_Here Batteries A and B set up at Piru Plantation to shell Vila. The
counterbattery exchanges with the Japanese on Kolombangara gave the
battle a personal note. Soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division add
graffiti to a shell to be sent as a “Message from FDR” at the campaigns
end._]
On 24 August, ComAir New Georgia at Munda was relieved by Commander
Aircraft Solomon’s Fighter Command, at which time, General Mulcahy
turned over his responsibilities to Colonel William O. Brice. Mulcahy’s
staff continued to coordinate liaison and spotter aircraft and
strike missions launching from Munda Field until relieved of these
responsibilities by ComAirSols on 24 September.
“Success in the air is a lot of little things,” observed VMF-214’s
commander and Medal of Honor recipient, Major Gregory (Pappy)
Boyington, and most of them “can be taken care of before takeoff.” With
the Japanese air bases now within closer range of Allied aircraft,
Boyington and others conducted fighter sweeps of 36 to 48 planes that
were classics of their kind. Throughout this, escorted bomber and
strafing attacks continued. The capture and use of Munda Field was now
felt by the Japanese “in spades” observed Fighter Command’s Condon, as
dive bombing and strafing attacks against the enemy were daily routine.
On 28 August, First Lieutenant Alvin J. Jensen of VMF-214 was lost
in a rainstorm over Kahili and when he broke through the clouds he
found himself inverted over the Japanese field. Turning wings level,
he proceeded to shoot up the flight-line and accounted for 24 enemy
aircraft on the ground. Photographs confirmed the damage and Jensen
earned the Navy Cross for this work, described as “one of the greatest
single-handed feats” of the Pacific War.
During this time, Lieutenant Colonel Frank H. Schwable’s VMF(N)-531
arrived in the Russells to begin night-fighter operations along with a
similar Navy unit. Using ground-controlled radar intercept vectors, the
squadron’s Lockheed PV-1 Venturas then closed for the kill using the
aircraft’s on-board radar. This began the Marines’ ability to deny the
Japanese the cover of darkness over Vella Lavella and elsewhere.
Air support during the Central Solomons campaign was considered of
high quality by all commanders. Aviation historian and veteran Pacific
War correspondent Robert Sherrod estimated that of the 358 aircraft
the Japanese lost during this campaign, 187 were destroyed by Marine
air. More significant were the resultant deaths of highly trained and
experienced pilots and crews whom the Japanese could not replace.
Marine aviation unit casualties for operations in the Central Solomons
were 34 of the 97 Allied aircraft lost. As a postscript to New Georgia
operations, on 20 October 1943, Commander Aircraft Solomons moved to
Munda to use the airfield as his headquarters from which he would fight
the New Britain and Bougainville campaigns.
[Sidebar (page 30): The Douglas R4D ‘Skytrain’
[Illustration:
Drawing by Kerr Eby, U.S. Navy Combat Art Collection
]
Not all aircraft in the Central Solomons were fighters or bombers. The
Douglas DC-3 Skytrain or Dakota (C-47 in the Navy version) was designed
in 1933, and became the standard American transport of the war. The
plane was an all-metal monoplane with twin engines and retractable
landing gear. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney radial engines
of 1,200 horsepower each. It carried a crew of three, 28 passengers
or 18 stretchers, and three medical attendants. It could also carry
up to 6,000 pounds of cargo at average speeds of 185 miles-per-hour.
The U.S. Navy and Marines had some 600 Skytrains, designated as R4Ds.
In the Central Solomons they were used for air resupply and medical
evacuation. The Marines were still using the C117, a variation of the
R4D into the 1970’s.
]
_A Joint Pattern for Victory_
The last Japanese air attacks on New Georgia came the nights of 16 and
17 January 1944, but by then the campaign was finished and the final
score taken. Army historian John Miller quoted a senior officer as
concluding that the heavily outnumbered Japanese stood off nearly four
Allied divisions in the course of the action, and successfully withdrew
to fight again. One Japanese noted at the time that the:
... Japanese Army is still depending on the hand-to-hand fighting
of the Meiji Era while the enemy is using highly developed
scientific weapons. Thinking it over, however, this poorly armed
force of ours has not been overcome and we are still guarding this
island.
In his postwar memoirs, Admiral Halsey commented on how the smell
of burnt reputations in the New Georgia campaign still filled his
nostrils. The smoking reputations Halsey referred to came as the result
of outright reliefs and transfers of senior officers and they were not
limited to any one service. Numerous changes were made in the command
structure until he got the commanders needed to produce results. The
payoff to the New Georgia operation resulted in the Vella Lavella
landings that bypassed Kolombangara and successful Bougainville and New
Britain campaigns that demonstrated the pattern for successful joint
operations there and throughout the Pacific War.
