dear megthered,

I have been researching my father-in-law's service during WWII. His name was Jerome B Goldstein. He served with the 103rd Infantry on Guadalcanal and New Georgia. I just read a book called "Into The Shadows Furious", by, Brian Antobello, it was a historical account of that battle.

The main objective of the battle was to take an airfield built by the Japanese. It was on a small peninsula called Munda Point. The 103rd were on the left flank of the attack and moved from their landing beach at Laiana and advanced along the coast towards Munda. A distance of several miles.

The name for the over-all operation was code named Cartwheel. The conditions on New Georgia were some of the worst during war in the Pacific. From some a accounts I've read it was a living hell. It may be why your father-in-law was so reluctant to talk about it. There were a tremendous number of cases of battle fatigue. Some of the highest during the war.

My father-in-law only opened up to me once after a few drinks. He recalled living in slime and mud filled holes for weeks on end. He said the nights were the worst, the Japanese would infiltrate American lines with knives and grenades. Every noise was nerve racking and resulted in many friendly fire incidents. He said there were several cases of men wounded at night, bleeding to death rather than calling out for help, afraid they would give away their positions. He contracted malaria and dysentery and was forced to defecate in his one piece uniform because it was too difficult to remove without exposing himself to enemy fire.

I wrote a memorial tribute to him on my blog; commonsense: Local Boy Helps Save The World if you would care to read it.

other keyword searches you might try are:
Northern Solomon's
Operation Cartwheel
New Georgia WWII Pacific
43rd Division
Winged Division

Good luck with your search.
Let me know if you want further info.

mnmike21
mweber21_mn1@comcast.net