Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office

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