Chapter Five
Vella Lavella

The Solomon Islands are formed of two parallel chains, which point in a north-westerly direction, and at the top of the southern chain is the New Georgia Group, of which the most northerly island is Vella Lavella. The island is about 16 miles long and up to 12 miles wide—mountainous, jungle covered, rising in the centre to precipitious peaks 3,000 feet high, and largely surrounded by coral reefs. When an early surveyor approached the coast and asked the island's name, a native had replied with a question: "There? Over there?" as the local people had no name for the land as a whole. However, the reply was not understood and was recorded as Vella Lavella. The fierce headhunted of former days are now represented by about 800 Methodist natives who live a quiet life around the coast in small villages, and are noted for their intelligence. Before the war the island was largely unsurveyed, and had a mere handful of white residents on scattered plantations and at a mission station and hospital at Biloa.

On the approach of the Japanese almost all the Europeans had been evacuated in February, 1942, and the enemy first occupied Vella Lavella on 13 October in that year. The allied campaign in the Solomon Islands had opened two months before, and had progressed step by step up the southern chain of islands. After the Americans had taken Guadalcanal and occupied the Russell Islands to its north, they opened an offensive against the Japanese in the New Georgia page 76Group in June, 1943. There Munda, New Georgia Island, was the principal enemy strongpoint. The Americans drove the Japanese northward out of New Georgia Island on to Kolombangara Island, and when the enemy attempted to withdraw from the group altogether there were three naval battles in the vicinity, in which nearly a score of vessels was sunk. Some Japanese survivors landed on Vella Lavella, 14 miles to the north-west of Kolombangara.

On 15 August, 1943, the 35th Regimental Combat Team (the equivalent of a New Zealand brigade group) from the: 15th US Division landed at Barakoma on the south-east of Vella Lavella. Kolombangara was then sandwiched between two hostile coasts. The Japanese on Vella Lavella fell back to the north coast of the island, but did not intend to surrender without a struggle, and received some reinforcements from the north. US naval construction battalions (Seabees) began to construct an air strip at Barakoma, and in September the 14th Brigade of the 3rd New Zealand Division came up from Guadalcanal to relieve the US regiment and to destroy the Japanese in the north.

Two of the brigade's three combat teams, each including one third of the 16th MT Company, embarked at Guadalcanal on 16 September, and small advanced parties from Headquarters Divisional ASC and the 10th MT Company also left that day. The officer commanding the 16th MT Company had already left via Munda for Vella Lavella on 13 September with a small brigade advanced party, and reached his destination two days later. The trip up from Guadalcanal was the New Zealanders' first experience at sea with the various types of assault landing craft. Everyone slept in his clothes for the two nights aboard, and once more lifebelts were worn continuously. On that occasion, however, many were of a less cumbersome rubber type, worn round the waist and inflated in case of need by small 'soda siphon' tubes, or by breath if those failed.

At first light on the day after embarkation the convoy of 14 ships and six destroyers was at sea, and the coast of Guadalcanal was disappearing to the east. Men perched where they could about the hot, congested decks, or slept below. Shaving was out of the question, and anyone who felt hungry opened up one of the tins of C ration which he was carrying in his pack and ate some biscuits or 'M and V stew. The only reliefs to the tedium were when the US gun crews fired luminous blobs of tracer up into the air in a page 77practice shoot, and when in the course of the day polling booths were set up and all New Zealanders filed past to cast a vote in the general elections. During the night before the landing the darkened ships crept round the south of the New Georgia Group. Several alerts were received, and those who stayed on deck to be cool saw anti-aircraft fire bursting during an enemy attack on Munda airfield. When the escort destroyer nearest shore also began to send up flak it seemed that the convoy had been seen; however, no attack was made on it. Before dawn everyone was ready below decks with his gear on.

At daybreak on 18 September, 1943, the convoy was surrounded by strange islands, and only later was it realised that the ships had been sailing right in the lee of Kolombangara, under the very nose of the enemy. The landing craft headed in towards two points on a large island with a rugged, bush clad outline, while the destroyers stood round them in a protective semi-circle off shore. After a while small bays could be discerned where bush and palms grew right down to the water's edge and native huts stood under the trees. The LCIs touched the shore at Uzamba and Maravari at 0700 hours, and were unloaded without interruption within 15 minutes. Then the LSTs took their places, some of them also unloading at Barakoma. While some men went a few yards into the bush and dug fox-holes with tools which they had carried ashore, the remainder began the long job of unloading the LSTs. Rough clearings were selected by the 16th MT Company at the back of the beaches as sites for dumps of unit equipment, ammunition, rations and petrol, and when loaded vehicles rolled out from the belly of a landing craft they were directed to those unloading points. The truck engines roared as the vehicles crept and jolted in low gear along a primitive jeep track of mud which had been carved out of the bush along the foreshore by the Americans already on the island.

