US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Pianning for Paring the ~apanese Toenails 489
TOENAILS Operation Area.
for six months to perfect their defenses in the New Georgia Group. During
a major part of these six months, the SOPAC forces planning to land in
the New Georgia Group waited for the questions of high command and
of concurrent operations in the Southwest Pacific Area to be settled before
really being able to plan definite steps to push the Japanese out at a reason-
ably sure date.
Not that the problem of bringing available United States air power to
bear in the Central Solomons was overlooked during this delay. Soon after
capturing Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, a second airstrip on Guadal-
canal had been started. Now there were four airstrips on Guadalcanal and
two more in the Russells were being made ready. Planes from these fields,
by regular bombing raids, kept the Japanese alert and particularly busy
filling up holes on the Munda and Vila airfields. To show the extent of
the air effort, CINCPAC reported that during June 1943, 1,455 SOPAC
planes dropped 1,156,075 pounds of bombs on Japanese objectives in the
solomons.” Surface task groups had bombarded Munda and Vila on 6
March and again on 13 May 1943.
“ CINCPAC, lettec, AI 6-3, Ser 001100 of 6 Sep. 1943, subj: Operations in Pacific Ocean
Areas, June 1943, encl. (A).