Airfields Used By The RNZAF In The Pacific War, WW 2, Henderson Field, Guadalcanal.

Guadalcanal

The Battle of Guadalcanal, also known as Operation Watchtower, by US Forces was fought between 7th August 1942 and 9th February 1943.

On 7th August Allied Forces, mainly US Marines, landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi and Florida in the Southern Solomon Islands, with the objective of denying their use by the Japanese to threaten Allied Supply and Communications routes between the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

The Japanese defenders, who had been there since May 1942, were outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Allies, who captured Tulagi and Florida as well as the partially build airfield, later named Henderson Field.

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Tulagi Island

The Japanese had approx 900 Navy troops on Tulagi and nearby Islands, 2,800 personnel [2,200 being Korean forced labourers, and construction specialists] on Guadalcanal.

The attacking US forces were in Watchtower Force, a 75 ship convoy, that departed from Fiji on 31st July

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Bad weather had allowed the Allies to arrive unseen on the night of the 6th August, taking the defenders by surprise.

The landing force broke into two groups, with 3,000 Marines assaulting Tulagi and two small nearby islands, Gavutu and Tanambogo.

The Allied warships bombarded the invasion beaches while the Carrier aircraft bombed Japanese positions on the target islands and destroyed 15 Japanese seaplanes at their base near Tulagi

The 886 Japanese manning the naval and seaplane base fiercely resisted the Marine attack, and were killed almost to the last man, the marines lost 122 killed.

The landings at Guadalcanal encountered much less resistance, and at 0910 on 7th August 11,000 US Marines came ashore between Koli Point and Lunga Point.

Advancing towards Lunga Point they encountered little resistance and secured the airfield by 1600 hrs on the 8th August.

The Japanese naval construction units and combat forces had fled about 3 miles west to Matanikau river and Point Cruz area, leaving behind food supplies, intact construction equipment and vehicles,

During the landing, aircraft from Rabaul attacked the US forces several times, setting on fire the transport USS George F Elliot, [sank two days later] and damaging the Destroyer USS Jarvis.

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USS George F Elliot

During these attacks, the Japanese lost 36 aircraft to the US 19, including 14 carrier fighters.

After these clashes there was concern about the losses to the carrier fighter strength and the threat to the carriers from further air attacks, so the carriers withdrew from the Solomon area on the night of 8th August.

This caused the transports to withdraw as well, even though there was less than half the supplies and heavy equipment needed by the troops ashore unloaded.

As the transports unloaded on the night on 8-9th August, two groups of screening Cruisers and Destroyers were defeated by a force of 7 Japanese Cruisers and one destroyer that was based at Rabaul.

Being unaware that the Carriers had withdrawn, the Japanese returned to Rabaul after sinking one Australian and three US Cruisers and damaging one US cruiser and two destroyers, without attacking the transports.

The Japanese made several attempts to retake Henderson Field, three major land battles, seven large naval battles, [five night time surface actions and two carrier battles] and almost daily aerial attacks.

In December, the Japanese began to evacuate their forces, and by 7th February 1943, they had mostly gone to other bases.

The NZ Personnel based at Henderson Field shared the same hardships as Guadalcanal’s other defenders, the most urgent need was providing dugouts to give Squadron personnel protection from nightly air raids.

This was achieved by digging a tunnel in a ridge near the Squadrons camp.

Eventually, a new camp was built on a nearby ridge.

After their failure to recapture Guadalcanal in 1942, the Japanese undertook no further offensive operations in the Solomons.

Instead, they concentrated building up their forward bases at Munda and Reketa Bay, and Buin-Kahili area in Southern Bougainville as their major base in the Solomons, while establishing outposts on Velle Lavella, Choiseul and Shortland.

In the months that followed the evacuation of the Japanese of Guadalcanal, the main concern of the US Command was building sufficient forces to carry out operations against the Northern Solomons and New Britain.

During this period the strength of the RNZAF was increased by the arrival of additional Squadrons.

The first Fighter Squadron to arrive was No 15, who landed at Guadalcanal/Henderson Field in April 1943, and commence operations on the 19th April.

Their first contact with the Japanese was on 6th May 1943, when two P 40 Kittyhawks were escorting a patrolling Hudson when they managed to shoot down a Japanese float plane.

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Curtis P 40 Kittyhawk at Henderson Field

Also in April, No 14 [F] Squadron was posted to Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides.

They were moved to Henderson Field on 11th June and on the following day, in their first combat, they shot down 6 enemy aircraft, two of which were credited to Geoff Fiskin of Singapore fame.

On July 4th Geoff Fiskin scored his final victories over the Japanese, two Zeros and a G4M Betty Bomber.