There was no interruption to the unloading until about 1100 hours when a condition red sent everyone to cover. The raiding Japanese aircraft were prevented from reaching the big ships lying in at the beaches by antiaircraft fire and fighters which were giving air cover to the landing operation. The roar and cutout of the engines and the crack of machinegun bursts from dog fights overhead attracted the unloading parties out of their shelters, and more than one plane was seen going down in flames. After the enemy had lost page 78seven planes without dropping any bombs near the unloading ships, there was no other interference during daylight. Unloading continued most of the day until the ships were cleared, when they pulled out from shore; while the discharging continued, shifts had ceased work for a few minutes to have a meal of field rations and a cup of tea which the cooks had quickly produced. Under the trees there was in most places a thin layer of peaty soil matted with roots and lying over rotten coral, and where the ASC toiled all day around the dumps the surface quickly cut up into thick mud and made conditions unpleasant.

At nightfall a complete black-out was enforced and men found shelter in any place available—in empty native huts, in vehicles or among piles of equipment. Night in the jungle was eerie; insects and birds filled the shadows with strange noises, while landcrabs rustled about through the wet, dead leaves as they were attracted towards the freshly turned earth around the fox-holes. Single Japanese planes were overhead much of the night, attempting to get over the partly constructed strip south of Barakoma, but they were usually driven back by heavy anti-aircraft fire when above the beaches at which the landings had been made. Whenever things became too hot overhead the weary ASG men piled out of their sleeping places into the shallow shelter holes which had been dug during the day. US motor torpedo boats (PT boats) and Catalina flying boats circled neighbouring Kolombangara all night in search of Japanese attempting to evacuate in barges, and to the drone of their engines was added the distant thunder of heavy US guns shelling Kolombangara from Arundel Island to its south.

They were jaded groups which began in the morning the heart-breaking task of sorting the huge stacks of rations, ammunition and pertol which had been hastily dumped from the ships. At Maravari and Uzamba the 16th MT Company set up petrol points to refuel all New Zealand vehicles, and within 24 hours of landing a five days' ration break to all units had been commenced. By dark on that second day most of the men had scratched out their own shallow, gravelike fox-holes alongside their sleeping places, but few had yet had time to build roofs over them as protection from the principal danger—falling shrapnel. Again at night there were Japanese aircraft overhead frequently, and one plane which had been unable to get through to the strip sent a stick of bombs whistling down across page 79the Maravari bivouac area, missing an ammunition dump by only a few yards.

Vella Lavella had by then passed under New Zealand command, and the 14th Brigade set about its task. Maravari became the base for operations from which the 16th MT Company ran barges—there was a small US navy boat pool in a good natural anchorage at Biloa. Three days after landing the first parties from each combat team left from Maravari and landed on the northern portion of the coast, on each side of the Japanese position—the 35th Battalion combat team, with brigade headquarters, landed at Mundi Mundi, and the 37th Battalion combat team at Doveli Cove. The 16th MT Company's role was to supply the troops on the northern coast with rations, ammunition and anything else required, and to maintain a five days' reserve of field rations and a reserve of ammunition (two units of fire) with each combat team. Detachments from the company left Maravari for each side on 22 September, and throughout the period of subsequent operations and for some days thereafter a party of ASC personnel varying between fifteen and thirty in number was attached to each combat team on supply duties.

It was quite impossible to use vehicles between Maravari and the points where the combat teams operated, as there were no roads round the rugged coast, except for a mere track a few miles on each side of Maravari. The barges which bore the brunt of the work were 14 LCV(P)s, such as transports used as landing craft. Each was capable of carrying 36 men or four tons of cargo. They were designed only for short distance work, and considering that the average run which they had to make round the Vella Lavella coast was about 50 miles, they performed well. Two LCMs, capable of carrying 16 tons of cargo, or a vehicle if need be, were also used to the maximum.

The move of the combat teams round the coast to the northern area took four days, after which supplies, ammunition, equipment, mails or reinforcements as required were sent up daily for three weeks as fast as the capacity of the barges would permit. Each day loading took place at Maravari in the grey light of dawn, with the 16th MT Company in control of the beach, on which there was a scene of great activity. The previous evening stores to be sent forward were loaded on to vehicles, which in the morning were backed down to the water's edge so that the contents could be loaded page 80on to the barge in one handling. The trips of four to five hours in barges packed with stores and passengers were hot and uncomfortable, especially when the sea was choppy outside the reef and most of the men had been put out of action with sea sickness.

