Don Huebner  USMC

Beaching of the Yamasuki Maru by Don Huebner

"During my recent memory regressions to that wartime era I have revived many vivd pictures of the Pacific war and currently am sifting through to see if any may have value as paintings. This is my version of what happened during the beaching of the Yamasuki Maru in 1942.. the Japs were expert at beaching to prevent sinking, by the way. They were reinforcing the troops on Guadalcanal whith men from Bougainville and utilizing most anything that would float; destroyers, troopships and barges.

By the same token, the 'Cactus Airforce' was putting up anything that would fly in an effort to thwart the landings. In my imagined view we see a Hellcat exiting stage left after strafing the ship and beach. He will make a wide turn to return for an encore, after threee SBD dive bombers glide into bomb and strafe the crowded coast. The cumbersom flying boat was General Vandergift's own personal Catalina PBY flown by his piloy, Colonel Whaling who insitisted on getting in on the action. For about thrity years I have been painting historical subjects, usually frontier Texas history, but never episodes of WWII since I thought they may lack aesthetic appeal."

This was a seconds ship about a hundered yards beyond the other. We posed for photos on Jap barge rubble in the foreground. WWII photo shows a salvaged Japanese mini submarine salvaged next to the wreck of theYamatsuki Maru.