SEA BATTLES IN SOLOMONS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23812, 4 December 1942, Page 4

SEA BATTLES IN SOLOMONS

ACCOUNT BY AMERICAN JOURNALIST

“ SITUATION NOW LOOKS PRETTY GOOD” (P.S.S.) AUCKLAND. December 3. Naval clashes in the Solomons area last month were seen by Mr William Hippie, a war correspondent with the United States forces, who was on Tulagi Island. He is on a brief visit to New Zealand, Mr Hippie is attached to the Associated Press, a service supplying 1300 newspapers in America. Both actions which he saw took place for the most part in the pitchblack darkness of the tropics. In the first battle of November 13, said Mr Hippie, the opposing forces were closely engaged for an hour near Tulagf and Guadalcanal The Japanese fleet included battleships. The flash and thunder of broadsides were interminable during the main action. The ships which were badly hit sometimes emerged from the darkness in the blinding flash of an explosion, which sent up star shells in all directions. Sometimes they entered Iho picture as a dull, red glow as internal fires spread to the hull and quickly increased in intensity. However, sudden or slow, the end of the stricken ships was the same, and Iheir fate was made all the more certain by the rain of tracer bullets that denoted the presence of aircraft. It was unthinkable, said Mr Hippie, that anyone could survive such an experience. Three or four enemy ships blew up after the main action had been broken off. As the sun rose it revealed a Japanese battleship lying off Savo Island, in Tulagi roadstead, trying to limp away. She had begun to move out to the open sea at about two knots when American bombers came over and she was soon abandoned, burning. Two nights later there was another major conflict in which battleships were used on both sides. The enemy losses on this occasion included four transports, which wore beached on the north-west shore of Guadalcanal They tried desperately to get men and equipment ashore, but none of the equipment reached land, and the casualties among the troops, estimated at from two to three divisions strong, were terrific as aeroplanes roared over them constantly.

Mr Hippie formed one of the crew of a seaplane which taxied over the cil-covered waters in search of survivors.

Most of the men in the water were suffering from exposure and burns. A few had gunshot wounds, but the coating of oil made them look ghastly. Many of the Japanese soldiers and sailors refused to be picked up and dived like ducks under the surface when the aeroplane came near. They preferred death to capture, and that sentiment was general. “The situation in general looks pretty good," said Mr Hippie, in conclusion.