Peter Flahavin  Guadalcanal Revisited

Saturday, January 16th 1999
  I met Timothy at 9.00 a.m. and we drove out to Henderson to see Alistair at Security about taking some photos out on the airfield . Prior to my trip I had written to the Airport Manager and obtained permission to match up half a dozen 1942 photos I had found in various books . We got to the Lunga bridge about a minute after two cars had an accident . One had a small dent in the side - the other had his bumper bar spread all over the road - ouch !

Tetere Beach - Click for photos

It turned out Alistair was not working today , so we decided to come back on Monday . We drove East to Red Beach to the memorial plaque marking the spot where the 5th and 1st Marine Regiments landed .   On the way to the beach we crossed over a small US Bailey bridge across the Tenaru (I thought of the "Amtrac bridge" on the morning of the landing).

  The memorial pillar was dirty and the perspex of the plaque half smashed . Wait a moment - did I say "plaque" ? The wording was simply typed on a piece of paper and inserted between two perspex pieces . Half of it was now water damaged and unreadable . Surely a better plaque than this could be put on it .?! It looked really cheap�

  On the other hand it might have been a quick replacement for a better plaque that had been stolen ? I walked down to the beach and took some photos . A few hundred yards to the west I could see the 2 Jap 75mm AA guns I had visited on my first trip in 1995 . Then you could drive right down to the beach near them , but the last few years have seen more houses and fences go up along here , although you can still access the beach at 2 or 3 points .

  Continuing East to Tetere I had another look at the dump of 30 Amtracs near the village . The villagers said they had no relics , which I found hard to believe with the Gavaga creek battlefield less than a mile away (I guess they had not heard that crazy white men actually pay money for this "junk" ) . I walked down to the beach to photograph the US Memorial pillar . Yes , you guessed it - in 7 foot of grass , dirty and the plaque ripped off (as in 1998) . This memorial sits on a concrete base with a circle of stones , but you can barely see them through the grass . Another spot to wield a machete regularly !

  We drove back towards Henderson , and it was only after we crossed the bridge over the Nalimbiu river that I remembered I was going to look at an 1890's memorial near Tetere . An Austrian cruiser had left a memorial to a shore party killed inland by natives . Ah well , another thing to look at next trip.

  Back at the airfield we stopped at the old control tower . Oh boy - grass and weeds were growing wild here . We had to hack our way through 8 foot weeds just to get to the foot of the steps ! The Seabees memorial was engulfed , the Edson's Ridge memorial was surrounded by grass , very grimy looking and some of the local kids had sprayed a bit of graffiti on it . The concrete air raid shelter was likewise overgrown . There sure must have been a lot of rain recently , as when I went to look inside I found there was about 4 feet of brown water in it , with empty beer cans glinting on the floor.

  We climbed to the top of the tower and found more graffiti sprayed on the wooden railings . In 1998 the west facing wooden rail was missing - now in 1999 the north facing rail was gone as well . I t certainly needs some new wood and a touch of paint . I took photos of the Edson's Ridge , Fighter strip #1 and Pagoda Hill areas and then we returned to the hotel , as cloud was massing over Mt. Austen and rain starting to fall .I had another swim in the pool and arranged to meet Timothy again at 2.00 p.m. , by which time the rain had stopped .

We drove 30 minutes west to the Bonegi river mouth and the beached remains of the Japanese transport ship "Kinugawa Maru" (beached and sunk 14.11.42) . There were a few cars on the beach having a picnic and some kids swimming near the ship . While we were there another taxi arrived bearing 2 young Japanese tourists . I had never seen any Japanese at any sites before , apart from the guy at Skyline Ridge in 1998 . They walked down towards the ship and one of the guys went in for a swim , but it must have been a bit cold , so he did not stay in very long .

I had a few pages of photos of the ship in 1942 , so I gave them to these two guys and had a chat with them . They did not seem to really know much about the war and looked at me blankly when I told them I was interested in collecting relics . All they seemed to know about Guadalcanal was that "..lot of Americans die here..". When I heard that I "educated "them on the extent of Japanese losses . I don't think they had heard that before ! They really don't teach them much history at school , but at least they were interested enough to make the trip . The local guys on the beach liked the photos and were very interested though.

  Leaving the taxi parked on the beach we walked across the road and along a track about 600 yards south - east of the road to the one remaining Sherman tank hull ("Jezebel") . 7 foot high grass all around and hot as hell ! The basic hull looked good and would restore well - nothing much left inside though . It is a late model one , circa 1944 , and where it sits used to be a firing range . I was told that over the next hill was an extensive US rubbish dump . 1944 photos I had seen showed US tents and huts down at the beach , so a junk heap was to be expected .

We hacked our way up a hill south of the tank hull , got to the top and looked around , but couldn't see anything in the growth . There was a very good view towards Kokumbona from the hilltop though . We were getting pretty sweaty by now , so we made our way back to the beach . One of the local villagers confirmed the junk pile was there , but told us we had walked up the wrong hill - we should have gone east of the tank .! We didn't particularly feel like trekking back again , so we arranged to meet him here on Tuesday morning and he would show it all to us.

We drove back along the coast road and I took a few snaps of Kokumbona beach (after crossing a US Bailey bridge over the Kokumbona River). Nothing in the way of relics to show for the day , just photos and a lot of sweat , but any time outdoors without rain was a bonus.

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