A man was crushed between the landing craft and the side of the ship. Or if the boat didn’t drop, it came roaring up. Due to the waves, boats were dropping six to 10 feet, just as men were ready to get in them. “We received orders to go below and get everything ready to disembark. We couldn’t even hear each other without yelling.
It was unbelievable, and the noise was horrendous! Most of us were scared and bewildered.
After eating, which was hard to do, we went up on deck to watch the bombardment of Guadalcanal. Jim Young: “We were awakened around three in the morning on August 7, 1942, the day we were to fight the Japs. With Guadalcanal’s airfield, the Japanese could bomb the shipping lanes to Australia and choke the continent, putting Australia at risk for Japanese invasion.Īmong the thousands of troops nervous with anticipation about the battle to come were four Marines from H Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment––Jim Young, Sid Phillips, Roy Gerlach, and Art Pendleton––dressed in their steel helmets and green cotton-twill uniform (the Marines’ familiar, mottled-green camouflage uniforms had not yet been issued). They had come to seize the island’s semi-completed airfield at Lunga Point from the Japanese before it became operational. Elliott, steamed into the waters north of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific’s Solomon Islands. 1st Marine Division watched from the railings as their troopship, the USS George F.
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