Saturday
, January 17th 1998
At
10.00 a.m. Timothy picked us up and brought his wife Margaret. She is a teacher
at Honiara High School on the Matanikau and also at Betikama . She teaches the
kids WWII history . After hearing him tell of all the places we had been during
the week she wanted to meet us and was interested in all the photocopies I gave
her and all that Leigh and I could tell her .
First
stop was the American memorial on Skyline ridge overlooking the Matanikau river
, dedicated in 1992 . From here you get a great view , including the �Galloping
Horse� hills position and Hill 27 at the GIFU . I had not realised you could see
it from here . The lettering on the memorial blocks here needs to be touched up
, as weathering is making it a bit hard to read in places . The brass plaque of
the battle areas is also deteriorating a bit , sun and rain starting to eat into
it . There was a young Japanese guy here reading the memorial information . This
is the first time in 3 visits I had seen a Japanese tourist at a battle site .
From
Skyline we drove down to the Ravine behind Honiara where Col. Chesty Puller�s
Battalion of 7th Marines surprised and almost wiped out a Japanese battalion camping
here in October 1942 . Over 700 Japanese were killed by artillery, mortar and
small arms fire and they tried to escape up the hillsides . After a brief stop
overlooking Honiara we drove to the East bank of the Matanikau over what looked
another Bailey bridge and Timothy said there were two more further up the river
. I took some video of it , but was fast running low on still camera film.
Next
stop was East Kola Ridge , where Sergeant Mitchell Paige won the Medal of Honour
in October 1942 . There are houses everywhere now and no sign of any memorial
(frustrating), so it was a bit hard to get oriented having no position map to
go by . However I think we got to the right area (he says , not knowing for sure) . You could look across from Hill
64 here too and see Galloping Horse and Hill 27 . Access to Galloping Horse was
not as difficult as we had thought , but we were fast running out of time , so
it would have to wait for another trip . Michael had been for a walk there and
reported there were relics to be still seen .
After
we got back to the hotel I told Timothy now was the time to buy him those beers
I had promised . He and Margaret then kindly invited us back to their place to
and have lunch . So back we went across the Matanikau� . Timothy and Leigh polished off the beers , and we spent a very
pleasant afternoon on the balcony talking about Guadalcanal in WWII.
They
had lived on Tulagi for 4 years (2 hours
by boat or 15 minutes by plane) and said there was still a lot of relics to
be seen there , including a couple of bombed Japanese ships in some mangrove swamps
. Margaret said that recently Solomons Telecom was digging along the road near
their school to put in cables and turned up sandbagged positions and ammunition
and that some Japanese skulls were found near the mouth of the Matanikau river
as well .
At
dinner that night Michael related that while in the Red Beach area he
had by chance met Jacob Vouza son and grandson (some people
have all the luck!).
Michael
also said that on his flight to Guadalcanal he was seated next to an Australian
Building Company Executive . When this guy observed him reading a WWII related
book on the Solomons he suggested he should try lighter reading material . He then proceeded to lecture him that
one should forget the war- history meant
nothing and how altruistic it was of them to build housing estates in these
places , so what if it was a battle site or historic ground? The march of progress and profit speaking...
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