The distance between the two initial landing points in the north was about 10 miles as the crow flies, but the stretch of Japanese occupied coast which bulged out between them was desolate and rugged. A maze of coral reefs lay off the shore, which was indented with inlets and often fringed with mangrove swamps; inland bush covered country rose abruptly. There was, of course, no road in the area, and few tracks, so the two forces proceeded to operate a pincers movement on the enemy by moving towards each other from bay to bay, mainly by barge.

At an early stage the 35th Battalion combat team headquarters was shifted a little nearer the enemy, to Matu Soroto Bay, which became advanced brigade headquarters. Both combat team head quarters were busy spots where there was constant barge traffic and large-scale through movement of personnel and artillery. There, and at various other points during the operation, the ASG detachments made use of abandoned copra sheds or native huts for the storage of the rations which they manhandled ashore from the barges. In addition to field rations the ASC made a great effort to keep up a supply of matches and cigarettes to the troops, though conditions in the jungle made it all but impossible for the men to keep them dry for long after they were issued. Other supplies in demand were tea, milk and sugar.

The Japanese had been in occupation of each headquarters area only a few days before. At night the ASC detachments were responsible for the defence of sections of the combat team perimeters, which were drawn around the supply dumps and the portion of shore line forming the beach-head. The men lay down on their groundsheets in fox-holes or wherever else they could. Heavy showers frequently swept over the jungle; no spot was free from smelly mud, and conditions generally were deplorable. At night New Zealand artillery was firing, while Japanese planes flew up and down the section of coast dropping supplies by parachute to the enemy troops. The planes bombed the ASC ration dumps without great success, and sometimes kept their navigation lights switched on in an attempt to draw fire and so detect the New Zealand positions. page 81There were some narrow escapes just after dawn one day at Matu Soroto, when three Japanese planes dived in unexpectedly to bomb and strafe the bivouac area. Fortunately the corrugated iron supply shed, which was peppered with bullet holes, was the only ASC casualty on that occasion. During their practically sleepless three weeks in the northern area the men of the detachments were never out of their jungle suits, and grew villainous beards.

From Matu Soroto and Doveli Cove the troops moved forward, sometimes by barge and sometimes over land, with field rations for 48 hours on their persons. The ASC delivered further rations to them by barge at prearranged points. When the 37^th Battalion combat team had advanced considerably from Doveli Cove a forward dump was established by its ASC detachment at Tambama Point, at about the same time as the battalion captured in spectacular fashion a camouflaged Japanese vessel which crept into a bay at dawn with supplies. There was no water at Tambama Point except that drawn from a small well hewn in solid coral. Even when water sterilising powder and detasting tablets were used there was a nauseating taste of swampy vegetation, and many cases of dysentery occurred at that point. Deliveries by the ASC with the 35th Battalion combat team were made at Pakoi Bay, but at Marquana Bay the infantry were unable to get through the Japanese to keep a rendezvous, and the ASC barge which began to enter the bay was fired on by enemy machine-guns, and the US coxswain and the native guide were both wounded. Infantry were known to be at Timbala Bay, further back, and so were Japanese, but the barge went in there and was again fired on; the coxswain later died of further wounds. Eventu ally the New Zealanders were discerned under the cover of trees so the barge pulled in to the shore and unloaded quickly under inaccurate enemy fire from a distance. Barges were-fired on by snipers in a similar way when making deliveries on other occasions. From time to time ASC men at the forward headquarters acted as stretcher bearer when wounded came in, or helped with the burial of dead.

Supply of the many different lines of ammunition was a big factor in the operation—over 2,000 rounds of 25'pounder ammunition were fired off by one combat team. Much of the work in the Maravari area and all of it at the forward dumps consisted of handling the heavy boxes by manpower in atrocious conditions. For his contribution to the efficient supply of ammunition during the opera-page 82tion Staff-Sergeant G. R. Braddock, of the 16th MT Company was awarded the British Empire Medal.

From the beach at Maravari ASC personnel transported supplies round the coast by boat to the battalions in action

Artillery fire and infantry action drove the Japanese north from Timbala Bay, and after a night's bivouac at Surezaru Point the 37^th Battalion combat team made an opposed landing on the other side of the enemy, at Warambari Bay, and drove them south. The ASC with that combat team had converted Tambama Point into a supply page break

Men of the 16th MT company and the 37th Battalion at the ration dump at Warambari Bay, Vella Lavella, during the action there. Below: Rations are being loaded into small landing craft for transport to men in action on the other side of the island. This picture was taken at dawn

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One of the 16th MT company's ration clumps in Boro village, in the north-west of Vella Lavella. All rations had to be transported by hand. Below: Before roads were formed on Vella Lavella trucks bumped their way round the coast, as in the picture below

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ASC trucks bumping their way through the mud of a jungle road on Vella Lavella soon after the New Zealanders arrived there. Below: The road between Maravari and Joroveto on October, 1943, before the engineers began their work

