Barbers Point NAS
The dope is out that we are positively leaving for the New Hebrides and the Solomons beginning January 15th! The second section (me, in #6) leaves on the 17th, the third section on the 19th and the fourth on the 21st.
Spent most of the afternoon, trying to get #6’s compasses calibrated, but had to give up for lack of magnets.
The boys from the Solomons got back to Pearl this morning and all came over to the squadron this afternoon. Odell, Pojonus, Johnson, Jackson, Lyle, Rothenberg, McKenzie, Ortwin, Ricketts, Bemis, Long, Tucker, Gimber, Quinn, Randleman, Coleman, and Bergstrasser. All were much thinner but looked very healthy and tanned. They been gone about 4 1/2 months and in that time have had only a few cans of beer on Xmas.
Station was giving a party so everyone got thoroughly plastered on the free drinks.
The whole outfit that went down under were extremely lucky and suffered no personnel losses, despite a few narrow squeaks; such as the time Johnson was dragged under and nearly drowned by his sinking plane. It was accidentally sideswiped by destroyer attempting to refuel it. That was my old plane #5, and Quinn was aboard the destroyer at the time.
From all accounts, we seem to have a very definite edge on the Japs, especially in the air. (They call Guadalcanal the “Island of No Return.”) Whole flights of their bombers have been shot down over Lunga. The squadrons at Lunga have rolled up some terrific scores since last fall – something like 700 Jap planes brought down.
Jackson was telling of his torpedoing a Jap carrier. On a night hop he sighted a Jap task force containing two carriers. They were very large, but had no planes on their decks. He got down close to the water but found he couldn’t see anything so he went up a little higher and sent M.O.s for the Army bombers. But his radio transmitter refuse to operate properly, and he had to give up. Decided to launch his one torpedo and go home. There was a Jap destroyer off the bow of the carrier, between him and the most desirable shot. He figure-S’d around the destroyer’s stern and was headed in for the carrier. He dropped his “fish” and saw an explosion, then did a flipper turn toward the bow of the carrier, and around back over the destroyer, which was now tossing everything but the kitchen sink at him. He reported his action on the way home, by radio. Before he got into “Button” (Espiritu Santos) his hit was confirmed by the Japanese themselves in a message to their base. COMSOPAC had broken down their code. They said that they had been attacked by a “blue plane” (PBY) and had sustained “slight” damage from a torpedo hit. They also stated that they had destroyed the attacking plane!