US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

274 Amphibians Came To Conquer
Presumably on the basis of these dispatches, CINCPAC on the 26th of
June asked COMSOWESPACFOR to arrange for photo reconnaissance of
all Japanese airdromes in the Solomons. On 28 June and subsequent days,
Army Air Force planes in General MacArthur’s command made the requested
flights. These were supplemented by reconnaissance planes from COMAIR-
SOPAC’S command.’”’ On 1 July, the Australian intelligence organization in
the Solomon’s titled FERDINAND was alerted to the presence of a good
sized Japanese labor party on Guadalcanal Island, but this information
indicated that actual work on the airfield awaited the arrival “within a week”
of the” 1 Ith and 13th Pioneer Forces.” 110
According to Samuel E. Morison:
On 5 July, Admiral Nimitz, received a bit of news that sparked off the whole
operation. An American reconnaissance plane observed that the Japanese were
starting to build an airfield-the future Henderson Field--on Guadalcanal.111
Actually the information did not come from either an American or an
Allied reconnaissance plane. CINCPAC read a Japanese radio message
stating that the ‘‘Guadalcanal landing was designated ‘AN’ operation, with
4 July as ‘X’ day. Force consisted of naval landing party, plus 1 lth and
13th Pioneer Forces.” From this it was deduced that actual construction of
the airfield would start soon after 4 July.’”
The intelligence reports for 4 through 10 July from CINCSWPAC,
COMSOPAC and New Caledonia contain no information in regard to
the start of the building of an airdrome on Guadalcanal but tell of landing
barges and pontoon landing jetties, and of cruisers, destroyers, and small
craft near Lunga Point.’” As late as 17 July, CINCSWPAC reported “no
actual construction work on runway.” 114
m (a) CM-IN-9649 6/29/42; (b) Air Force, Guadalcanal and Saipan, p. 26.
“0 (a) Samuel B. Griffith, The Bdtle for Guadalcaml(New York: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1963),
pp. 20-21; (b) Eric A, Feldt, The Coast Wutrher$ (Melborne, Oxford University Press, 1946),
P. 83.
m Morison, Coral Sea, Midway a~d Submarine Actionj (Vol. IV), p, 261. On page 12 of
Volume V, Morison states it a bit differmtly: “But on 4 July, an allied reconnaissance pIane
reported the Japanese were starting work on an airfield.”
m COMSOPAC, Op Plan I-42, 16 Jul. 1942, Appendix H, Intelligence Annex A, subj:
Guadalcanal-Enemy information captured by CINCPAC.
m (a) CM–IN-0925 7/3/42; (b) CGSNPA Operations Report of 7/4/42 (without identifying
numbers); (c) CM-IN-1742 7/5/~2; (d) CM-IN-1761 7/5/42; (e) CM–IN-1988
7/6/42; (f) CM-IN–2068 7/6/42 ; (g) CM–IN–2264 7/7/42; (h) CM–lN-2309 7/7/42;
(i) CM-IN-2861 7/9/42; (j) CM-IN-3038 7/9/42; (k) CM-IN-3094 7/9/42; (1) CM-IN-
3439 7/10/42.
u~~–IN-5953 1J171Q