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By December, 1943, the 10th MT company had this huge ration dump established below Gill's Plantation on Vella Lavella. The photograph below was taken from the interior of an LST just after dawn on the morning of the landing at Falamai. The beach was still under fire and supplies were quickly piled in the jungle

page 83sub-depot, and some personnel moved up with the infantry to Warambari Bay attending to battalion supply matters in conjunction with the battalion quartermaster and his staff. Two days' rations and one unit of fire were taken. Because of a shortage of landing craft the move was made in flights — the first flight of infantry engaged the Japanese immediately on landing, and established a small perimeter. By the time the flight which contained the ASC men reached the bay the enemy had consolidated his position, placing a light machine-gun nest on a point at the entrance and bringing medium machine-guns and knee mortars into action. The barges ran the gauntlet of machine-gun fire to reach the landing place, which was only large enough to take one boat at a time and was under continuous sniper fire. As each barge nosed in, the men jumped ashore, dropping their packs, and as most of the infantry rushed into action the ASC and the quartermaster's staff kept the landing place clear by unloading rations and ammunition. The first night at Warambari Bay was nerve-racking—the dead had been buried alongside the men who lay in the mud, and crocodiles persisted in moving close inshore near the New Zealanders' position, giving the impression that barges were attempting to land. With excellent shooting a barrage was laid down uncomfortably close by the 25-pounders back at Tambama Point. During the day myriads of flies and smells from the Japanese dead and the mangrove swamps combined to make conditions most unpleasant.

After the Japanese had been driven south from Warambari Bay they were cooped up in an untenable position at Marquana Bay. On the night of 6 October, they evacuated Vella Lavella by sea amidst intense naval and air activity both on their own part and by the Americans. Light US naval forces off shore played havoc with the enemy ships and barges, and it is probable that few Japanese from Vella Lavella succeeded in reaching their bases to the north. Over 200 Japanese were known to have been killed in the fighting on land, for the loss of 30 New Zealanders killed (in the northern area); and 500 or more of the enemy took part in the final disastrous evacuation.

Hard work for the ASC detachments in the area continued after the fighting finished. Ammunition was issued to all units as they took up their permanent positions at points along the coast, and as soon as possible a welcome issue of ordinary rations was made. The page 84brigade commander commended the ASC detachments for their good performance under trying conditions, and an officer in charge of one of them commented that the unselfishness of everyone when up against it' had been the most impressive feature of the operation. For his successful organisation of the supply services between the rear and forward areas on Vella Lavella Major C. McL. Brown, of the 16^th MT Company, was mentioned in despatches.

While the fighting had been proceeding around the northern coast, Headquarters Divisional ASC, the balance of the 16th MT Company and a large detachment of the 10th MT Company had arrived on the southeast coast from Guadalcanal, on 25 September, 1943. Both on that occasion and on another a week later Japanese bombers swooped in low over the ships of the convoy and scored direct hits on an LST as it lay unloading at a beach. A considerable number of New Zealand and American casualties resulted— on one occasion 51 men were killed and the entire crew of one New Zealand anti-aircraft gun mounted on deck was wiped out.

At night from most beaches a spectacular view was obtained of naval action north of Vella Lavella and Kolombangara. US naval units lay there in wait for Japanese attempting to sneak out in barges and evacuate to Choiseul Island, and when contact was made groups of flares would hang in the sky and the sound of gun-fire would roll down to Vella Lavella. After such nights the floating bodies of Japanese would be seen as barges made their runs round the coast, and occasional survivors were picked up after long periods in the water. They were brought ashore at Maravari and delivered to the 'budgie cage' or the hospital. (Kolombangara was finally occupied on 8 October, and it was then found that no enemy remained on the island.) Vella Lavella was also on a direct line from the US airfield at Munda and the Japanese positions around Bougainville, and frequently flights of US, planes up to 200 in number passed high overhead, filling the air with a powerful drone. Until the end of September several alerts or raids took place nightly, but the nuisance eased somewhat after Vella Lavella provided its own air defence when the Barakoma fighter strip was opened on 28 September, a little over one month after its construction had been begun.

Headquarters Divisional ASC had been first set up at Biloa. On 1 October, the headquarters took over from the US forces the administrative functions of island quartermaster, and shortly afterwards it page 85moved to Joroveto plantation. Some of the duties of island quartermaster, later to be performed also at the Treasury Islands and the Green Islands, were new to the ASC. On behalf of the American South Pacific Command rations and petrol were supplied to all forces on the island, American as well as New Zealand (there were 17,000 men on the island by 25 October), certain clothing and equipment was furnished to US naval, air and Seabee personnel, and also control of salvage was assumed.

