New Georgia by Ronnie Day

Author:Ronnie Day [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2016-03-14T21:00:00+00:00

THE HELENA RESCUE MISSION TO VELLA LAVELLA

We left the nearly 200 survivors in the area around Helena’s bow around midday 6 July. The wounded had been placed in the two rubber lifeboats dropped by the PB4Y and waited for rescue that never came. As night set in, Lieutenant Commander John L. Chew, the senior naval officer, and the other ranking officers decided to try to make the Kolombangara coast 6 or 7 miles south. The wind and the current, however, carried them north of the island, and the next morning, they decided to try for Vella Lavella. A case of potatoes floated by and was recovered, which relieved their thirst. One man died in Chew’s boat; others just swam away and were not seen again. During the night, the two boat groups became separated. The next morning, 7 July, sixty-one men made landfall in the Paraso Bay area west of Horaniu, and another group of 104 men under Chew reached Lambu Lambu Cove east of Horaniu. Some made it ashore on their own; Josselyn’s scouts went out in canoes and brought in the rest. The main Japanese force on the island, Josselyn estimated at around 100, was at the naval relay base at Horaniu, but there were lookout posts on both sides of Lambu Lambu and another near Paraso Bay. Nonetheless, the Japanese made no effort to intervene.

Protecting and feeding 165 men presented Josselyn with a considerable problem. With most of his scouts, he went to Paraso Bay to take charge, gathered the survivors in a camp inland, and set up a defense perimeter. He sent three armed scouts with seven rifles and a shotgun to Chew’s group, which armed Major Bernard T. Kelly and his five marines, and asked Reverend Silvester to provide for their medical care and living needs. Only once did a small Japanese party get too close – this at Lambu Lambu – but the scouts killed all four. The men, in poor condition from their ordeal, were fed well. They had stew twice daily made from canned meat and local vegetables, and over 100 pounds of navy coffee washed up on the beach. The wounded were put up in a house of the small Chinese refugee community from Ghanongga.

Josselyn, of course, had been in communication with TF 31 from the start, and an evacuation was arranged for the night of 12 July. But delays, first caused by the Battle of Kolombangara and then one requested by Josselyn to get the Chew party ready, pushed the date back three days. On 15 July, the evacuation force sailed from Port Purvis in two groups. Three destroyer transports and four destroyers under Ryan took the route south of Rendova and through Gizo Strait. Four destroyers under McInerney headed directly up the Slot to a point off Vella Lavella to serve as the covering force. With nightfall, the full moon lit up the night, and while Japanese seaplanes spotted McInerney, they flew on to continue their nightly battle with the PT boats.

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