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Mitsubishi Zero

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Mitsubishi G4M Bomber [Betty]

These raised his total to 10 confirmed victories [3 more, in Singapore, were contested and un-provable] making him the top Commonwealth Ace in the Pacific.

Due to complications from injuries received in Singapore, he was medically discharged in December 1943.

The RNZAF followed the US experience of having, particularly fighter Squadrons, in the combat for only a short time, if they were to remain effective,

The RNZAF Aircrew spent 6 weeks on duty, followed by training and leave in NZ.

The ground crew stayed until they had spent a year in the area, before being spelled in a local reat camp.

RNZAF usage of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal

[F]= Fighter
[BR] = Bomber Reconnaissance
SU = Support Unit [did all the maintenance on the Aircraft]

15 [F] Squadron 26 April to June 1943
14 [F] Squadron 11 June to 25 July 1943
16 [F] Squadron 25 July to 15 September 1943
15 [F] Squadron 8 September to October 1943
17 [F] Squadron 11 September to 20 October 1943

14 [F] Squadron February 1944
19 [F] Squadron February to March 1944
16 [F] Squadron March 1944
17 [F] Squadron April 1944
20 [F] Squadron April to May 1944
15 [F] Squadron May to June 1944
14 [F] Squadron June 1944
18 [F] Squadron June 1944
19 [F] Squadron June to July 1944
21 [F] Squadron June to July 1944
16 [F] Squadron July to August 1944
17 [F] Squadron August to September 1944
22 [F] Squadron August to September 1944
18 [F] Squadron September to November 1944
20 [F] Squadron September to October 1944
19 [F] Squadron October to November 1944
16 [F] Squadron November to December 1944
21 [F] Squadron November to December 1944
25 [F] Squadron December 1944 to January 1945

18 [F] Squadron January to February 1945
23 [F] Squadron February to March 1945
14 [F] Squadron March 1945
26 [F] Squadron March to April 1945

3 [BR] Squadron 6 December 1942 to 23 October 1943

1 [BR] Squadron October 1943

3 [BR] Squadron July to August 1944
1 [BR] Squadron August to October 1944
2 [BR] Squadron November 1944 to January 1945

8 [BR] Squadron January to February 1945
3 [BR] Squadron 9 February to March 1945
2 [BR] Squadron 17 February 1945
1 [BR] Squadron March to May 1945
4 [BR]Squadron May to 22 June 1945

No 1 SU before June 1944

No 10 [BR] S U 13 October 1943 to 24 April 1944

No 12 SU [BR] before June 1944

No 1 Islands Group HQ 7 Jan 1944

No 3 [BR] Squadron Detachment 23 Nov to 6 Dec 1942

This was the first RNZAF Squadron to engage with the Japanese in combat.
The Detachment was tasked with reconnaissance duties and scouting for shipping attempting to deliver troops and supplies to Guadalcanal

They flew 4 to 6 patrols daily over New Georgia, Santa Isabel, Choiseul and the surrounding waters.

While essentially a reconnaissance aircraft, the Hudson could carry 4 x 500 lb bombs or depth charges.

They also carried our regular night time patrols seeking Japanese convoys in the “Slot”, the North-South channel between the New Georgia Group and Choiseul and Santa Isabel Islands.

The arrival of No 3 [BR] Squadron filled an important gap in the types of aircraft available in the Solomons, and they were heartily welcomed by the overworked US Air Group.

Prior to the arrival of No 3 [BR] Squadron they had been forced to use torpedo and dive bombers for reconnaissance work, supplemented by long-range patrols by heavy bombers.

The Hudsons, with their longer range, relieved the Torpedo and Dive bombers and at the same time released the
long-range heavy bombers from most of their reconnaissance work.

Just a day after arriving, on his first operational flight from Henderson Field, Flying Officer George Gudsell, and his crew, spotted a Japanese tanker and two transports being escorted near Vella Lavella, North West of Guadalcanal.

As they approached, the ships gunners started firing at the Hudson.

Three Japanese Nakajima float planes then attacked Gudsells aircraft.

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Nakajima A6M2

By skilful manoeuvring of his aircraft at altitudes as low as 50 feet, Gudsell managed to avoid the fighters and return to Henderson Field safely.

Three days later, when shadowing another convoy, Gudsell’s aircraft was attacked by three Zeros.

In a 17 minute battle, again at very low altitudes, during which the Hudson was hit several times, without injury to the crew, Gudsell managed to return to Henderson Field again.

For these actions, Gudsell was awarded the US Air Medal, the first member of the RNZAF to be awarded a decoration in the South West Pacific .

Amazingly, the Hudson, NZ 2049, involved in both of these actions exists today, in the collections of John Smith of Mapua, NZ.

with thanks to son-of-satire for the banner