The 1st Parachute Bn (fighting as infantrymen) landed on Gavutu, a tiny island two miles away. So far they have been decimated, and will almost certainly suffer worse losses than this before it's over for them.
The 1st and 3rd Bns, 5th Marines, landed on the Northern Coast of Guadalcanal, west of Lunga Point, to not very much initial resistance. They were attacked by Japanese twenty-five to thirty twin-engine bombers from Rabaul, at half past eleven.
I can't really tell you what happened the first afternoon and through the first night, except to say the Marines were on the beach and more were landing.
Just before eleven in the morning yesterday (8 Aug), we were alerted (by the Coastwatchers on Buka, where Banning sent the radio) to a 45-bomber force launched from Kavieng, New Ireland (across the channel from Rabaul). They arrived just before noon and caused some damage. Our carriers of course sent fighters aloft to attack them, and some of our fighters were shot down.
At six o'clock last night Admiral Fletcher radioed Ghormley that he had lost 21 of 99 planes, was low on fuel, and wants to leave.
I am so angry I don't dare write what I would like to write. Let me say that in my humble opinion the Admiral' s estimates of his losses are over generous, and his estimates of his fuel supply rather miserly. Ghormley, not knowing of this departure from the facts, gave him the necessary permission. General Vandergrift came aboard the McCawley a little before midnight last night and was informed by Admiral Fletcher that the Navy is turning chicken and pulling out.
This is before, I want you to understand, in case this becomes a bit obfuscated in the official Navy reports-before we took such a whipping this morning at Savo Island. As I understand it we lost two US Cruisers (Vincennes and Quincy) within an hour, and the Australian cruiser Canberra was set on fire. The Astoria was sunk about two hours ago, just after noon.
In thirty minutes, most of the invasion fleet is pulling out. Ten transports, four destroyers, and a cruiser are going to run first, and what's left will be gone by 1830.
The ships are taking with them rations, food, ammunition, and Marines desperately needed on the beach at Guadalcanal. There is no telling what the Marines will use to fight with; and there' s not even a promise from Fletcher about a date when he will feel safe to resupply the Marines. If the decision to return is left up to Admiral Fletcher, I suppose that we can expect resupply by sometime in 1945 or 1950.
I say "we" because I find it impossible to sail off into the sunset on a Navy ship, leaving Marines stranded on the beach.
I remember what I said to you about the Admirals when we first met. I was right, Frank.
Best Personal Regards,
Fleming Pickering,
Captain, USNR
TOP SECRET
Patricia Pickering looked at Frank Knox. "I didn't know that we lost three cruisers. My God!" She may not consider herself qualified to run Pacific and Far East Shipping, Knox thought, but she knows what a cruiser is, and what the loss of those three cruisers means to the Pacific Fleet.
"That was very bad news," Knox said.
"And they had to leave, to avoid the risk of losing even more ships?"
"Your husband doesn't think so," Knox said. "I don't want to sit here in Washington and judge the decisions made on the scene of battle by an experienced admiral whose personal courage is beyond question."
"And my husband? Do I correctly infer that he went ashore on Guadalcanal and is there now?"
"I'm afraid so."
"God damn him!" Patricia Pickering said furiously. "The old fool!"
"Apparently, there is someone more annoyed with Captain Pickering than I am," Knox said. "I didn't send him over there to shoulder a rifle."
She smiled at him.
"They're mad, you know. Anyone who is, or who ever was, a Marine is mad. And I am blessed-or cursed-with two of them."
"Blessed, I would say," Knox said. "Wouldn't you, really?"
She smiled at him again. "What happens now?"
"That message came in just as Haughton and I were leaving for the White House. As soon as we get back to the office, Captain Haughton is going to radio orders for Captain Pickering to be withdrawn from Guadalcanal as soon as possible. How long would you say it's been, Mrs. Pickering, since someone read the riot act to your husband?"
"Much too long, Mr. Knox," Patricia Pickering said.
"My heart won't be in it, frankly," he said. "But under the circumstances-I used to be a sergeant myself, you know- I don't think I've forgotten how to chew somebody out."
Mrs. Fleming Pickering surprised the Secretary of the Navy. She moved her head quickly to his and kissed him on the cheek.
