Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office

the cooks in the foxholes, it had been hardtack and cold hash since
the x3th.
Down the beach were numerous targets. Between Kokumbona
and Doma Reef, five transports and eight destroyers were pouring
ashore upwards of io,ooo troops. No infiltration this, but invasion in
force, with a constant patrol of Zeros over the ships. All day on the
i5 th, the Henderson aircraft smashed at the convoy.
No sooner were the planes airborne than objectives were visible, and
waiting Zeros swept down on the Army and Marine planes starting
their dives. The destroyers contributed heavy flak. In this situation,
the technique of the P-39's and P- 4oo's shaped up somewhat as follows:
they tried to disregard enemy fighters, dived, released when the ship
was dead center in the gun sight, pulled out over the mast, and zigzagged
out of the ack-ack. Then to Henderson for another load.
Results were encouraging. One of the 67th's pilots got a probable,
two other scored hits which damaged two transports; still another
dropped on a transport which caught fire, exploded, and sank. The
air score was even-one Zero for one pilot of the 67th. Altogether the
fighter squadron sent three missions up the beach on the i5th, and in
addition weathered the usual high-level Tojo Time raid.
The Forts also had a hand in the battle. On the I4 th, six had come
up from Espiritu to pound the Express, but lost it in the darkness of
Indispensable Strait. On the i5th, ii of them, now back, possibly
damaged a transport and fired what was thought to be a light cruiser.
Of the 20 Zeros covering the landing operation, the bombers knocked
down nearly half, and though many sustained major damage, all the
Forts made the 640 miles back to Espiritu.
The night of the i5th Henderson Field absorbed a shelling by a
cruiser, but in the morning the enemy task force had left. Three of
its transports lay blazing hulks on the beach, but troops, armament,
and supplies had gone ashore. Harassment of these reinforcements
became a principal mission of the Henderson-based aircraft. As often
as they could be refueled and rearmed, P-39's, P-4oo's, and SBD's
went down to Kokumbona. The F4F- 4's made the daily Japanese
raids a costly business; on the 23d, for instance, 24 Grummans, intercepting
i6 bombers and 25 fighters, shot down 20 Zeros and 2 bombers
with no losses.
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