Across the Dark Islands by Floyd W. Radike

Author:Floyd W. Radike
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307414465
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Summing Up

August 11, 1984. The writing of a narrative is a linear process, event after event, strung together like beads on a string. This leaves little or no time for occasional pauses to look around and see how far we have come, to evaluate the circumstances we found ourselves in, to judge whether the actions taken were the best or less than the best.

It is time to take a lateral look and to develop some composites about the two campaigns. During a battle you see only a short distance. As time goes on you gather more and more information about what was going on all around you. Often it doesn’t make you feel any better, but at least you understand it.

Sending the 25th Division to Guadalcanal was an afterthought. We weren’t supposed to go there when we left Hawaii. But a troop ship with another division had gone aground in the tangle of islands off to the east, and we were put in as substitutes. Our equipment, uniforms, and weapons were on the docks at Brisbane, Australia. We had not planned for the Canal, nor had we trained or organized for it. We had to improvise our operations. There were few people—the general included—who did have enough skill and creativity to handle the tasks that faced us. A lot of people did not have such flexibility, skill, or courage—and they deserve some mention at this point.

FIELD-GRADE LEADERSHIP

The field-grade officers of the regiment suffered from a number of disabilities. Most of them were too old for active field command in either the infantry or in the rigorous requirements of jungle warfare. They were in poor physical condition, which had not been improved by the free and easy life on Oahu. Worst of all, they were incompetent. They lacked the professional background to adjust to the new and unusual type of warfare the Japanese engaged in. They had in most cases obtained their rank not by the exhibitions of leadership, combat skills, and soldierly qualities, but by working their way up the seniority chain of good old boys. Faced with the realities of combat, they put on their usual act of bluff and bravado, which collapsed in the savage rain forest.

The battalion and regimental commanders are particularly charged with putting an attack together. The concept of the operation, the use of firepower, and the disposition and actions of troops are their responsibilities. If nobody handles this task the companies fight as separate little armies. And so we did during the two Solomon Islands campaigns.

The commander of an infantry battalion is the highest ranking officer to make his presence felt at the front of the battle line. His personal, on-the-spot leadership is needed to direct the flow of battle, to seek out the soft spots, to reinforce success. Our commanders exercised control from command posts safely in the rear.

The field-grade officers were objects of derision, even among the company officers that had come from the same state National Guard unit. But what was to be done? Little, if anything.

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