From 16 through 19 August 1943, the Japanese shelled the airfield in the day and bombed it at night. The artillery threat was eliminated with the capture of Baanga Island, but the air raids continued with intermittent bombing and strafing through the fall. From then, until the establishment of airfields on Bougainville three months later, Munda Field was the scene of intense activity as planes landed and took off to strike at Rabaul and Japanese shipping which were first trying to supply, and then evacuate, ground forces. Many barges were destroyed in the withdrawal that took some 9,400 Japanese off Kolombangara. Admiral Halsey believed that 3,000 to 4,000 other Japanese were killed during these evacuations.
Munda Airfield was an essential element in supporting Allied air support in the battles for Vella Lavella, Bougainville, and New Britain that followed. Until air fields were established at Empress Augusta Bay on Bougainville in November 1943, Munda was the scene of intense aviation activity.
Marine Corps Historical Collection
Captain John M. Foster, an F4U pilot, wrote about flying during this time and his first mission from Munda. “Never had I attempted to land a plane on a field as narrow and short as the Munda strip,” he recalled. Rolling onto the taxiway, he was thankful for the 2,000 horsepower of engine to “plow through the mud.” The crews lived in tents and messed in a screened framed building chow-hall which the Seabees built. The air units provided dawn to dusk coverage, with the night spent in rest and recovery. The night’s sleep was often disrupted by the appearance of a single Japanese bomber variously called “Washing Machine Charlie,” “Louie the Louse,” “Maytag Charlie,” or “other names less printable.”
Marine Corps Historical Collection
Here Batteries A and B set up at Piru Plantation to shell Vila. The counterbattery exchanges with the Japanese on Kolombangara gave the battle a personal note. Soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division add graffiti to a shell to be sent as a “Message from FDR” at the campaigns end.
On 24 August, ComAir New Georgia at Munda was relieved by Commander Aircraft Solomon’s Fighter Command, at which time, General Mulcahy turned over his responsibilities to Colonel William O. Brice. Mulcahy’s staff continued to coordinate liaison and spotter aircraft and strike missions launching from Munda Field until relieved of these responsibilities by ComAirSols on 24 September.
“Success in the air is a lot of little things,” observed VMF-214’s commander and Medal of Honor recipient, Major Gregory (Pappy) Boyington, and most of them “can be taken care of before takeoff.” With the Japanese air bases now within closer range of Allied aircraft, Boyington and others conducted fighter sweeps of 36 to 48 planes that were classics of their kind. Throughout this, escorted bomber and strafing attacks continued. The capture and use of Munda Field was now felt by the Japanese “in spades” observed Fighter Command’s Condon, as dive bombing and strafing attacks against the enemy were daily routine.