Hello all,

The landing was supported with some very close range naval gunfire, destroyers and destroyer escorts pounded away with 20mm and 40mm guns along with some respectable broadside salvos from their three and five inch guns. The ships were approaching the shoreline with the landing craft in shallow water and I remember brown water from the screws of one ship churning up the sand and coral from the bottom. Navy fighters were swooping in and over the harbor and making attack runs back and forth.

Once we came ashore on the narrow strip of beach, we found supplies, ammunition crates, weapons and abandoned heavy machine gun positions, uniforms, warm rice in pots, and a few medical items scattered in the debris, it looked like they had no idea we were coming until they saw our transports and all hell broke loose. The japs we did find were in bits and pieces, some in shreds from the tree tops or on the vegetation, we found part of the uniform of a jap Major.

The jungle and palms backed the narrow beach, and behind that lay a swamp of mangrove deep enough to swallow a man whole if he was foolish enough to try and cross it, it ran a few hundred yards across. Beyond that we began running into pockets of japs, leading up to the hills.

Back on the beach supplies were piling up faster than they could be dispersed, on red beach or white beach one or two afternoons after the landings, a few jap planes bombed the ammunition and fuel supplies, and that lit up the night for hours and hours.

All for now, take care

__________________
All the Best
Jack