Guadalcanal 72 Years On

[kham]

~0900 26 Aug Bougainville coastwatchers miss this raid same as yesterday. Coast watcher boss on 'canal, Mackenzie, decides he needs new coastwatcher locations to fill the gap.

[kham]

Sub I-121 is recharging batteries on the surface. Caught by two SBDs from Wasp. One bomb hits, causing serious damage. When she surfaces hours later she is unable to dive again. Makes it back to Rabaul on 4 Sept.
14 more P-400s from the 67th arrive H. Marines are looking forward to these P-400s helping them out in air combat...

The B-17 that leads them also carries 3 F4F pilots who finished their training at Efate (ref Aug 12) BTW, the airfield at H. is big enough for B-17s to operate but it's impractical. All fuel on H. has to be pumped by hand. It takes a *long* time to refuel the 4 engine heavy bomber B-17 with hand pumps. H. doesn't have a whole lot of bombs either. From time to time, B-17s use H. to refuel in order to make extended range raids but it's not common in 1942. At about the time the B-17 lands there is an air raid on H. Bombs not even close. Not from Rabaul, probably float planes.

[kham]

No Rabaul raid today, bad weather. IJN decide to build airfield on Munda, New Georgia. 150 miles from H.
Due to scarce construction resources it takes a long time to go into operation.

[kham]

~1200 27 Aug Marine arty bombarding J. remnants near Matanikau. J. remnants repel Marine raid near Matanikau. Sec of the Navy Forrestal visits 'canal. He's not happy with what he sees and demands reinforcements for 'canal

[kham]

~0400 28 Aug DDx4 Depart Shortlands with the troops who didn't make it after Battle of Eastern Solomons. (The ones repelled on Aug 25.) Coastwatchers narc on it.
Lt. Taurman and his crew are rescued from San Cristobal His TBF ran out of fuel Aug 24, Battle of Eastern Solomons. 2 SBDs from Wasp force a sub to dive 50 miles from Wasp (SE of 'canal) Torpedo Junction becomes a big deal. Also, Buka (N. tip of Bougainville) airfield operational. J. planes would land at Buka for emergencies before.
HYPO starts to read the bits and pieces of JN25 J. naval code for the first time since the switch from JN25c to JN25d

[kham]

No air raid from Rabaul due to bad weather. 18 Bettys actually took off but gave up and returned. This was a high priority raid - they were trying to disrupt H. to cover the TE (Tokyo Express) dashing in tonight.
Joe Foss: When they got to H., the average Marine flyer had 200 hours in the air. That's all aircraft, much less in an F4F. (yikes) "Just enough time to get you in trouble."
est Missionaries on the Northern West coast are fleeing the combat. They start arriving at Father De Klerk's mission. Among them are Bishop Aubin, De Klerk's boss.

[kham]

Clemens' scouts report 2-300 J. at Tasimboko - digging in 18 miles E. of Lunga
Recon SBDs spot the incoming TE 70 miles E of Cape Esperance Neither SBD has a radio. One pilot thinks they're USN ships. He flashes a signal lamp at them. The DDs flash a response - with their AA guns! (Either the radios were broke or there's a recon version of the SBD that has radios and H. is short on them.) The SBDs attack and miss then return to H. and report.
The Sun set about 10 minutes ago. It's almost dark 11 SBDs attack 4 DDs running the Tokyo Express! Lt. Fink sank Kinryu Maru 3 days ago. Demonstrating that it wasn't a lucky shot Fink carefully plants a 500 pounder RIGHT on DD Asagiri's Long Lance torpedo launchers! Critical Hit! 122 killed DD Asagiri (Morning Fog) sinks (about 270 crew and ground troops survived) Picture from 1936. Where she rests. (Down in the lower left corner you can see where DD Jarvis met her fate Aug 9th) Lt. Caldwell nails DD Shirakumo - heavy damage. Engine room flooded, 2 injured. Out of action until April 1943. DD Yugiri takes a Direct Hit next to the bridge - 32 killed including Capt. Yamada Yuji and 40 injured. Yugiri out of action until Jan 1943. One SBD shot down by AA while trying to strafe DD Amagiri (Amagiri will become famous for slicing PT-109 in half.) With 1 DD sunk and 2 damaged the TE turns back to Shortlands *and* that's all she wrote for daylight TE runs!