Apart from general administration, the duties of island quartermaster on Vella Lavella were carried out by the 10th MT Company under the direction of Headquarters Divisional ASC. Close liaison was maintained with the Americans, and at the same time the ASC introduced ideas and evolved its own systems from existing American procedure. It was never an easy task to establish dumps in the jungle, especially when bulldozers and other heavy machinery were engaged in the construction of roads or an airstrip nearby. Supplies were rightly considered of secondary importance to such operational activities, but at the same time it was the ASCs responsibility to see that troops were fed and otherwise supplied.

The 10th MT Company's main camp was at Barakoma, and a big job was tacked when the American dumps at Biloa and Barakoma were taken over, and a new one formed at Maimoa. In all those dumps a great deal of work was done clearing up, sorting and packing the rations. The Biloa dump was particularly harassed by air raids, as it was near the airstrip which formed the enemy's target. Several bombs fell in the swamps nearby. The food supplies which were taken over by the Americans presented special problems, as deficiencies existed in many of the more attractive components required for the issue of a balanced ration, and owing to shipping difficulties it was some weeks before sufficient supplies came to hand from Guadalcanal to permit more than a hand-to-mouth service. As a stop-gap, 330 tons of surplus rations were sent over to Vella Lavella from Munda, but the shipment was christened 'the dust cart consignment' when the senior US naval officer on the island remarked that it looked like 'trash'. The tins had to be sorted completely, and about half were found unfit for use. The great humidity of the climate caused a considerable amount of corrosion in ration tins, and this led to fermentation of the contents and bursting of containers. As meat was required less in the hotter climate, units reduced their page 86indents in respect of the lines in the meat group, and as a result the greatest amount of 'blowing' of tins was experienced with meat preparations, which were kept longest in the stacks. The ration dumps received constant attention, and where possible tarpaulins were stretched over the stacks as protection from the sun and the rain. At Biloa, three ration store buildings were constructed, each measuring 60 feet by 30 feet, two of them being built by members of the company.

On Vella Lavella the handling of 'aviation gas' for the airstrip was a function new to the ASC, and was one which assumed large proportions in each of the division's three operations. In the early stages the petrol was landed in 53-gallon drums, but later pipe lines were installed which carried it direct from tankers to 'tank farms', and then the ASC's responsibility was solely to record turnover and to estimate future requirements. Headquarters Division ASC attended to that matter. The greatest consumption of aviation petrol in any one day in those operations was 143,000 gallons, and at one stage the average daily consumption over several weeks was 90,000 gallons.

As an odd job unit, the 10th MT Company on Vella Lavella had other miscellaneous tasks of interest. For instance, after the opening of the airstrip the company set-up a small transit camp for the accommodation of US and New Zealand personnel arriving on or leaving the island. Again, when the cnginal American force on the island moved out, a great deal of ammunition, clothing and equipment was left behind, and the unit assumed the control of salvage. All usable material was collected, sorted and packed, and then despatched back to the US base organisation at Guadalcanal.

A detachment of the 1st Field Bakery landed at Vella Lavella on 9 October, after a trip during which the convoy hove to off New Georgia Island for a day while its destroyer escort sped north and engaged in a battle with Japanese vessels covering the evacuation of Vella Lavella. Aldershot ovens with kerosene and diesel burner units were quickly set-up in a camp at Joroveto plantation, and some bread was baked the day after landing. By 12 October, 2,000lb. was being produced daily, and received a warm welcome as a change from the biscuits which had been eaten since the first New Zealand troops landed.

At the conclusion of the action on Vella Lavella the commander page 87of the 14th Brigade disposed his three battalions around the coast to prevent any enemy landings and the escape of any isolated Japanese. Until the Treasury Islands landing at the end of October, Vella Lavella was the most northerly allied outpost in the South Pacific. Following the disposition of units, some hectic days ensued for the 16th MT Company at Maravari as equipment was rushed to units which were making established camps around the northern and western coasts. The company sergeant-major resolutely retained control of the beach in the face of attempted encroachments by divisional, brigade and battalion representatives. It was only at the expense of a lot of 'scone doing' that the ASC managed to maintain the despatch of its supplies throughout that period of confused activity. As companies and smaller groups were scattered widely in bays around the coast, the company's task of supplying the brigade by barge was a difficult one. Most of the men in the company's detachments were recalled, though small parties remained for a while to assist the battalion quartermasters. ASC men always accompanied barges delivering rations, to act as guides for the American coxswains.

