Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office
Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office
Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office
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More serious, the Japanese field piece had again begun to lob<br />
shells-this time into the area around the end of the runway. The<br />
Seabees of the 6th Battalion had been racing up and down the strip<br />
with pre-cut Marston mat and preloaded dump trucks prepared for<br />
the expected craters, but their efforts had barely kept the field in<br />
operation. Pilots and mechanics were crawling from their foxholes<br />
to ready the P-4oo's for another mission-to track down "Pistol Pete,"<br />
as the gun had already been named. Suddenly the mission was<br />
called off-no gas!<br />
Just before midnight came the main event. First the noise of a<br />
small plane overhead. Then three flares, a red one for the west end<br />
of the runway, green for the east, and white in the center. The men<br />
were scarcely in the foxholes when bedlam broke loose. Off Guadalcanal<br />
stood an Express consisting of 2 battleships, i light cruiser, and<br />
8 destroyers. For over 2 hours the bombardment continued. Runway<br />
and dispersal area were brought under fire; after a thorough<br />
pattern shelling, the enemy shifted to the camp sites in the palm grove.<br />
Gas and ammunition dumps took hits and all over the field aircraft<br />
went up in smoke and flame. For whole minutes the area was bright<br />
as day from the flares.<br />
The Japanese let up long enough to cool their guns, then it began<br />
again. At 0315, the Express stood for home. Three bombers came<br />
overhead and dropped their sticks; then three more; and so on until<br />
dawn.<br />
The morning of the i4th lit up a shambles. Tents were collapsed<br />
or shrapnel-riddled. The aerial defenses were seriously reduced; in<br />
all, 57 aircraft had been destroyed or damaged. To meet the Express,<br />
four SBD's remained, but no TBF's; to meet the Tojo Time raid, only<br />
a few Wildcats. The 67th had been fortunate-two P- 39's damaged<br />
and none of the P-4oo's even hit. A few barrels of aviation gas remained.<br />
On the I3th Colonel Saunders' B-17's had been bombing<br />
over Buka and Tonolei, had returned to Henderson, where two of<br />
the Forts were so sieved that night by shrapnel that they had to be<br />
abandoned.<br />
In the midst of the post-raid rubble and confusion, Colonel Saunders<br />
led out his remaining B-17's. Less than 2,000 feet of Henderson's<br />
runway was usable, but the bombers took off for Espiritu in i,8oo<br />
feet, drawing 70 inches of pressure without a cylinder blowing out.<br />
37