Major Marion Carl was the
first marine ace in the battle for the Solomon
Islands. He was shot down and landed in the
jungle but managed to walk back to base in a few
days.
Marine Pilot
Major Joe Foss - one of the best who later
became governor of the great state of North
Dakota.
The USS O'BANNON (below) was one of the
great Fletcher class destroyers and the had more
battle stars (17) of any ship in the U.S. Navy
other than the USS Enterprise which had 18.
Fighter pilot "Pappy Boyington was an unknown
until the TV series "Blacksheep Squadron" made
him famous.
The story
Henderson Field tells how the pilots there faced
some terrible ordeals before victory was finally
reached. ....Story
This great
pilot, Major John Smith, was instrumental in the
victory at Henderson Field
Here are some of the other greats pilots of
Henderson Field who made our victory possible.
.Colonel
Baur went down off shore and
was spotted by Major Smith but search planes
were never able to
find Colonel Baur.
The
scene above shows a dual between the Japanese
battleship Hiei (at right) the dual but did manage to
damage the Hiei so that American planes could help
sink the ship the following day.
The above photo shows an early morning briefing for the pilots on
Henderson Field.
Below can be seen Alfred Knaack as he stands at the site in the
Huertgen Forest where he was hit by a German mortar round
some sixty years earlier. He luckily recovered
from that wound and was able to write about his experience.
Taxing down the runway on Henderson Field,
using speacial metal grids to cover the mud, are
five SBD bombers getting ready to make mince
meat out of the Japanese troopships being sent
down from Raubal to retake the field and
Guadalcanal Island along with it. These planes
and the fighters made it possible for out ships
to remain. Without this air cover, our navy
could not have held out at this time of the
operation.
....Story
The pictures on the wall are of the brave
girls of the Lily Corps who did a remarkable job
for the opposite side in the Battle of Okinawa.
This tells of some of the misery that our
enemies had to face.
On
Guadalcanal, this was a sad but common occurrence.
This picture shows the
ordeal of the Kamikaze pilots as they prepare to
take-off and fly to certain death. Their faces
tell it all. In the background, there appears to
be American pilots who were undoubtedly forced
to watch this scene for some sick reason.
The above scene shows "Louie the
Louse" flying over lower Guadalcanal Island.
His job was to annoy sleepers and to
eventually drop a bomb down in the harbor to
hopefully hit one of the many ships circling
there. Note the flood lights used by the
Americans to allow for unloading supply ships
at night.. Savo Island can be seen at mid
right with Tulagi at lower right.
Below is a copy of the actual message sent
to the remaining ships of the once great task
force 67. There were 13 ships that sailed into
battle but only 5 returned and all but one
were heavily damaged. The sender of this
message, the PENSACOLA would soon be severely
damaged. Read its fate in the HENDERSON FIELD
- REMEMBERED story.
