10 Things You Don't Know About Guadalcanal

10 Things You Don't Know About ^ | August 7, 2012 | PJ-Comix

[R. Scott]

The marines on Guadalcanal became quite skilled in counterfeiting red “meatball” Japanese flags which they traded to sailors unloading supplies on the beach for candy bars and other products.

It happened in Viet Nam too. There was a Special Forces camp we occasionally resupplied. We’d trade “necessities” like women’s stockings and underwear for “genuine” VC flags and sandals. These we’d trade to the navy for real ice cream, real milk and other goodies. Our navy had great rations.

[Psalm 73]

"Guadalcanal Diary" - read it when I was ten, and two more times since then.
If you haven't read it - read it.

[PJ-Comix]

Richard Tregaskis. I read it. BTW, it covers the Guadalcanal campaign from August to September. I wonder if Tregaskis caught a bit of malaria while there.

[PowderMonkey]

"I asked him how many of those serving at Guadalcanal caught malaria. He replied, “Everyone.” I thought he was exaggerating. He wasn’t."

You're right. He wasn't. When my family doctor was treating me for malaria, he told me of his father's experience with it in the Pacific theater during W.W. II. Everyone caught it. I've survived several different tropical fevers in my career. Malaria is a bear. It simply won't let go.

[PJ-Comix]

And I just did a quickie bit of research on Richard Tregaskis and, yes, he caught a touch of malaria as well. Avoiding malaria back then was like avoiding mosquito bites which was impossible.

[abb]

Also a must read.

http://books.google.com/books?id=l0ppVtoenLUC&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Challenge For The Pacific: the Bloody Six-month Battle Of Guadalcanal
By Robert Leckie

[Harold Shea]

It wasn`t “just” malaria they suffered with,dengue fever

was one they also came down with.My uncle that served on

Guam said he was as scared of the deseases you could come

down on those islands as of the japs

[fortheDeclaration]

Thank you for posting

[alfa6]

A good read on the naval aspect of the Guadalcanal fight is Hornfischer’s Neptune’s Inferno.

While most folks go on about the Marine casualties the Navy lost over twice what the Marines did

Regards

alfa6 :>}

[wideminded]

#11. I have always wondered about the weird name, and was just thinking about this the other day. You have to figure there are not too many canals on Pacific islands.

According to Wikipedia Guadalcanal was named after a town in Spain with the same name. As for the name of that town: "The name, etymologically, comes from the Arabic phrase Wadi al-Qanal (وادي القنال), meaning "river of the stalls" or "valley of stalls", referring to the refreshment stalls set up there during the Muslim rule in Andalusia."

[calex59]

The best equipment and supplies that the Marines had in the early days following their landings on Guadalcanal were provided by the Japanese themselves. The landings so surprised the Japanese they did not have time to destroy their equipment at the airstrip which was soon named Henderson Field. Among the supplies left behind were construction equipment, lots of food, and even an ice making machine. The latter must have been very welcome in that tropical environment.

Let me add something to the above paragraph. The reason the Japanese equipment was the best was because the Navy decided to leave and take most of the food, equipment and many of the troops that were supposed to be landed at the 'canal leaving the Marines stranded. If it wasn't for the Japanese food that was captured the Marines would have starved to death and they had no equipment to work the airfield except the captured Japanese equipment, another shining example of the ineptitude of the US Navy in the early days of WWII, and I include Pearl Harbor in that assessment.

[Venturer]

If you want the “History Channel” to go bak to rep[orting on history you had better find a way to get aliens to be responsible for the miracles written in the Bible and for pawn broker or picker to start handling those souvenirs the GI’s brought home. Maybe a Swamp man killing gators there would bring the History channel back in on these stories.I know the Ice Road truckers cannot be brought there unless they deliver that ice machine the Japs left behind.

[GreyFriar]

Guadalcanal

[Ax]

I was born one week before the invasion of Guadalcanal. As soon as I could read, I devoured everything I could about WW II. In those days, it was almost like “current events.” That interEst has continued up to this very morning.

[bcsco]

Interesting stuff. Put me on the ping list, kind Sir.

[bcsco]

"Guadalcanal Diary"

Yep, read it as a yute as well. Glad you mentioned it. I'm going to see if it's available for my Kindle or Nook Color.

[oh8eleven]

7. The U.S. Navy suffered its worst naval defeat of WWII ... at Guadalcanal.
As a result, the Navy withdrew from Guadalcanal and left the Marines stranded with limited equipment and supplies of rations and ammunition.
Marines never forget ... Semper Fi.

Have read this three times in the last few years. Excellent.

[PJ-Comix]

Welcome aboard, PINGEE #3.

Oh, and no Lutherans were harmed in the posting of this blog...yet.

[FrogMom]

Ping me, please!

[IronJack]

Henderson Field was actually built by the Japanese. But it was captured and named after a Marine aviator, Maj. Lofton Henderson, who had died at Midway leading his squadron in combat. The Marine Air Corps went on to dominate the skies of the South Pacific and provide invaluable support at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and a score of other campaigns.