First departure
Having disembarked their combat troops plus gear ashore, the vessels steamed out of the bay and set off in the direction of New Hebrides, where they arrived in two days (Aug. 1942). There the remaining troops of the Second Division were put ashore to await the needs of field commanders.
The islands of New Hebrides are of the Melanesian group, as are the Solomons, New Guinea, Fiji and New Caledonia. The natives here are more Negroid in skin color and features than Polynesian. The native culture at that time and place was not very civilized and had been known to practice headhunting now and then — a fact that caught the attention of the ships' Marines! They were warned not to go into the jungle alone — or at all.
The presence of natives was noted on the training forays taken by the Scout-Sniper platoon as they moved along the trails. The natives would often be seen standing along the paths watching the troops, but making no hostile movements. They wore no western dress, being content with skirts of palm fronds and loin cloths. The native women were bare breasted and tended to be anything but pretty. They used some sort of alkaline powder that turned their hair red or orange. Their teeth were often filed to a point and the wearing of an ornamental bone or boar's tooth through their nose or ears was common. Needles to say, the Marines had little to do with them.
These islands were French colonial possessions, and as we arrived on the island of Espiritu Santo (see map, above-right) the tricolors of France could be seen flying from the spire of the mission house nestled by the sea. The harbor there was spacious enough to shelter the many vessels lying at anchor. It had no modern harbor facilities, so all goods and gear had to be unloaded by barge and back. Once the goods had been brought as close to shore as the Higgins boats could come, it became the job of the troops to lug the gear ashore on their shoulders, or sometimes atop their heads. This meant wading out into the surf up to one's neck or arm pits and struggling to shore with all you could carry. The ammo boxes were heavy and numerous.
The day began at dawn and continued to dusk, marked by an endless procession of tired Marines. The conditions ashore were not yet as they wanted them. They hadn't yet set up a kitchen as the gear was still aboard ship, so they ate C-rations and water, or coconut milk. Their first night ashore, the Kid's squad slept atop a rack used to dry coconuts as there was no rain that night.
After what seemed like ages, the ships were emptied of their precious cargo and the Marines set about establishing a livable camp. They set up tents in the driest areas, bringing scrap lumber from the beach to lay on the damp ground in the tents. The heavy rains would sometimes wash through a tent, carrying away the floor boards and other small items. In between the rains the sun bore down in its tropical fury, leaving the wet earth steaming and the air humid. These were excellent conditions for breeding mosquitoes, and they took advantage of it. Mosquitoes in the tropics mean disease — malaria.
In spite of the precautions taken, Marines came down with fever that left them weak, gaunt, and sometimes lifeless. They had been cooped up aboard ship for 30 days before arriving there, then the strenuous work of unloading ships in the sweltering heat — not the best of conditions to fight off fever. Many Marines collapsed while going through the routine of daily training. The hospitals were filled with men from the recent sea battles and men from Guadalcanal, so all cases that could be treated by their own corpsmen were taken care of in their own compounds.
About this time the war around Guadalcanal was intense. They were being shelled and bombed at the same time. The fleet was having its share of fighting, what with the Japs trying to land reinforcements and the enemy fleet on the loose in large numbers. Any special details were bound to be assigned to Marines not yet involved in the fighting.
Raider training
Intelligence passed the word that the Nips had a number of aircraft spotters hidden on some of the small islands, so recently landed Marines were assigned to eliminate the spotters. Not specifically Weapons Company, but rather Marines in the now rear-echelon battalions. This kind of work didn't require a large contingency of men and equipment. Rather, what was needed were "Raider" tactics and this was what they proceeded to organize from the less-than-fit cadre of men. They formed about four small platoons and began to train intensely.
This was a new direction for most of the men, who had not been trained in any of the skills necessary to be effective Raider fighters. The Raider Battalion, formed by Col. Roosevelt, was a select group of men trained for the purpose of stealth and surprise assaults, being physically and mentally prepared to do that kind of work. The men being trained for this were not suited for the task, outside of being infantrymen and riflemen, as are all Marines.
They learned some judo and practiced some night landings from rubber boats. They also practiced silent approaches in the black of night, which turned out to be a fiasco. They worked with TNT and other explosives, learning to prepare a charge in the dark, and where to place the charge for best results. The Kid was selected to teach a class in this as he was the only qualified demolitions Marine there.
After a few weeks of this, the top brass came to their senses and canceled the whole affair, being a wise move. Had they sent these men on a mission it would have been a disaster.
Regimental Weapons and the rest of the battalion continued with training patrols and small work parties around the area. The evenings were taken up with movies presented in a small area near a cocoa plantation a short distance from the company area. They were on constant alert as in that time of the war it wasn't known if the Japs were still capable of mounting an invasion. New Hebrides would have made a fine base for further Japanese expansion. The men were told to carry their weapons with them wherever they went, so rifles and sidearms went to the movies. The films were shown in an outside area and coconut logs were laid across the ground to afford seating. The films were shown each night at dusk and were often repeated for a week at a time, depending on how often the supply plane could get in with new films.
On one of the training patrols, as they went along the trail, a tree's branch was hanging in the way of Marines as they struggled along. The branch had slapped a couple of men in the face before the Kid and his buddy had reached it. They were aware of its presence due to the profanity they had heard from the men ahead of them. Reaching the spot, the Kid reached up, grabbed the branch and pulled it down to where it could be cut off. His buddy pulled out his trusty bayonet to cut the branch and in doing so slipped and sliced the thumb of the Kid, making a very deep cut.
Wrapping a quick bandage around it, they continued the hike. Back in camp the corpsman re-bandaged the wound and sent him on his way. The next day the wound looked red and infected, and so it was. The corpsman treated the wound with sulfa powder and a new bandage, and told him to return the next day for further treatment. The scar lasted for many years, his first wound of the war.
Marine Raiders — Known to be skillful jungle fighters, shown gathered in front of a Japanese dugout, which they assisted in taking on Cape Totkina on Bougainville, Solomon Islands (Jan. 1944).
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