After 3 weeks, various diseases (malaria, gastero-enteritis) are common among the Marines. The J. in the jungle since Aug 7 must be worse off. More recent arrivals are short on medical supplies. More on this next month.
Tanaka understands the problem. Referring to today's ass-kicking..
Until H. is dealt with, only fast IJN ships can dash to 'canal at night to avoid H. airpower. But fast ships can't carry* the heavy weapons and tanks the IJA needs to fight the Marines *except for fast seaplane tenders like Chitose. "Henceforth the J. would spare no effort to eliminate it, and the Americans none to save it." - Thomas Miller, The Cactus Air Force. (Cactus is the USN not-very-secret-code word for Guadalcanal.)

[kham]

Nuisance raid on H. by a few float planes. no damage. Welcome Washing Machine Charlie and Louie the Louse! J. make a habit of sending float planes over H. almost every night. They mistune the engine to make it noisier. Primary job - don't let Marines have a good night's sleep. Occasionally they'll drop a small bomb or two. A radar equipped night fighter could deal with these float planes but night fighters are *rare* in the SoPac in 1942. (Plus, the only real current experten in night-fighting work for the Luftwaffe and the RAF/RCAF )

Off the coast of 'canal, DM (destroyer-minesweeper) Gamble spots a sub 9,000 yards away.

[kham]

Gamble attacks the now submerged sub. For three hours...
Coastwatcher Jack Read, N. Bougainville "18 twin-engine bombers, 22 fighters now heading SE" Read also counts the planes on the way back. Very useful info! CV Hornet arrives SWPac (It takes 12 days to go from Pearl to the 'canal area!) Hornet replaces Wasp on patrol in Torpedo Junction. Wasp goes to Noumea to replenish.
Gen. Kawaguchi meets with Adm. Tanaka at Shortlands. (very important) Kawaguchi tells his commanders they'll move via DD. Col. Oka objects - says small boats (barges) are safer than DDs.

[kham]

Kawaguchi will land in red box on the right. Oka - red box on the left. H. - green box in middle.
7 USN DDs and APDs deliver supplies to 'canal and Tulagi. TR (Transport) William Burroughs arrives at Lunga point. She is full of ground crew for H. and spare AC parts. Can't finish unloading in 1 day so after a few hours she retires to Tulagi for the night to avoid Tokyo Express DDs. Oil and debris rise to the surface where Gamble was attacking the sub. Is it a trick? Nope, I-123 is sunk as confirmed by IJN records after the war. Picture is of I-121 (same design) All 71 die. I-123 is a minelaying submarine. So the minesweeper gets the minelayer! There are about 9 IJN subs patrolling Torpedo Junction.
Bettys raid H. The Coastwatcher warning didn't get there fast enough this time. F4Fs were still climbing and the Bettys bombed before interception. Zero x22, Betty x22 attacked by F4Fx10. P-400x14 try to intercept. They don't. Without enough warning, F4Fs have trouble climbing high enough, fast enough to catch Bettys. And F4Fs are the best high altitude fighters the US has (in any quantity) now. The P-400s don't even have oxygen tanks and can't fly high enough even if they did. (P-39/400 had problems getting turbo-superchargers) Marines claim 4 Bettys, 4 Zeros. People did see a Betty crash at around 600 mph! Raid damages 2 F4Fs on the ground, another F4F damaged in combat and can't be repaired Henderson Field now has 8 flyable F4Fs. Why do the J. raid H. around noontime so often? J. want to land at Rabaul before sunset and, I assume, if they take off before before dawn navigation is tricky. Sun rises between 6 and 6:30am, sets between 6 and 6:30 pm. Takes 5 hours plus to fly to 'canal... not much margin!
Paul Mason reports 5 warships leaving Shortlands, heading SE. Marines capture Matanikau. They note many *new* J. supplies.