The Japanese vessel which had been captured by the 37^th Battalion was christened Confident and sent back to Maravari, where its stores of rice and preserved rations were unloaded and its fittings examined with great curiosity. For a while it was under ASC control and 16th MT Company pickets (who rated skipper, mate, bosun, etc.) lived on board. It was in a filthy condition, and a lot of work had to be done to clean it up. Eventually the battalion provided a crew and the Confident was impressed to assist with the delivery of rations and equipment round the coast. However, a lot of trouble was experienced with the diesel engines, which would probably have responded better if the bad language had been Japanese. The vessel did make several trips round the coast, departing from Maravari in a cloud of blue smoke, but as it was always difficult to keep to a timetable, it was too unreliable for ration deliveries, which must be made on time. (The Confident was left behind when New Zealand troops left Vella Lavella, and eventually reached New Georgia Island where, stripped of everything of value, it sank off Hombu Hombu Island, Munda.)

In November, all 16th MT Company men were withdrawn from the top of the island, and a more satisfactory supply system was page 88devised whereby the battalions took over their rations at Maravari and became responsible for the delivery. However, the company still had to distribute ration breaks and other supplies to miscellaneous units round the coast, including US radar stations whose radio location equipment required heavy deliveries of petrol. Also, every third day a two-day trip was made round the island to deliver bread to all troops. The barge was then stacked high with bread carried in special wooden boxes made by the engineers to protect it from spray. Rough seas were sometimes experienced by supply barges on the west coast of Vella Lavella. At one time half the boat pool's serviceable barges were aground or sheltering from a westerly storm away from their base at Biloa, and rescue barges also went aground. Supplies ran very low before conditions improved. At some places there was often difficulty getting supplies ashore because of surf.

The delivery of perishable rations—fresh meat, vegetables and butter—to all units on Vella Lavella was another ASC function which presented difficulties 'not in the book'. The first consignment of perishable rations was received late in October—at that comparatively early stage Headquarters, forward area at Guadalcanal, would sometimes send up small shipments of fresh meat with a convoy, and the carcases would be distributed among the small freezers on board each of several LSTs. The ships would beach at widely separated points along the coast, and the ASC then had to move fast to get its hands on the perishables in the face of spirited competition offered by American and New Zealand quartermasters.

At a later stage larger consignments were brought up intact by YP boats (refrigeration ships). Speed was essential when handling such cargoes in a tropical climate, and often 10th and 16th MT Company men worked until the small hours of the morning unloading YP boats at Biloa. Delivery was made to units the following day if possible, as the ASC had only limited freezing chamber accommodation in the form of two mobile refrigerators. (Later an 1,800 cubic feet 'reefer box' was installed in the Biloa ration dump.) Delivery to units near the unloading point could be made expeditiously, but it was sometimes difficult to get barges immediately to make deliveries to the more isolated areas. The system followed was for the 16th MT Company to fill a refrigerator trailer with perishables, then when an LCM became available, to back the vehicle down on to the barge, which would then make the circuit of the island with the trailer page 89on board and deliver to each unit round the coast.

The handling of a special consignment of turkeys and cranberry sauce for all troops on Vella Lavella, received in fulfilment of President Roosevelt's personal pledge that all US troops would have that traditional fare for Thanksgiving Day dinner, has a prominent place in ASC memories, The United States generously treated all New Zealanders as honorary Americans for the occasion, and a superb dinner was enjoyed, but not before the distribution of the birds had given a headache to various ASC supply staffs, who had coped with an acute form of all difficulties already outlined, from raiding quartermasters down to barge trouble.

For most of the time from their arrival in the Solomon Islands until they returned to New Caledonia members of the division received through the ASC as part of their rations generous issues of so-called luxury components. There were toilet, candy and tobacco components, packed in cases of several hundred rations. Toilet components consisted of razor blades, tooth brushes, brushless shaving cream, toilet soap, tooth powder and occasional safety razors; candy components included various varieties of chewing gum and candy, which were not very popular; cases of tobacco components contained cigarettes (unless there was a temporary shortage, the scale of issue was 20 a man each day), cigarette, pipe or chewing tobacco, cigarette papers and matches. There were several well known brands of American cigarettes on issue, but by far the most common was Chelsea, of which few had heard previously. The brand was not generally liked by the Americans, and when the New Zealanders first landed at Guadalcanal they were surprised by the way in which they had been showered with tins of 75 Chelsea cigarettes by the Yanks.

Throughout all supply activities the 'paper war' went on—at all stages ASC supply officers had to account strictly for rations received and issued, though it was sometimes difficult to convince the units serviced of the necessity. Even in the operations in the northern area of Vella Lavella harassed 16th MT Company officers and NCOs had kept records on sodden scraps of paper which were later used to compile formal supply accounts subject to strict audit back in New Caledonia. (The cost of all goods and services received by the division from the Americans was ultimately debited to the New Zealand Government under its lend-lease agreement with the United page 90States Government, and supply accounts were the source of the debit for rations.) An enormous pile of loading lists and delivery dockets, some of them almost illegible, went to make up a monthly account in conditions such as those experienced on Vella Lavella. More than once, when an account was being entered and large numbers of papers were spread out on tables in a tent, a sudden squall would cause a paper chase through the mud of the camp after precious documents, or a down-pour would penetrate the roof of the tent and wreak havoc.

