HISTORY

Photo: National Archives via NAAS

Text: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

We left the pilots and mechanics of VMF-223 in the first

part of this article as they began to familiarize themselves

with Henderson Airfield and the situation on Guadalcanal.

The latter certainly did not make them so happy, but it did

compromise their combat determination.

It was fortunate the Japanese were initially

as nearly hamstrung as the Americans.

The Imperial Navy’s 25th Air Flotilla (5th

Air Attack Force), based at Rabaul, had

been reinforced only days before the

Allied incursion into the Solomons as

part of a general build-up preparatory to

occupying Guadalcanal and supporting

a further Japanese drive into the New

Hebrides. On August 9, Vice Admiral

Nishizō Tsukahara activated the Eleventh

Air Fleet at Rabaul and assumed control

18

INFO Eduard

of regional air operations. The one-armed

senior aviator, who had lost his arm to

a spinning propeller, advocated a policy of

strong reprisals against the Americans.

However, since his bomber force had

taken severe losses during the first two

days of aerial combat, the admiral was

restricted to planning harassment and

reconnaissance missions to the island.

The Americans were fortunate that

Guadalcanal and the Japanese airfields

at Rabaul were separated by more than

Photo up: Aerial view of the runway of Henderson

Airfield on August 22, 1942, two days after VMF-223

arrived on the island. The buildings to the south of the

runway were intended as workshops and the roofs

were made of 7/8-inch-thick steel.

600 miles of the Solomon and Coral Seas.

Though the Zero was the longest-legged

operational fighter in the world, the 1,300

mile round trip between Rabaul and

Guadalcanal taxed even its capabilities to

the limit, while the twin-engine Betty had

fuel for only 15 minutes over the target.

The range limitations of the Zero and the

Betty meant missions had to be flown by

the most direct route, with no margin for

feints or for speeding up the throttled-back

engines of the fuel-conserving fighters

April 2023