The Army had 1,094 men killed and 3,873 wounded in the fighting for
New Georgia, while the Marines suffered 650 casualties in all. The
Marines came through in better condition than might have been otherwise
expected. Morale during the periods of greatest danger had been high.
In the last two months of the campaign with enemy activity virtually
nonexistent, the effects of the rough conditions showed to a certain
extent, but at no time, was there any slackening in the performance of
duty. For most of the campaign, shelter and sanitation were absent and
the food, though usually of sufficient quantity, was seldom appetizing.
It was felt after the Solomons campaign that “struggle for control of
the Solomon Islands was a critical turning point in the war against
Japan. These campaigns can best be appreciated as a sequence of
interacting naval, land, and air operations.” The contribution to the
ability to conduct joint operations was measured in the differences
between the fighting on New Georgia in the summer 1943 and the success
realized at Bougainville and Cape Gloucester later in the year. Here
was a pattern for joint operations, and, as coastwatcher D.C. Horton
phrased it, it was a “pattern for victory.”
[Illustration: _Even though the 9th Defense Battalion Artillery Group
positions at Munda Airfield were bombed, they continued to fire at
assigned targets. Here elements of Battery A smolders after an air
raid._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) Photo 56830
]
_Sources_
The basic sources for this pamphlet were the second volume in the
series _History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II,
Isolation of Rabaul_, written by Henry I. Shaw, Jr. and Maj Douglas
T. Kane, USMC (Washington: Historical Branch, G-3 Division, HQMC,
1963), and Maj John T. Rentz, USMCR, _Marines in the Central Solomons_
(Washington: Historical Branch, HQMC, 1952). Other books used in this
narrative were: Adm William F. Halsey and J. Bryan III, _Admiral
Halsey’s Story_ (New York, McGraw Hill, 1947); Saburo Hayashi and
Alvin D. Coox, _Kogun, The Japanese Army in the Pacific_ (Quantico:
Marine Corps Association, 1959); RAdm Samuel E. Morison, _Breaking the
Bismarcks Barrier: History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II_,
vol VI (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1950); Robert L. Sherrod,
_History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II_ (Washington:
Combat Forces Press, 1952); Charles A. Updegraph, Jr., _U.S. Marine
Corps Special Units of World War II_ (Washington: History and Museums
Division, HQMC, 1972); Col Joseph E. Zimmer, _The History of the
43d Infantry Division_ (Baton Rouge, LA: Army and Navy Publishing
Co., 1947); John Miller, Jr., _Cartwheel: The Reduction of Rabaul_
(Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of
the Army, 1959). In addition, in the Marine Corps Historical Center,
Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., are the Marine Corps Archives,
which contain much primary source material produced by the Marine Corps
units in the fighting in the Central Solomons. Also in the Center are
the Oral History and Personal Papers Collections, containing many
first-hand accounts of the operation.
The author wishes to thank members of the raider, aviation, and defense
battalion reunion groups and associations which provided letters,
manuscripts, and recollections to aid in the writing of this history.
_About the Author_
[Illustration]
Major Charles D. Melson, USMC (Retired) is originally from the San
Fransciso Bay area. He is married to Janet Ann Pope, a former Navy
Nurse.
Major Melson completed graduate education at St. John’s College in
Annapolis. He is a coauthor of _The War that Would Not End_, a volume
in the official history of Marine Corps operations in Vietnam, and
is the author of _Vietnam Marines_. He served as a historian in the
Marine Corps Historical Center, Washington Navy Yard, for six years and
continues to deal with the past as the director of The Queen Anne’s
Museum of Eastern Shore Life in Maryland. Major Melson was a Marine for
25 years, 1967 to 1992, and served in Vietnam in a variety of Fleet
Marine Force positions. He was a history instructor at the United
States Naval Academy, and served also at Headquarters, U.S. Marine
Corps.
[Illustration]
THIS PAMPHLET HISTORY, one in a series devoted to U.S. Marines in
the World War II era, is published for the education and training of
Marines by the History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine
Corps, Washington. D.C., as a part of the U.S. Department of Defense
observance of the 50th anniversary of victory in that war.
Printing costs for this pamphlet have been defrayed in part by the
Defense Department World War II Commemoration Committee. Editorial
costs of preparing this pamphlet have been defrayed in part by a
bequest from the estate of Emilie H. Watts, in memory of her late
husband, Thomas M. Watts, who served as a Marine and was the recipient
of a Purple Heart.