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.This not unlikely story substantiated a curious report the intelligence officer had received the daypreviously, when a patrol had seen a "white flag" displayed on the west bank of the Matanikau.It wasenough for Lt.Col.Goettge, who then and there decided to investigate the situation personally.As he ate cold beans that evening with Vandegrift, Goettge submitted his proposal.The general was notenthusiastic.But his G-2 was persistent, and the Division commander finally agreed that Goettge mightpersonally lead a patrol to the area where the white flag had been seen.The colonel immediatelyassembled 25 men, most of them from his intelligence section.Shortly before midnight they embarkedin a Higgins boat at Kukum.Complete details of the tragedy which overtook this ill-advised expedition will never be known.Thethree survivors agreed that the patrol landed just west of the Matanikau about midnight, that it was atonce discovered by the Japanese, and practically annihilated in a fire fight lasting less than fiveminutes.The three who escaped did so by swimming, crawling and wading to the east.They reachedthe outposts at dawn, their hands and knees deeply lacerated by coral, and sick of exhaustion.Nothingmore was ever learned of the fate of Goettge or those who presumably perished with him.Just before the G-2 set forth on the mission from which he did not return, a Catalina piloted by RearAdmiral "Slew" McCain's aide landed on the strip soon to be named "Henderson Field" in honor of amarine dive-bomber pilot killed in the Battle of Midway.This was the first aircraft to use the runwaywhich had just been completed by marine engineers.The unmatted strip, still only 2600 feet long, asyet lacked taxi-ways, revetted hard stands, and a drainage system.But McCain's aide pronounced itsuitable for fighter operation.Bad weather had grounded Rabaul's "eagles" on August 9, but on each of the three following days theypounded the primitive field vigorously.The moment the all clear sounded, the engineers, with equalvigor, filled the craters.And, by August 12, Pepper's antiaircraft guns were beginning to talk.Severaldays later, Eleventh Air Fleet reported to Tokyo that in the day's raid five Bettys had been seriouslydamaged: "Enemy AA guns are proving rather accurate." The bombers, duly warned, escalated from tento twenty-five thousand feet, with consequent loss of accuracy.Arrival of promised marine aircraft was now eagerly anticipated.Daily the engineers extended therunway.With Japanese dynamite they cleared obstructing trees from the north end, and with three earthtampers operated by Japanese air compressors laboriously packed new fill excavated by marine-powered Japanese picks and shovels, and brought to the site in Japanese trucks fueled with Japanesegasoline.Meanwhile, the pioneers used Japanese girders to construct bridges, and Japanese pier material torepair Japanese jetties damaged in the D day bombardment.Cooks prepared meals on field stovesburning Japanese kerosene.Marines queued up to use latrines built of Japanese lumber and protectedfrom flies by Japanese screen.When the Japanese siren announced the approach of Japanese planes,marines dove into holes dug and roofed by the Japanese.All hands smoked Japanese cigarettes, drankJapanese beer, and listened to Tokyo Rose.Some varied their emergency rations with canned Japanese seaweed eaten from Japanese bowls withJapanese chop-sticks; a fortunate few stuffed themselves with Japanese crab meat and delicious tinnedsliced beef packed in soy sauce, which they topped off with Japanese hard candy and sake quaffed fromdelicate Japanese cups.Many wrote letters on Japanese rice paper, counted the number of days untiltheir enlistments expired on a Japanese abacus, and used Japanese occupation money to buy Japanesesouvenirs.One gunnery sergeant opened a small class in Japanese flower arrangement; his text abeautifully illustrated book on the subject recently published in Tokyo.On Tulagi, Merritt Edson spent a few hours daily reading in English translation a "Short History ofJapan"; a company commander, who had liberated a Victrola and a collection of Japanese records froma warehouse on Carpenter's Wharf, provided suitable dinner music for the colonel's mess.In those daysthe suggestion was frequently made that marines might with advantage swap the quartermaster of thecorps for his opposite number in Tokyo."The men are fine, in good spirits and, thank God, still in goodhealth," their general reported to the Commandant.3Marines talked happily of returning to New Zealand in three weeks [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]