II. Guadalcanal

Our first impressions of the 'Canal,' as we soon began familiarly to call it, were the intense heat and desolate battered appearance of the part of the island which carried the scars of heavy bombardments, for here before us lay the first battlefield most of us had ever seen. Rather depressing impressions perhaps, but the Kiwi humour soon came to the top as was evidenced by Syd, who, browsing about, unearthed a boot of Japanese make still containing the foot of its owner. Cutting away the boot and examining with interest the enclosed extremity, he was heard to proclaim solemnly,' Poor devil, he had athlete's foot!' The area for the proposed camp was situated right on the beach at Matani-kau which suited everyone because the minimum of effort would be required to carry the body down for a swim. Our first consideration was, of course, the building of a camp and any doubts the company may have entertained as to the advisability of building a camp for the short period we expected to be there, were quickly dispelled by the opening speech of our good friend, Russell. This speech was notable chiefly because of the lack of interest displayed by the men and the heights of oratorical fervour reached by Captain Rice. One phrase will be long remembered by all— 'The days (pause) of quoit-bashing (another pause and several page 110inveterate quoit-bashers are transfixed by a steely look), are over; Needless to say the worthy members of the company were, even then, devising means of dodging work. Eventually, in spite of all this, the camp was built (albeit languidly), and 41 members of the company settled down for another wait.

The quoit-bashers (a term applied to those soldiers who displayed a marked preference to lying in their bed-cots) were disturbed one day at the fate which overtook one of their members. Trevor John, after returning from mess, had just lowered his frame on to his bed when a bullet came out of the blue and hit him in the shoulder. The origin of the bullet was never found; fortunately he was not seriously injured. Nevertheless he still carried that bullet in his shoulder and had the doubtful privilege of being our first bullet casualty.

On Monday 6 September we again started training. This announcement was greeted, naturally, with mental howls of protest but, apart from one manœuvre when all the sergeants seemed to be panicking at once, the training was perhaps not as irksome as it might have been. As ammunition was plentiful for a change, there were plenty of shoots with all types of weapons. Terry Walker was the hero of one day when he walked into camp with a box of TSMG ammunition that he had scrounged from some Americans. As can be expected the tommy guns worked overtime in the next week or so. 'Acquiring,' a natural Kiwi gift, seemed even more prevalent in the MMGs than elsewhere and this art was given full rein at this time. In this art we were ably led by our officer commanding and second-in-command. Perhaps it was on this account that we did not feel unduly surprised" to find in our lines one day an unidentified jeep. It had a rather battered appearance but the engine performed well and, after the salvage squad, led by Lance-Sergeant Muller (not on establishment), had worked on it, it became quite a creditable addition to the company. However, although this jeep was used only at night, its daytime exercise being taken in the backyard, reports of it must have come to the ears of the powers-that-be, for one day it disappeared as mysteriously as it had arrived. Nevertheless, while it graced our company one coup was brought off by the officers with its aid— a coup loudly applauded by all ranks, namely the acquisition of several cases of beer; only enough for half a bottle a man but still very acceptable. Undeterred by the jeep episode, and keen page 111to show their prowess once again, the salvage squad arrived in camp one day with the back half of a truck chassis. After much additional acquiring and a lot of hard work with cold chisels and spanners the company became the proud possessor of a very fine water-trailer.

In common with other units on the island, No. 41 shared in the doubtful delights of Tojo's monthly hate session which generally began on the 13th of each month because, it was said, of the untimely death of Tojo's son on that date. On the night of our baptismal air raid everyone had retired to bed after the usual lengthy discussion on raids, only to be rudely awakened at 11 pm by the howl of the sirens and the peculiar coughing sound of the bursting flak. Although the bombs were falling a long way from our lines, no one gave that a thought as they fell out of bed and, grabbing frantically for tin hats, scrambled for the fox-holes. Unfortunately the fox-holes in many cases already had occupants in the form of land crabs and many came out of their funk-holes more quickly than they got in. Amusing incidents occurred on every side; indeed after later experiences the panic of that first night became a continual source of amusement whenever 'Canal' days became the subject of conversation. After the first night foxholes were disregarded to a certain extent, although everyone stood handy to them just in case. One night a particularly good show was in session and, so great was the appreciation of the audience that no one noticed that the shells were bursting overhead until the air was filled with the swish-plop of flying spinters hitting the ground. The reaction was immediate and definite, leaving no doubt as to the desire of all concerned. The last raid was by far the most spectacular and a very appreciative audience of Kiwis watched a daring American night-fighter pilot go up through the ack-ack and send a couple of Nips to their last resting place.

