Six months later, June 7, 1942, the Japanese fleet was defeated at the Battle
of Midway. On Friday, August 7, 1942, just two months later, Allied forces1
landed on Guadalcanal. The ensuing six month battle was epic and bloody. The
Allies sent 60,000 men against 36,200 well-entrenched and very confident
Japanese. Allied casualties totaled 7,100 dead, 4 captured while losing 29
ships and 615 aircraft. The Japanese losses were much worse: 31,000 dead.
These are the personal, eye-witness stories of two of those courageous
men. One, a 20-year old Texan, then a Corporal in the 1st Marine Division;
the other a 2nd Lt in a Japanese anti-tank gun company. Rube Garrett and
Genjirou Inui never met but their stories are forever bound together.
Rube introduced his diary with the following:
My name is James R. “Rube”
Garrett. I was a Corporal,
ammo chief for I Battery, 3rd
Battalion, 11th Regiment and
a charter member of the 1st
Marine Division, formed in
Cuba in 1940. The following
are my diary entries for
the Battle of Guadalcanal.
A glance through the pages
shows while we were there, 59 enemy air raids flew in. That doesn’t include
many false alarms and numerous shellings from japa Japanese battleships,
destroyers and cruisers. It seemed like about an air raid or shelling every
day for three and a half months. I remember a lot of diving into ditches and
ducking in and out of bomb shelters, or whatever we could find to hide under.
The entry for August 28, 1942, just three weeks after the landing, reads
“...to date, have seen 133 Jap planes fall and some 20 odd ships sunk.”
Many more would follow.
W ar Thunder Community Magazine
The GameOn Magazine // 49