When the division first went into action, an Australian press correspondent had described the New Zealanders as 'bronzed, lean and hard', and the phrase became a derisive by-word. A local rhymster on Vella Lavella attributed the bronze to 'toiling in a blazing sun, with shovel, pick and bar'; said that the hardest part of the soldier was his hands, 'blistered, torn and calloused from digging', and put the leanness down to reasons which the ASC passed over in silence. Hard work was the biggest feature of the routine life of the corps during the later period on Vella Lavella, and the next biggest was boredom. Settled camps were built, though they were never elaborate, and often the existing native buildings in abandoned villages were taken over.

With the assistance of engineers convenient ration dumps were cleared and constructed in the heavy bush, though in the short time available nothing could be done to get rid of much of the mud which was often over boot tops in any place not paved with coral. Cases of rations were sorted into enormous stacks standing on dunnage. Periodically large shipments of rations arrived, and all available men and trucks were then employed on unloading. On occasions such work lasted in great heat from 0700 hours until 1500 hours without a break, and resulted in complete exhaustion. For a short time a very large force of US marines was stationed temporarily on Vella Lavella, and when it moved on to another island huge stocks of petrol and rations were taken over by the NZASC. (145,000 B rations, 155,000 C rations and 3,000 drums of petrol and oils were actually taken into stock, not counting unserviceable supplies.) Both of these provided a tough job as the drums were mixed and spread over an extensive area, while the cases of rations were in poor condition. Many of the boxes were rotten, so that the contents had to be gathered up in sacks, and nearly half the C ration tins them-page 91selves rusted or blown.

Fortunately for the ASC truck drivers who ran up big mileages, the engineers eventually built a good coral road along the south-east coast, with solid bridges of log over the small rivers. When trees to build them were felled round camp areas the air echoed with cries of 'Timber!', followed by the cracking of wood as the trunk leaned, then a resounding thud. Sudden, high winds were experienced from time to time, which brought down trees and palms of their own accord, without warning. In several cases they fell across tents, and it was rather remarkable that there were no cases of serious injury.

The small rivers were put to good use. The commonest way to clean clothes was to strip off and get in the creek, and for a scrubbing board to use a log, or perhaps a specially built wash-stand made from packing cases. Swimming was possible at the mouth of the Joroveto River, but most of the other streams were hardly large enough. When there was a sudden downpour quite a good cool shower could be enjoyed by standing under the jet of rainwater which cascaded off a slackened tent fly. Diving boards were built and rafts of empty petrol drums moored at points along the shore where there was a good depth of water, and often during the hour before the evening meal swimming provided relaxation from the day's work. Some men became expert at handling the rather tricky native dugout canoes. The water was always warm, and the bakery, which had a professional interest in temperatures, found on one occasion that the sea was 88 degrees Fahrenheit. There were two main drawbacks to sea bathing, for the rough sea floor caused painful and slowhealing coral cuts, and the water caused a lot of ear infection. Hand grenades were used for fishing, but though they added their quota of excitement, on the whole they were not very successful, as any fish stunned sank to the ragged coral floor and were hard to retrieve.

On Vella Lavella the ASC had considerable contact with the natives, who had deserted their coastal villages and retired to live in small settlements back in the thick bush of the hills. They were loyal to the British Government, and during the fighting they had assisted the troops in many ways, especially by acting as guides. Maravari, where the 16th MT Company was stationed, was also the headquarters of the padre appointed to look after native affairs, so page 92that natives were frequently in the village, and some ASC men who knew them well learned a lot about their ways, and picked up a few snatches of their songs. The native men worked for the army occasionally, notably when they assisted with malarial control work by clearing streams under direction. They brought in their fine handiwork for sale as souvenirs, along with such things as the cat's-eye (operculum) of a type of top-shell, which was greatly priced for its sheen by the Americans who used to make rings and brooches from it. On Sundays native church services were conducted at Maravari, and the troops who attended in numbers were impressed by the part-singing of the Vella Lavellans.

The climate and the absence of cleared ground prevented much recreational or sporting activity. However, the 1st Field Bakery had a volley ball court which was in frequent use, and tenakoit was played elsewhere. From about six weeks after the first New Zealand landing, films were screened most nights at US and NZ outdoor theatres, and the deserted home of a planter at Joroveto plantation was converted into a roadhouse. The rainfall on Vella Lavella was about 120 inches per annum, much greater than that to which New Zealanders had been accustomed. Showers were usually short and heavy, and were followed by an intense humidity which sapped energy and produced mildew in clothing and rust on equipment.

