The major grinned. ‘Two things have really
helped save our asses on Guadalcanal, Captain. One is the reports
we get from the British and Australian Coast Watchers and their
native scouts on this island and on Bougainville Island to the
north. When they see Jap ships and aircraft headed our way they
tell us. The second thing is we’ve been reading the Emperor’s mail
for a long time now. We’ve got code-busters in Hawaii that break
the Jap codes as fast as they can invent new ones. We usually know
when they are planning something big.’
‘How about our codes? Have the Japs broken
any?’
‘Not yet, and God help us if they ever do.
Especially now, with so many of our ships in Ironbottom Sound. Now,
as General Woods said, things are hotting up. The big one is coming
and you guys are going to be in the thick of it. At first light
tomorrow you’ll be in the air, hitting enemy ground positions,
defending the field against air attacks or hunting that Jap task
force. You won’t be assigned your duties until just before take
off. So you’d best get fed and get some rest while you can.’
As the pilots left the command post the major
called Dan back. ‘Captain.’ he said amiably. ‘I’m from Albuquerque,
New Mexico.’
‘
I know, sir.’ Dan smiled. ‘I can tell
by the way you talk.’
‘And I noticed you’re a Navajo, Captain. You
should feel at home here. There’s over three thousand Navajo in the
Marine Corps, many of them right here on Guadalcanal. Several have
been trained specially as radio operators. Are you aware of the
work they do here in signals?’
Dan shrugged. ‘No Sir, I’ve no idea. I… ’
Dan’s voice was drowned out by the roar of
aircraft overhead. He and the major hurried outside. The sky above
them was filled with planes. The Cactus Air Force was coming home
to roost and Dan looked on while the major anxiously counted each
plane as it touched down.
That night, the squadron ate canned meat and
baked beans washed down with muddy coffee in a crowded mess tent.
Afterwards, when the pilots went to their bomb shelters, Dan
noticed some were so exhausted they could hardly walk without
stumbling, and the flyers who shared a bomb shelter with the Seven
Mile Squadron, fell asleep the moment they lay down. Dan remained
awake for a long time. He lay in the eerie silence hanging over the
darkened airfield thinking of New Mexico, and of Faith in the
little house in New Farm.
Just after midnight, the stillness of the
night was shattered by a series of loud explosions. Some seemed
very distant while others sounded terrifyingly close. The Seven
Mile Squadron woke instantly but most of the other pilots slept on
undisturbed by the mayhem outside. Within a few minutes, however,
the tone and frequency of the bombardment had intensified to a deep
thunder until everyone was wide awake. Deafening explosions
reverberated right through the bomb shelter.
‘Listen,’ someone called out in the darkness.
‘Listen…’ After a few moments the same voice said, ‘There’s nothing
hitting the airfield. The action is out in Ironbottom Sound.
There’s a goddamn naval battle going on out there.’
The thunder of the big guns lasted for almost
two hours. During the battle, the pilots of the Cactus Air Force
and thousands of Marines encamped around Henderson Field, looked on
as the night sky over Ironbottom Sound was constantly illuminated
like an immense fireworks display. It was plain to see the battle
was being fought at close range. Shipboard searchlights and flares
were directing the gunfire. The flashes of the big guns and their
throaty roar was followed by ear-splitting explosions as shells and
torpedoes found their marks, setting many of the combatants’
warships ablaze and blowing up their magazines. .
At a pre-dawn pilots’ briefing everything
became horrifyingly clear. During the night the Japanese task force
from Rabaul had steamed through ‘the slot’. The massive fleet
consisted of two battleships and over a dozen destroyers and
cruisers. They had been picked up on radar entering Ironbottom
Sound just as the departing American transports began to steam
south. The Admiral commanding the naval escort decided to send only
a few warships with the convoy and ordered the bulk of his force,
eight destroyers and five cruisers to take on the Japanese task
force. By first light it was clear the naval battle had been
disastrous for the Americans.
