Sunday,
January 11th 1998
After breakfast we hailed
a taxi and settled on S$30.00 (US$7.50) per hour to drive us about . We had the
same driver, Timothy, for the week . We showed him places he had not been and
he told us things we didn't know about . First off we went 20 miles East to Tetere
beach to look at the hulks of over 30 US Amtracs abandoned there 100 yards from
the sea . We then walked down the beach 200 yards East to the mouth of Gavaga
Creek , where the 7th Marines and US Army troops killed about 450 Japanese in
November 1942 . There was a US Memorial marker on the beach in thick grass, but
the plaque had been ripped off.
We
then drove back towards Honiara and stopped at Red
Beach . Since I was last here in 1995 there is a lot more houses
and fences, so access to the beach is harder. We saw the American
memorial plaque where the 5th and 1st Marines landed on August 7th 1942
. The perspex cover on the plaque has been bashed a bit and one screw
was missing , so maybe next time this plaque will be missing too . A
storm was whipping up, so we did not get down to the beach to revisit
the Japanese 75mm AA gun I saw in 1995, but did take a few comparison
photos and video.
Arriving
back at Henderson Field we drove to the original control tower and had a look
at it, the Edsons Ridge memorial and the air raid shelter . The shelter was full
of beer cans and filth , so we didn't go in . The view from the top of the tower
was very good , and we could identify the dive bomber assembly area , area of
the Pagoda hill (overgrown) and Fighter #1 strip and the New Zealand camp (likewise
overgrown). Bloody Ridge loomed in a direct line south of the tower - very close
indeed. After this it was back to the pool for a swim and a BBQ Dinner at the
Mendana Hotel . The Japanese tour group was staying here (dining in the private
dining room).
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