Peter Flahavin  Guadalcanal Revisited

Friday , January 16th 1998
At 10.00 a.m. Timothy , Leigh and I set off to drive West along the coast . We had until 1.00 p.m. when I had to see Lawrence about the permit . As we crossed over White River , about a mile West on Honiara , we noted that it looked like original American Bailey� bridge . Near the Matanikau there were some old US Nissen huts still being used and I had noticed piles of Bailey Bridge parts stacked nearby .

  First stop was Fred Kona�s War Museum at Vilu . I didn�t take a lot of photos , as I had seen it all in 1995 / 96 and nothing had changed much . It was still interesting to look over the stuff again though . I hadn�t noticed before that the Corsair fighter still had one .50 calibre machine gun in its left wing . The storm of the previous week had been through here too and there were a few branches lying across some of the Japanese 37mm anti-tank guns . There were wartime Coke bottles for sale here at only S$5.00 (US$1.25) ,but we already had more than enough!

Kyusyu Maru Location Today

From Vilu we travelled East back towards Honiara . Next stop was Doma Beach to look at the wreckage of the Japanese transport ship �Kyusyu Maru�. It was beached here and sunk by American aircraft on October 15th 1942 . I was able to take comparison shots of 2 wartime photos here .

Kinugawa Maru

A few miles further down the coast there was the wreck of transport ship Kinugawa Maru near the mouth of the Bonegi River . The bridge across the Bonegi is relatively new , being built by the Japanese in 1995 . Kinugawa Maru was one of the 11 Japanese transports sunk in November 1942.

  Only 4 reached Guadalcanal. They beached themselves along the coast on November 15th 1942 and by midday were all destroyed by US planes, coastal artillery at Lunga Point and the destroyer �Meade� from Tulagi . Today this is a favourite site for scuba divers . the bow of the ship is only about 10-15 feet from the shore , while the stern rests in 100 feet of water.

Lela Beach - Click for additional photos

Driving further we paused� past Lela beach, just before reaching Kokumbona . The bay here was a Japanese supply landing point and I was able to take a comparison photo near where a Japanese 75mm AA gun was once emplaced . (I Company , First Battalion , 5th Marine Regiment landed near here on 19.8.42 in one of the first Marine offensive actions of the Campaign ) .

I have since learnt that the rusted barrel and the toppled mount of another 75mm AA gun lies in the surf at Kokumbona beach . As we reached the outskirts of Honiara we stopped at the Police Barracks to take a photo of the monument to Solomon Islands scout Sir Jacob Vouza.

Nothing Beats a Cold Coconut!

At 1.30 p.m. I went and saw Lawrence again . The Minister would not be back until January 25th and he was having trouble locating the permanent secretary to get him to sign it . He asked me to come back at 3.00 p.m. After a session in the pool I did just that . Lawrence still hadn’t been able to contact him, so he had signed the permit himself . That was a great relief to us  . We walked down to the Market again and bought a few more .50 calibre heads . The stall owner had a couple of American mess kits , but they were very beat up.

Return to January 1998 Main Page