Much time and thought were put into the organisation of activities over Christmas and the New Year. Throughout the force, from New Caledonia up to the Treasury Islands, the ASC issued to all units ingredients and a recipe for making Christmas puddings. The various detachments of the 1st Field Bakery also made a big effort by baking 10,000lb. of block cake; the Vella Lavella detachment's output for troops on that island was 4,000lb. ASC officers and senior NCOs took their yearly turn as mess hands for the men, and for a week in the divisional headquarters area at Joroveto there was a full programme of concerts, picture entertainments and swimming sports, attended by all troops nearby.

Christmas saw peak activity reached in a local small-scale industry which was conducted away from the eye of authority—the brewing or distilling of 'jungle juice'. Alcoholic drinks of a wide variety were concocted from raisins, fruit juices and other suitable commodities. Some were simple fermentations strained through a felt hat, but others were the product of more ambitious operators with miniature page 93stills which would have done credit to the imagination of Heath Robinson. Some samples were analysed unofficially by friends in medical units, and the decoction was usually found to be of good quality. However, eventually notice was taken of the industry, plants were confiscated and stocks poured on the ground before the eyes of the horrified owners.

By the end of December, 1943, Vella Lavella was in a comparatively secure position, with New Zealanders firmly installed 70 miles to the north-west on the Treasury Islands, and a large American force about twice as far to the north at Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville. Accordingly, 14th Brigade units were withdrawn from the northern part of the island, and all New Zealand troops were concentrated on the south-east coast, reducing considerably the supply problem for the 16th MT Company, though US radar units still had to be serviced by barge.

At the beginning of 1944 it was announced that the New Zealand troops on Vella Lavella would be going into action again. Head quarters Divisional ASC moved back with divisional headquarters to Guadalcanal for the planning stage, and on 19 January, Vella Lavella came under the US VI Island Command (New Georgia). At the end of January the infantry of the 30th Battalion combat team, which had not been in action on Vella Lavella, made a swift reconnaissance in force to the Green Islands, north of Bougainville, to ascertain the extent of enemy occupation and to gather other information about the group. It soon became known to the rank and file that the coming operation would be to capture those islands, 130 miles deeper into Japanese territory than the US beachhead on Bougainville.

Preparations for the move north followed similar lines to those already made familiar in New Caledonia and Guadalcanal. A little earlier a few over-age personnel had been relieved of duty in the active zone and replaced by younger men from base in New Caledonia and Guadalcanal. Once again the 10th MT Company was not to have the good fortune to serve as a complete unit, but in order to give all members a turn in operations it was decided to draw the Green Islands detachment mainly from those back in Guadalcanal, where 30 heavy trucks (six-by-sixes) were also taken over by the company, on loan from the US motor pool. About two-thirds of the 10th MT Company's Vella detachment returned page 94to Guadalcanal, while the remainder went forward to the Green Islands and joined the new men there.

Ordnance equipment flooded in by SCAT (South Pacific Combat Air Transport), and the 10th MT Company had the responsibility of handling the goods, and also spent a busy period on general transport duties. A new item of personal equipment was the pup tent, a small shelter just big enough to cover two men if they lay full length and did not wriggle—each man carried half of a tent and a small folding pole in his pack. Unit equipment was crated, vehicles checked over and everyone attended training lectures and range practices. The 16th MT Company put up its targets at the seaward end of the small Maravari pier, along which all hands blazed away into the Vella Gulf. At the end of January the Ioth MT Company handed its bulk dumps over to the US army troops who were arriving. The rear party of the company, which was to supply New Zealanders until all had left Vella Lavella, took over the 16th MT Company's small dumps and its bread runs a few days before the Green Islands force embarked.

All three combat teams of the 14th Brigade were to take part in the initial landing on the Green Islands. The scene of tremendous activity which had accompanied the loading at Guadalcanal in September was repeated at the Juno River Beach, Vella Lavella. After several days and nights of work at top pitch the sections of the convoys were loaded. Most of the 16th MT Company (again with an artillery officer attached for ammunition duties) and the detachment of the Ioth MT Company embarked with full pack up during the three days 12-14 February, 1944.

A small party from the Ioth MT Company remained on the island for more than a month longer, servicing the rear echelons which later departed for the Green Islands and those troops who were returning to Guadalcanal. Camp was moved to Joroveto plantation, where the few remaining troops were then concentrated, and a very quiet period followed. The 1st Field Bakery detachment left in the third echelon for the Green Islands on 23 February, and the Ioth MT Company detachment returned from Vella Lavella to Guadalcanal with the last of the New Zealand troops on 18 March, 1944.