Entertainments, in the form of pictures, were available each night at the Le Sage Theatre and trucks were generally supplied when available—a concession which was much appreciated by the men. The trucks were also supplied for sight-seeing trips down to Henderson Field and several interesting days were spent there by the men. Swimming was one of the chief relaxations and, for this purpose, a stone jetty was erected to enable us to reach deep water without having to traverse the rough coral shallows. page 112Another novel water diversion was a study of natural underwater oddities with the aid of old Jap respirators, one of the chief devotees of this art being 'Bugs' Will, the company's enthusiastic naturalist. While we were enjoying this idyllic existence the official cogs were grinding. After three weeks of the 'Canal,' even before we were properly used to the climate, word came that we were to prepare for a move to warmer spots—warmer in more ways than one as we were to find. Accordingly the company was again split up and each platoon joined its respective combat team. This time the platoons were parting company for nearly four months and were to have many varied experiences before being again reunited as a company.

On 16 September 1943, our first two platoons, Numbers 2 and 3, moved to Kukumbona for embarkation on LSTs for Vella Lavella. These ships evoked no little interest among the members of the platoons. The standard of comfort on such ungainly craft was amazing but this advantage was offset by the thought of the beautiful target they would make for friend Tojo. By midday everyone was aboard and had found a place to rest his body but any hopes of this rest being prolonged were soon shattered by an announcement that the ship had to be given a trial unload and reload. This being accomplished and the ship having pulled out into the stream, the rest of the afternoon was devoted to swimming in the warm Solomon seas.

The convoy actually sailed early on the morning of 17 September. Again our duties on board consisted of ack-ack guards and we were again fortunate in that we were not called on to use the guns. During their first day at sea everyone had the opportunity of recording his vote for the general election which was to take place in New Zealand on 25 September—an election that will not be readily forgotten by anyone on board. On the night of the 17th, as we steamed through Hell's Gate, the pass between New Georgia and Rendova Islands, we were in the grandstand seats to watch a full-scale air attack on the American-held Munda airfield. Our convoy, slipping silently through the night, went unnoticed. So, on the morning of 18 September, our first two platoons arrived at Vella and completed unloading operations without interference from Tojo.

Company headquarters and No. 1 platoon followed the first wave about a week later, headquarters on an LST and No. 1 page break

Lance-Corporal Stringer and Private Fromont ready for action at Warambari, on Vella Lavella

Company Headquarters loading stores on an LCI at Juno Beach

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The 14th Brigade MMG Company
Company Headquarters
No. 1 Platoon
No. 2 Platoon
No. 3 Platoon

page 113latoon travelling on an APD. Conditions on the APD, an old destroyer used as an army personnel carrier, were crowded, but they had the advantage of being fast and presenting a very small target. Tojo, in the final stages of this journey, paid the convoy quite a little attention. Company headquarters on the LST beached just opposite what was to become the NZEF Roadhouse and, being at that time blissfully unaware of the devastating effect of a bomb on an LST, there was much competition for places from which to view the fun when 'Charlie's' planes arrived. Fortunately, the Nips concentrated all their hate on an LST further up the beach and No. 41 went unscathed. Despite this diversion an all-time record of 600 tons of gear unloaded in five hours was created which brought joy to the captain of the LST—so much, in fact, that he presented us with several thousand feet of timber which had been a burden to him for a number of trips.