FIGHT FIRST STEP ON WAY TO TOKYO The United States took the first amphibious step to Tokyo with the invasion of tiny Guadalcanal, in the Solomon islands on Aug. 7, 1942. Few Americans had ever heard of this mosquito-infested, malaria ridden pin point. Yet for five months America's immediate Pa cific fate dangled in the island's stifling almost impenetrable jungle jun-gle and in the shark-infested waters wat-ers surrounding it. The Guadalcanal invasion was spearheaded by marines led by Maj. Gen. Alexander A. Vander-grift. Vander-grift. It was designed primarily to protect U. S. shipping lanes to Australia where nllipd nnwpr was ships ran a guantlet and frequent- ly got canght by Jap surface ships and subs. Fed Americans at home knew how critical the situation actually was. But despite growing enemy counterattacks, the Yanks held doggedly. Jap attempts to land on Guadalcanal wereb roken up repeatedly, mainly by the small but superior air force that had been assembled on Henderson. In October, however, the Japs landed in daylight on Guadalcanal only 15 miles from the American lines. Heavy artilllery was moved ashore and by November Nipponese Nippo-nese land, sea and air forces had been massed to push the Yanks back into the sea. But America . matched the stakes. Many warships damaged in the early months of war again were ready to fight; new army and marine troops were rushed in to reinforce the weary original force and supplies from the now roaring home arsenal began coming com-ing in. slowly being built and to guard New Caledonia from air attacks. Japan had invaded the " Solo mons six weeks after Pearl Harbor Har-bor and when a marine division hit the beaches in self-propelled steel barges, under protecting sea and air cover, the enemy was surprised. sur-prised. The leathernecks quickly gained a beachead, captured the almost complete Henderson air-. air-. field and seized the smaller adjacent ad-jacent islands of Tulagi, Gavutu and Tulagi, not one of the foe surrendered sur-rendered 1800 of them, the entire en-tire garrison, had to be killed. After initial successes, the go-, ing got tough. On the night of Aug. 8, a Jap cruiser force caught allied naval patrols off guard and sank four cruisers. Bombers from the northern Solomons and Ra-baul Ra-baul began to appear daily to rip the beachhead. American supply On Nov. 13 the decisive battle for Guadalcanal was fought at sea. In three days, in the Sealark channel north of the Henderson field the navy sank 28 Jap ships and damaged ten more. The U. S. lost eight ships. Meanwhile, the leathernecks wiped out 750 Japs moving in against the airfield from the jungle and sent an equal number scurrying back to the underbrush. un-derbrush. Although after that the skilled Jap jungle warriors remained constantly bothersome, they were never again a major threat. On Dec. 9, the army, under Maj. Gen. Alex M. Patch, took over command. com-mand. And on Feb. 9 the conquest of Guadalcanal was completed. |