Confusion in command and poor
positioning of ships had resulted in US vessels being hit by
friendly fire as well as by the Japanese. After a ferocious and
bloody battle, the cruisers USS
Atlanta,
USS
Juneau,
and four destroyers had been sunk or were
sinking. Of the US warships that survived the battle, only the
destroyer USS
Fletcher
avoided
serious damage. The Japanese had fared much better with only one
destroyer sunk , one damaged together with a battleship. But in
defeat the Navy had saved Henderson Field from a terrible
bombardment.
At dawn the entire Cactus Air Force of
over seventy fighters and dive-bombers took to the air. The
atmosphere above Ironbottom Sound was still thick with smoke from
burning ships. Some were still in their death throes, sinking
slowly as fires aboard them raged out of control. Some, like the
cruiser USS
Atlanta
were still
afloat but beyond salvage and being scuttled. Others, like the
battleship
Hiei
were was
limping northward, desperately trying to stay afloat.
The Cactus Air Force wasted no time in
sending the damaged
Hiei
and
Yudachi
straight to
the bottom. Other aircraft were dispatched to the north to hunt
down and attack the withdrawing task force. Dan’s squadron stayed
closer to Henderson Field making low runs over the shark-infested
waters of Ironbottom Sound looking for survivors of the naval
battle. When they located survivors among the hundreds of bodies
floating in the sound, they signaled their position to small rescue
craft by wagging their wings. By mid-afternoon, reconnaissance
planes reported another Japanese task force was steaming toward
Guadalcanal. To make matters worse, the weather was closing in and
it would soon be dark. The only good news was that poor weather and
visibility might soften the inevitable bombardment of Henderson
Field.
When Admiral Halsey, the Commander of
the US Pacific Fleet, heard the news of the disaster in Ironbottom
Sound and that the Japanese were a sending another huge force to
Guadalcanal, he was four hundred miles away aboard the aircraft
carrier USS
Enterprise
. He
immediately ordered the battle group protecting his flagship,
the
battleships
Washington
and
South
Dakota
and their escort of four destroyers, to steam
to the defense of Henderson Field. He also directed the
Enterprise
to sail close enough to
Guadalcanal for her aircraft to be deployed against the enemy. But
there was no way any of the vessels could reach Ironbottom Sound in
time to prevent the task force from attacking Henderson Field that
night.
The Japanese bombardment began at midnight.
Thankfully it rained most of the night and the raiders were forced
to use flares to see where to direct their fire. Many shells fell
well wide of the mark or into the soft, spongy mud on the airfield
and failed to explode. In spite of the rain, many fires burned
wildly in the surrounding jungle and when the task force withdrew,
its commander was certain that he had inflicted a mortal blow on
Henderson Field. So confident were the Japanese that the airfield
had been put out of action, that the transports carrying
reinforcements which had been waiting around the islands to the
north were told to proceed to Guadalcanal immediately.
The transports’ naval escort was led by
the battleship
Kirishima.
The
flotilla soon discovered that the reports of Henderson Field being
knocked out overnight were false. By early morning the Cactus Air
Force was airborne and hitting the troopships while they were still
far away from Guadalcanal. The pilots were ordered to hit the
Japanese transports and leave its warship escort for the fleet
dispatched by Admiral Halsey. The Cactus Air Force pounded the
vessels all day, aided in the late afternoon by aircraft from
the
Enterprise
which had
sailed within range. By nightfall, six of the eleven transports had
been sunk with horrendous Japanese casualties. But the five
transports which survived the carnage continued on, hoping to land
reinforcements under cover of darkness.
In the middle of the night everyone was
awaked when the battleships
Washington
and
South
Dakota
arrived undetected in Ironbottom Sound and
opened up on the Japanese task force with their sixteen inch
radar-directed guns. Once again the Cactus Air Force looked on in
the blackness of the night as another major naval battle was played
out in Ironbottom Sound. In the fierce engagement there were heavy
losses on each side including the Japanese battleships
Kirishima
and the
South Dakota.
