The Howard Hansen Story of WW2

M: Did you come in on barges?

H: We came in 'Higgins' boats. They didn't have barges then, just boats. Like a river

boat. We went over both sides and the front. Anyway, we secured it in three or five

days - wasn't too long - we didn't have too many casualties there.

NOTE from "The Complete History of World War II":

"But on Tulagi (and Gavutu and Tamambogo) there the Japanese had nowhere

to retreat. Barricading themselves into powerfully defended dugouts, caves, and

other natural defenses, they fought off the Marines for three days before being

wiped out.

This was our first experience with the fanatical to-the-death resistance that was to

become common in all operations on the long trek back north in the Pacific. Our

losses were heavy before the Tulagi islands were secured." [No numbers given.]

M: Was there fighting on the beach when you landed?

H: No...no. They were just all holed up; hiding in the daytime, doing most of their

stuff at night, tried to, anyway. Of course, we ran out of food and the Japs kept our

Navy away from us. They were twelve hours behind us: supplies, food, and that. The

Army was with them. Supposed to take over after we established beach heads.

That's what we were taught to do. Establish beach heads so the Army could take

over. We were supposed to go hit another one someplace. It didn't work out that way.

M: You were cut off from your supplies?

H: Yeah. When the Army did get in there, the Japs mutilated them cause the Army just

ran down to the airport. We had to go push them back up. They weren't trained

for that kind of fighting, the Army wasn't general fighting.

M: How far were you from Henderson Air Field?

H: They took us from Tulagi over to Guadalcanal with a PT boat pulling a bunch of

loaded boats. Higgins boats. It was 25 miles; didn't have that much gas. Back on

Tulagi, again. The PT boats -- in fact, Kennedy was skipper on one of them -- they

pulled right into that harbor and at night they'd go out and raise heck with any ships

that were out there and then they'd be back in the morning early. They'd throw up

a wake -- Man! 10 feet up the bank of Tulagi. They'd go back in to shore [to cord

up]. Florida Island and Tulagi came together, just a big harbor, water, and they'd

go back in there and hide. Jungle up over it; airplanes couldn't spot them. They

could hide from the big Jap cruisers and that. And the Jap cruisers and battlewagons

would come in early in the morning and they'd sit off and they'd shell us. We was

up on a little hill there and we could see them shoot. We would duck down, big

artillery stuff on the ships. One of them hit within fifteen feet; first boy that was

killed in our company, his name was Hart. He was in his fox hole and it was close

enough to jar. Shook all his nerves and he died from that - too much shock.

Page 9

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anyway, we didn't have much food and we found that Jap rice, quite a bit of it, and

what little dried fish they had in boxes. We ate all that in a hurry; course there

wasn't much for anyone.

M: They must have left in a hurry if they left their food.

H: Yeah. That's the reason all that rice and stuff was there. Rice and fish, that's their

main diet, I guess. But me being a farmer boy, I'd cook that Jap rice. Of course

nowadays, you'd say 'Japanese rice', but as far as I'm concerned, they're still 'Japs',

that group. I took my helmet, you know, that metal helmet, goes over your pith

helmet, they're called. Well, that metal one makes a good thing to cook in so no

fighting going on, we'd secured the island. Didn't hurt to make a fire, so I'd boil that

rice. I tried to hand grenade fish in the water-bay there, but it was 40 feet deep and

clear as a bell; couldn't get near a fish with a hand grenade or nothing. Then one

day a parakeet lit on a limb above me. I was getting ready to clean my rifle and so

I blasted that thing. It was only about ten feet above me. Some guy said, "Boy, you

aren't very smart, Hansen. Shoot a parakeet with a 30 ought six. II I said, "I missed

him six inches." He came down and I had those feathers off him in nothing flat. I

didn't clean him, just threw him in the pot of rice. Everybody had to eat. He was

something to eat; when you're starving you have to have something. If I hadn't been

there, I think they [the squad] would have starved. One guy in the squad, name was

Congal from Washington (one of those little towns the other side of Vancouver; can't

remember which one) he was bald-headed. He was an old guy; he was thirty years

old; balder than an eagle, and he was a short fellow. One day he came over and I

was cooking the rice and he looked down real close and he kept looking and, "Hey,

hey", he says. "What's wrong, Congal?" "Look!" "SO what? It's my rice." "It's

moving!" I said, "No kiddin?" "Yeah!" he said, it's moving!" "Hot diggity dog,

Fellows! We've got protein here!" He wouldn't eat nothing from then on. He just

about starved to death before they got something to him. That went on a couple of

weeks or better. Finally, we got a darned ship in. Came in the harbor, with food.

He sneaked in and anchored right off Tulagi, and they were unloading it as fast as

they could. Come night time they still had to work to unload that thing, and I had

dysentery - don't know why - but anyway, I was up on the side hill sitting on the

latrine, miserable as heck. A plane comes sailing in, had his lights on. I said, "Hey,

Fellas, that's not ours! Can't be ours! Doesn't sound like ours!" It was a Jap

bomber. One Jap bomber came in and he dropped two bombs, one on each side of

the ship. Didn't even hit the ship! He wasn't over 300 feet high and he went over

the island. Half minute he was back around headed toward Florida Island. We had

a destroyer out there; the destroyer that escorted the ship in, and boy! they blasted

the heck out of him before he even got to Florida Island. They were good shots by then.

They had a PBY used to come in and bring letters to the commander from

headquarters to Florida Harbor. One morning he didn't come into the harbor like

Page 10