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AUTHOR SUNDAY – This is how some brave Americans spent July 1st so we could enjoy our lives

As we plan our July 4th festivities, we should never forget how some brave Americans spent July 1, 1943. This story appeared in The Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa, Alabama on July 7, 1943 by J. Norman Lodge. It reveals events that took place on July 1, 1943 on Rendova Island in the South Pacific.

FLEE IN HURRY

Leave Rice Cooking On Rendova Island

by J. Norman Lodge

with U. S. Occupation Forces On Rendova Island, July 1 (Delayed) (AP)

Japanese soldiers fled so suddenly before the invading Americans on this Central Solomons island that their breakfast rice was found still boiling.

Some ran to sniper posts on stumps and in tree tops when the United States doughboys swarmed ashore yesterday in the new offensive.

Landing operations on Redova Island, Solomon Islands, 30 June 1943. Attacking at the break of day in a heavy rainstorm, the first Americans ashore huddle behind tree trunks and any other cover they can find. (Navy) NARA FILE #: 080-G-52573 WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 1176
Landing operations on Redova Island, Solomon Islands, 30 June 1943. Attacking at the break of day in a heavy rainstorm, the first Americans ashore huddle behind tree trunks and any other cover they can find. (Navy)
NARA FILE #: 080-G-52573
WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 1176

The job of ferreting out the snipers continued today, and as I sat atop a coral outcropping, balancing my typewriter on my knees because of lack of a more suitable place, there was an occasional zing of a Japanese .25 calibre bullet going through the coconut trees.

No one paid much attention. Generals sat without steel helments, hardly breaking their conversations.

Lieut. Col. David M. Ross of Berea, Ky., was leading his regiment in an assault when one bullet nipped his upper arm and another ruined his canteen. He refused to retire and calmly put on his first aid bandage himself. Then he continued forward.

While units of all services participated in the various stages of the Rendova occupation, the actual storming and fighting was the army’s show.

Troops participating were excellently trained for jungle fighting, Their morale was high and they have reason to hate the enemy.

They are in complete command of Rendova island, looking forward to their chance to drive on to New Georgia and eventually into Tokyo.

Faith and Courage: A Novel of Colonial America (Tapestry of Love) (Volume 2)

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5 comments

  1. I am so happy to find this site. However, I am having difficulty finding the names of some of my Ancestors who I know were living in .Alabama many generations ago. I have newspaper articles, birth certificates, and pass along stories on some of them. Am I doing the search wrong, or is it possible the names are not in your database? I think this is one of the most exciting websites ever. Thank you for your efforts. Judy Dianne Rooks Wilder

  2. Thank you brave soldiers! I was born free two days after.

  3. S. P. Todd Sr.; S. P. Todd Jr.; E.L. Todd Thank you for you service and commitment love & miss you

  4. Thank You Edmond Champagne (my step-father). You were always my hero. He was sent home in 1943 from the Pacific to die, with no hope of recovery. Amazing, he passed away eight years ago at the age of 92. When returning from the islands he weighed approximately 68 lbs. On his passing he weighed almost 200 lbs. Just proof that Doctors don’t know everything. Rest In Peace, you earned it!

  5. so Sid could be free to harp about the president…..

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