Dawn found the five remaining Japanese
transports lying just off Guadalcanal, completely abandoned by
their battered naval escort. When the Cactus Air Force began its
assault on the defenseless ships, they made a headlong, reckless
dash for the shore at full speed in a determined bid to beach
themselves. Wave after wave of aircraft, including Dan’s squadron,
swooped low over the crowded decks of the unarmed merchant ships
and repeatedly strafed and bombed the vessels’ crowded decks. The
carnage continued long after the transports had run high and dry on
the beaches and tried desperately to disembark troops and unload
supplies. Now sitting ducks, they came under fire from all
directions, attacked by aircraft, warships and every American
ground battery within range. The Americans sensed the final curtain
was coming down on the battle for Guadalcanal and everyone wanted
to be in on the kill.
Dan was sickened by the wholesale slaughter
that followed and he was grateful when his squadron was ordered to
disengage. But when he banked away and leveled out after making a
final run over the beached transports, he heard the same sickening
thud he had heard over Van Diemen Gulf. He knew instantly his plane
had been hit, only this time by friendly fire. He pulled back hard
on the stick trying to climb. But the stick was suddenly stiff and
would hardly respond. Then it jammed tight. He tried the rudder.
The peddle wouldn’t move an inch. Dan knew the controls to the
tailplane had been knocked out.
Unable to climb or turn, all Dan could do was
fly in a straight line. He was still at low altitude and it was
hard to see. Outside the cockpit the air was thick with smoke from
the burning transports. There was no option but to crash-land. Dan
hoped the plane was pointing out to sea. But moments later, when it
burst out of the smoke he saw Mt Austen lying directly ahead of
him. He eased back the throttle and looked for somewhere to
crash-land. Tall trees in the jungle below ruled out any chance of
surviving a landing. Now he was nearing the lower slopes of Mount
Austen, the area the Marines called Purgatory. He saw a patch of
swampy vegetation with no trees at all. He cut the engine and
braced himself. Moments later his plane ploughed into a dense wall
of green foliage. Then everything went black.
Dan was still unconscious half an hour later
when a group of near-naked and half-starved Japanese pulled him
from the cockpit.
*
The last days of the bloody battle for
Guadalcanal and the exploits of the Cactus Air Force in
mid-November received worldwide attention. But even before details
were officially released to the Australian press and radio, word of
the spectacular success and its terrible cost in human life had
spread through the headquarters building and even to Faith in Major
Hunter’s office. Staff Sergeant Welenski’s pipeline had already
reported that Dan had been posted twice from Iron Range, first to
Milne Bay, then Port Moresby, so Faith joined in the victory
celebrations, still blissfully unaware of his transfer to Henderson
Field.
It was several days later when Welenski took
Faith to one side and told her about the Far East Air Force pilots
sent from the Seven Mile Drome to Guadalcanal. And she spent
another three weeks waiting on tenterhooks before she looked up
from her desk one day to see Welenski standing ashen-faced at the
door of her office. Faith knew something had happened to Dan even
before Welenski told her. She could tell by his lowered eyes and
the sag in his jaw. When he’d told her as gently as he could that
that Dan was missing and presumed dead, he closed the door behind
him. But not before he had released the catch on the lock to allow
her to be alone with her grief.
*
Joe heard about the American victory on
Guadalcanal on the BBC Overseas Service when his section was
gathered around the radio one night at the height of a tropical
storm at the onset of the wet. For a while the news seemed to break
the monotony of the long weeks at Eagle’s Nest. There had been no
sightings of enemy activity except a few reconnaissance aircraft
which had been identified as Japanese and duly reported to
headquarters in Katherine. Two horseback patrols led by Smokey
Peters, one to the north of Rosie Creek and one to the south had
seen nothing of interest. All the excitement seemed to be in Darwin
which, according to the radio reports, was still being bombed as
regular as clockwork.