En route
The sun burned hot on the Kid's bare back. They were in the tropics now (June~July 1942), working their way south. He sought the shade of the Higgins boats, where they were tied down in their proper slots along the deck and over the ship's holds. He'd spent the morning loading cartridges for the .30-caliber machine guns and his hands were sore from the effort. His buddy sat beside him, smoking and squinting into the bright sunlight that glared back from the deep blue-green sea. The morning assembly had revealed the convoy's destination — Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, wherever that was.
The briefing had been short, informing only that the Second Division was to rendezvous with the First Division somewhere below the equator, and the two were to make the attack on the Japanese-held island. It was scheduled for 7 August — eight months to the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The troops were eager to get there, but they knew that the time element had to be adhered to, which didn't make the waiting any easier to endure. Each man sat with his own thoughts; each somewhere else in their own mind. The Kid's were not about home and family as he was not that family oriented. His thoughts were on the coming battle and how he would fare in the final outcome. He was a fatalist and felt that it was not too much in his control. No matter how well he conducted himself, it was still a crapshoot. No, he was not really concerned; he felt that he was going to make it through. Somehow he knew it.
The days moved along in the same pattern. The kid was a natural-born sailor and, outside of the discomfort of living aboard ship, he enjoyed the sea, the ship, and the feel of being at sea. The ship's watches were set and changed by the bells, which to a landlubber had an intriguing quality that smacked of the ancient sailing ships. He would often go forward to the ship's Number-One Gun tub and stand watch with the sailors manning the gun watch. Here, on days when the sea was running rough and the swells would break, the spray would dash them all with a good soak. Not a chilling douse as the weather was anything but cold.
Detour to Tonga
One morning upon coming on deck, he noted that the sea was indeed running high. The sky had taken on heavy clouds and the wind stood at about 20 knots. The ship was pitching and rolling, to the discomfort of a number of men who were not very seaworthy. The forward decks were awash from the bow spray, as was the hatch covers. The men in the chow lines were swaying with the roll of the ship, inching forward to the mess compartment hatch. Breakfast was poorly received by those unused to the motion. The mess compartment was not a sitdown affair, having tables mounted on vertical pipes that allowed them to be raised up and out of the way when the need arose to clear the compartment. The ship's movement made it difficult to keep the mess trays from sliding out of place. Coffee sloshed out of cups and ran over the table side onto the deck, making it wet and slippery.
The upshot of all this was news that a hurricane was brewing ahead of them some miles away — no place for a convoy of troops. The Navy, in all of its wisdom, decided to turn the vessels to a course heading away from the storm. For the next two days the ships plowed through heavy seas with their propellers breaking water. This took the ships on a course allowing for a short visit to the Tonga Islands, composed of five isles lying south of Samoa, at about 18 degrees south latitude. They are Polynesian in origin and were at that time ruled by a queen.
Tonga then was a poor island with few resources, mostly copra (dried coconut). The natives lived in poorly built huts with corrugated roofs, often with dirt floors. The troops were allowed to come ashore in two groups on two different days. They were expecting to see islands "a la Hollywood," and were more than a little disappointed. The only place on the island where anything could be bought was a small store where they had cigarettes, tobacco, soda and warm ginger beer — not appealing to American tastes.
Of course, available were the usual native handiwork of beads and flower leis, which the troops carried back to the ships. It was, if nothing else, a chance to get some solid ground under foot and to stretch one's legs. The two days there were well spent. The troops went back to ship with new appreciation of true island native life, which broke the monotony of life at sea.
Life settled back into the normal routine. This was in the latter part of July and the days were getting closer to D-Day. The troops were past any excitement; they were resolved and committed to the task to be done in the near future.
1942 Chronology
01 Feb — Gilbert & Marshall Islands
24 Feb — Wake Island
04 Mar — Marcus Island
18 Apr — Doolittle raid on Tokyo
4-6 Jun — Midway
07 Aug — Guadalcanal landings
24 Aug — Eastern Solomons
26 Oct — Santa Cruz
12-15 Nov — Naval battle of Guadalcanal
click to view map
