[PJ-Comix]

Hopefully you will find some things here that you never knew before about the Guadalcanal operation. Oh, and if you want on the "10 Things You Don't Know About" PING List, let me know. I will probably have another edition next week.

[PJ-Comix]

Welcome aboard, PINGEE #1.

[caver]

Interesting! Number 8 though, just proves that unions are more worried about themselves than for the good of the people. Geez.

[samtheman]

#3 takes the old saying “war is hell” to a new level

[Jagdgewehr]

#8. Typical. What’s changed?

[Chainmail]

I would hazard a guess that 99% of those out there born after the war know anything at all about the battle of Guadalcanal. They should; it is one of the greatest examples of what Americans were made of.

[raybbr]

This is the first of my regular "20 Things You Don't Know" posts...

When do we get to see the other ten...?

[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.

[fortheDeclaration]

Thank you for posting

[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

[bcsco]

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

[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.

[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.

[DCBryan1]

The first Marines that hit the beach were armed with M1903 bolt action rifles, M50 and M55 Reising submachineguns (many of which were thrown away because they SUCKED in dirty environments), M1941 Johnsons, and M1917 Browning machineguns.

Marines couldn't wait to raid/trade/borrow/steal Army M1 Garands.

[wtc911]

My dad lost two cousins there.

[rlmorel]

Great thread, PJ-Comix, thanks for posting it.

What many people don’t know is that three times as many sailors versus ground forces (Marines and Army) were killed in the Guadalcanal campaign.

The accounts are horrible. Richard Franks “Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle” is a great read on this battle, and from a Naval perspective, one of the best books on the subject I have read is James D. Hornfischer’s “Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal”. It is brilliant and gripping. But horrifying. Everyone knows about sharks in the Pacific due to the USS Indianapolis, but few seem to understand the horrible commonality of this gruesome fact of naval warfare in the South Pacific.

As James Michner said about Guadalcanal in his book: “...They will live a long time, these men of the South Pacific. They, like their victories, will be remembered as long as our generation lives. Longer and longer shadows will obscure them, until their Guadalcanal sounds distant on the ear like Shiloh and Valley Forge.”

Gives me goosebumps.