WW2 tour

Every now and then, and possibly not anymore, this old guy (though not a veteran) comes to the Solomon Islands and conducts a tour of WW2 sites in Honiara and Tulagi. It's a once in a life time opportunity, especially because he probably won't be coming back, apparently. So Jair and I, as well as Rob and Jemma and two people who are here with a mission team, booked a place to join the tour. It was really a day with lots of laughs, great stories from the guide. The only downside was that because there were no toilets (although, I did have a custom stop), I didn't drink much water, so by the end of the day I was rather dehydrated, and the next day came down with an awful flu.

Anyway, the photos probably tell the story better than I could write it.

We started at the American War Memorial, where the guide gave us a quick but comprehensive history of the Guadalcanal Campaign, which for your information, even though you may have never heard about it, was vital for our freedom today. This guy, I think his name was John, had lots of great stories. I mean, he's spent years thinking and digging up people, well, in the historical way, finding out who's who, where they went and what happened to them. There's this plaque at the memorial to the unknown warrior, but John told us how he found out this guy's name - so he's not so unknown after all.

The War Memorial has an amazing view - and so Jair and Rob did a great smiling pose. Good on'ya guys - they've gone to Tulagi today (in the Florida Islands) to join the tour there.

After that we drove down this road, well a road that I drive on all the time. I don't know if it's got a name - most roads in Honiara don't have a name. We stopped rather randomly and he told us of a guy who won a medal because of fighting in this area. Another brilliant story. It was rather fascinating to find out that this road, and many other roads in Honiara, were old jeep trails in WW2 to supply troops. Interesting. Didn't know that before.

Our next stop, after that Japanese Memorial, was a small valley where the marine raiders had fought with the Japanese. John told us the story of a veteran he met who had been injured when a hand granade went off near his leg. The vet said he'd come back to the Solomons if John ever found the place where he'd been injured. Well, John told us all about the calculations he'd done based on this map that he was given, a fascinating little story in itself. Anyway, he thought he'd found the spot, even though it meant that this Veteran's map must have been wrong. He took the chance and took the veteran back to this spot, hoping to find out whether this was where the battle had been. The veteran looked around, John said, with no look of recognition at all. I mean, it had been decades since he'd been here, if indeed, this was the place. John was about to give up hope, when the Veteran said, "I slept right there

this lookout post which gives a perfect outlook on Henderson Airfield - or the international Airport. After the Americans took over the airfield (from the Japs who started building it), this Japanese guy dug a little hole on this hill to keep track on what the Americans were doing. The hole is still there and while the guide was talking, one of the other fellow-tourers found a piece of shrapnel. The Americans didn't know exactly where this Japanese guy was, but they knew he was there. Eventually, they just bombed it and he died. But what a great look out post he had, except for Hazy Dayz - like Saturday.

Then we went to Barana village. Nearby is the Gifu site - where the Americans fought against the last Japanese. There is tonnes of stuff rusting away there, cans, teeth, compasses - the whole lot! The Locals dig it out and have made an elementary museum out of it.

They look like miniature hot water bottles but they used to contain oil for cleaning your gun.

Speaking of which...

Just pull the pin!

Miscellaneous bottles... and rounds of bullets...

I think these are cases for binoculars - but I could be wrong. Lots of happy smiling kids in the background. They must think we're odd, having such an interest in this stuff. Anyway, after looking at all the relics we went up the hill to look at the hill that they fought on (Sorry that I'm not very specific).

I had to show you this - NPW Zealand. It's a misprint; obviously it should say NEW Zealand. I've always wanted one of these tee-shirts, but I decided against asking this guy if I could buy his. So we looked around on this hill, down the track to where the entrance was to the jungle path to the waterhole. Listened to some more great stories about the men who occupied these foxholes - like this foxhole for example...

... which was occupied by an eccentric Italian who would recklessly put his foot on that rock and shoot any oncoming Japanese. This particular hill gave a beautiful view (except for the Hazy Dayz that it was) of West Guadalcanal. I sat on the hill, drinking in the view and thinking about the men who fought and defended this hill, Hill 27.

Our last stop, well, (last for me, Jair and Rob continued with the tour to see Bloody Ridge, but by then it was 3:30 or so, so I went home to relieve the baby sitter of our baby) was the battle of Tenaru, which was actually Aligator Creek, not Tenaru River, but the maps were marked poorly and it was only after the battle, and after the reports had been written, that the realised it wasn't the battle of Tenaru at all... Anyway, we went to this spot on the black sand beach and heard about the fighting that happened there. John told the story of how one American crossed the river to get something off a body and then swam back. His fellow soldiers gaped as they saw a crocodile eating the intestines of the body the American had just come back from. Eek. Crocodiles were part of the line of defense - You better believe it! A little kid told us that they don't cross that river at night (it's really quite shallow at this point) because a crocodile comes there every night. Eek, again.

Anyway, some of the folks on the tour had photos taken during the Guadalcanal campaign and they had a picture of this same beach, strewn with bodies. You can see it if you watch The Pacific. I think three of the episodes are based on the Guadalcanal campaign. I walked back slowly, because the ground I was walking on had once been covered by American and Japanese men who had died in battle. It's interesting to look at the places they occupied, the land they fought for, the things they left behind. There are many stories in these places, but many stories that will remain untold, because they died with the men who died there.