REAL LIFE
snipers and machine gun fire. Dutton was killed and we also killed a cow
to the rear of the battery in the dark - we didn’t know what it was.
“I saw the Battle for Iron Bottom Bay (aka Savo Island) when we lost five
cruisers. I nearly had a beach side view. But I remember us in a coconut
grove and we were in a convoy and we weren’t settled. It was raining like
the dickens and I got under a truck. When you watch a naval gun battle eight
miles away, you see tremendous flashes in the gloom. When you see continuous
flashes like lightning, what that is is 16 inch guns. We didn’t realise it at
the time but that was our ships getting blown to hell. But we thought we were
winning the battle, and every time a ship would go down we’d start
cheering “Rah, Rah, that’s the good guys”...and they were kicking our
butts every time. We finally found out by word of mouth I guess.”
AUGUST 10, 1942
We had machine gun attacks from the rear. Returned fire for 1500 rounds.
Today, drew and belted 50 cal. and issued more 30 cal. ammunition.
AUGUST 11, 1942
Machine gunned again. Sgt. Windish, our Instrument Section
sergeant, was killed accidentally by one of our officers. Went
on two hour patrol with Sgt. Voelker. To river to bathe and
saw two prisoners. A friend of mine, Casey from Headquarters’
Battery, was killed in the night, I think by friendly fire.
Sgt. Windish was killed accidentally by his own officer, who was
the Instrument Section Commander, with whom he was bunking. He
had left the bunker and, on returning, frightened the man inside
who shot him two times with a 45 caliber pistol. Both men were gone
before daylight - we never saw nor heard of the officer again.
52 // War Thunder Community Magazine
The GameOn Magazine