World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: Beautiful Munda

“It is beautiful. I very much like the look of it,” said Lieut. General Alexander Archer Vandegrift, who just one year ago had led the first American attack against the Jap-held Solomon Islands. Now, back in the South Pacific, commanding the newly formed I Marine Amphibious Corps, he was making a shrewd observation on the success of the combined Army-Marine-Navy operations against Munda, once the strongest Jap base in the central Solo mons.

The beauty of Munda airfield on this August afternoon was not in the gutted, smoldering landscape. It was wholly due to the presence there of dirty, sour-smelling, bloodied American troops poking about in the smoky rubble looking for souvenirs. Among their souvenirs were 1,671 dead Japanese (so far counted), sodden, mustard-colored bags of dusty, mustard-colored flesh ballooning n the humid sunlight, attracting only flies and burial squads. Soon to be souvenirs were isolated Jap units which had taken refuge in the slimy shadow of nearby man grove swamps. A few of the estimated 5,000 of the original garrison had possibly escaped, by barge or destroyer, in the artillery-haunted nights preceding Mun-da’s fall.

Final Offensive. The final offensive had begun five days previously, when encircling U.S. troops broke through Jap lines on the north and south. Flame throwers proved the answer to the Jap’s bombproof, duplex bunkers. Soldiers advanced under Jap guns and sprayed fire from two sides into the gun openings and eyeslits, scorching the Japs out. Ingenious mechanics improved on the tactic by affixing flame throwers to the light marine tanks. These blowtorched the path into Munda. In the last days little Jap resistance remained. The cumulative effect of the tremendous bombing and shelling to which Munda had been subjected won the day.

Cleanup. At week’s end on New Georgia only a small Jap detachment at Bai-roko Harbor was still to be done in, but victorious units from Munda moved for ward to help in the job. Army engineers and Navy Seabees prepared to restore the 4,000-ft. Munda airstrip, which would bring the U.S. just within fighter-plane range of Rabaul. Eyes turned to Vila, Munda’s supplementary airstrip 17 miles away, huddled against the great cone of Kolombangara. That the Japs were determined to cling to Vila was evident when they once more took the impossible chance and sent down four ships with reinforcements. Intercepting the convoy at mid night in the Vella Gulf, the U.S. Navy, already operating north of Kolombangara, sank a cruiser, two destroyers and probably the remaining destroyer.

Outlook. Since General Vandegrift’s Marines made their frontal assault on Guadalcanal, the U.S. has learned much about island warfare. The new tactics are to surround the Jap bases in overwhelming force and in combined operation to squeeze the life out of them. Though the capture of Munda was somewhat behind schedule, the Japs were left no secondary retreats, would soon be cleaned up. Gen eral Vandegrift, with his spearhead of Amphibious Marines, looked forward to future operations conducted by “all of us, a highly cooperative team.”