http://search.time.com/results.html?N=0&Nty=1&Ntt=guadalcanal&p=0&cmd=tags&srchCat=Full+Archive&Nf=p_date_range|BTWN+19420101+19430131Interessant voor de geïnteresseerden (haha): het Time-archief is tot de jaren twintig te doorzoeken. Inderdaad stonden de mariniers op elke frontpage in Amerika; het is best geinig om de artikelen van destijds nog eens door te lezen.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,932761,00.htmlhttp://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,773827,00.htmlTwee cover-artikelen van destijds.
quote:
Around Tulagi, the bull's-eye, are other rings of the Navy's target. Most important of them passes through the island of Guadalcanal, said to be the only spot on the Solomons where a big system of air-dromes could be established. For the rest, the Solomons are precipitously mountainous (highest peak 10,000 feet), bordered with miasmic mangrove swamps, inhabited by ebony-black natives with an incurable habit of roasting and eating white visitors.
Ding Dong. The fighting that accompanied the attack was of that bitter kind that can be expected in landing on a hostile shore against a determined enemy. The Japs announced that their planes went out and engaged the attacking vessels in a raging storm. As usual they made exaggerated claims of losses inflicted on the U.S.—asserted that they had sunk a battleship and 21 other warships and transports.
The U.S. communiqués admitted that stiff resistance was encountered, admitted that at least one U.S. cruiser was sunk, two cruisers, two destroyers and one transport damaged. But they announced that initial surprise had been achieved, that many enemy planes had been downed and surface vessels put out of action.
More important, it was announced after three days of fighting that landings had been made, a pretty good indication that the Marines who accompanied the fleet had obtained good footholds. But the Navy also said that "the enemy has counterattacked with rapidity and vigor. Heavy fighting is still in progress." In short, it was a ding-dong battle, with U.S. planes, presumably carrier-based, fighting land-based Jap planes, and troops of both sides fighting hand to hand.
quote:
A quiet, middle-aged man sat down to write his wife a letter. He began: "Have been so busy last few days, no time to write. . . ."
Most military men are given to understatement, but not many have written as modestly as this. The author of the terse sentence was Major General Alexander Archer Vandegrift, Commander of the Marines in the Solomons, and he certainly had been busy. At 55, he had been climbing up & down cargo nets like a 25-year-old. He had lowered his high rank into damp foxholes. He had eaten captured Jap rice for want of anything better. Like his men, he had slapped anopheles mosquitoes, swum naked in the Lunga River.
He had, moreover, led the U.S. Marines in the toughest job they ever did.
Archer Vandegrift was still busy this week, and the eyes of much of the world focused on his business. To most outsiders, his Solomon Islands battle has grown from an interesting little adventure in offense into a clash which may vitally affect the whole war. For the Japanese are now committed to trying to retake what he took from them. The U.S. is equally committed to holding on, and eventually taking more.
The Battle Begins. The clash of intent led this week to battle. The Japanese began a coordinated land, sea and air attack.
First they felt out the U.S. defenses to the west of the beachhead, in a series of light attacks. The Marines held. Then the Japs struck hard on that quarter, with artillery and tanks for the first time. The Marines held. Next the Japs swept down from the hills to the south of the camp. The Marines held.
Then hell fell on the beachhead. In mid-morning a fence of enemy cruisers and destroyers shelled it from the north. Douglas dive-bombers went up and damaged a heavy cruiser. Then 16 enemy dive-bombers, which must have been carrier-based, attacked Henderson Field. Five were shot down. Nine more Jap divers swooped in. This time they did damage.
[ Bericht 33% gewijzigd door superworm op 22-03-2010 13:13:31 ]
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