(Two)
NEAR LUNGA POINT
GUADALCANAL, SOLOMON ISLANDS
1440 HOURS 12 AUGUST 1942
Captain Fleming Pickering, USNR, stood on the bed of a Japanese Navy Ford truck and watched as Marines worked to put the finishing touches on the airfield the Japanese had begun. He was wearing sweat-streaked utilities; on his head was a soft utility cap (instead of the steel helmet he was supposed to wear). A Springfield 1903.30-06 rifle was cradled like a hunting rifle in his arms.
This airfield, in his judgment, was the reason for OPERATION PESTILENCE. Even before it was ready to handle aircraft it was named "Henderson Field" by General Vandergrift in order to honor Major Lofton Henderson, USMC, who had been killed after some spectacularly heroic airmanship at Midway. Whoever controlled this airfield was going to be able to control the Solomons, and thus New Guinea and Australia, and very likely the outcome of the war.
There was no doubt in Pickering's mind that the Japanese Imperial General Staff was at least as aware of the importance of this airfield as Frank Knox's personal snoop. And thus there was no question in his mind that they were going to make a valiant effort to take it back. Soon they would try to throw the First Marine Division back into the sea. He was surprised that there had not already been a violent counterattack, if not by the Japanese actually on Guadalcanal, then by Japanese naval and air forces.
So far, OPERATION PESTILENCE had gone much better than Pickering had expected, particularly after the Navy had sailed off to protect its precious aircraft carriers, taking with them a long list of material and equipment that was desperately needed on the island.
The area held by the Marines was now about 3,600 yards wide and 2,000 yards deep. Not all of the perimeter was occupied, however; that is, not every part of the perimeter was protected by trenches and foxholes. The entire beach line was so defended; but at the ends of the beach, the foxholes and machine gun emplacements extended only 500 yards or so away from the water. The cannon of the 11th Marines, in fortified positions, were in place on the forward line; and there were fortified positions scattered among the artillery emplacements.
Facing inland, the Marines held positions from 700 yards to the right of the mouth of the Kukum River to the right bank of Alligator Creek (also called "The Tenaru River") on the left. "Henderson Field" was within this area, roughly in the middle, and about 1200 yards from the beach. Division Headquarters had been set up about equidistant between Lunga Point on the beach and Henderson Field.
The invasion of Guadalcanal had taken the Japanese by surprise. Their major troop units there had been the 11th and 12th Naval Rikusentai companies, about 450 men in all. The nearest American equivalent of these units would be Naval Construction Battalions. But the Rikusentai were neither trained nor equipped the way the American Sea-Bee's were- to fight as infantry as well as to build. Thus when the invasion began, the Japanese Rikusentai units on Guadalcanal had scattered to the boondocks-specifically to somewhere near Kukum.
Fortunately for the Marines, whose own engineer equipment had never been off-loaded from the invasion fleet, they left behind all of their engineer equipment, as well as large quantities of food and other equipment, and even cannon. That wasn't the end of the bounty, though: A Japanese communications radio, far superior to anything the Marines had, had been captured intact and converted to American use. And Marines of Lieutenant Jim Barrett's machine-gun platoon, M Company, 5th Marines, had captured two Japanese 3-inch Naval cannon, found ammunition for them, and pointed their ad hoc coast artillery battery seaward from the beach. They would be used against the Japanese warships everyone knew would soon appear offshore.
The large stocks of food the Rikusentai left behind would probably keep the 1st Marine Division from starving, Pickering thought. The departing fleet had carried away with it most of the rations it was supposed to have put ashore for
the Marines.
Though the Rikusentai had rendered unusable the truck Pickering was standing on-the tires had been slashed and sand poured into the gas tank and engine oil filter-they didn't have time to sabotage most of the other trucks they left behind. So these were either intact or repairable. And so were several small bulldozers and other engineer equipment. Without the Japanese equipment, completing the airfield would have been impossible.
The Japanese plan for constructing the field involved starting from both ends and working toward a natural depression in the middle. Since the Japanese had not yet filled in the depression by the time the invasion came, when the Marines started work, that was their first order of business. One of the officers told Pickering that the job required moving 100,000 cubic yards of dirt. After that, the Marines extended the runway to 2600 feet, which was the minimum length required for operation by American airplanes.
But all that was now just about completed-with more help from the Japanese than the U.S. Navy, Pickering thought bitterly. The proof seemed to be that a Navy Catalina amphibious long range reconnaissance airplane was overhead, acting as if it wanted to come in for a landing.
Pickering jumped off the bed of the derelict Japanese truck, and walked to the Henderson Field control tower-obligingly built by the Rikusentai. They neglected to destroy it before heading for the boondocks.