SOLOMON ISLANDS
DOUGLAS TRANSPORT C-47 dropping supplies and equipment on an uncompleted airstrip, 30 November 1943 (top); members of a construction battalion laying pierced planking across a runway in the Cape Torokina area, 2 December (bottom). By the end of the year three airfields had been put into operation. The mission of the forces on the island at this time was to maintain a defensive perimeter, approximately ten miles long and five miles deep, guarding installations in the Empress Augusta Bay area.
SOLOMON ISLANDS
INFANTRYMEN ON GUARD near the Laruma River, 16 November, man a .30-caliber heavy barrel machine gun M1919A4, flexible. This gun was an automatic, recoil-operated, belt-fed, air-cooled machine gun (top). Taking time out to make a batch of fudge, these men are using mess kits as cooking pans. Note treatment of identification tags (dog tags) on center man. Binding the edges of the tags eliminated the noise and made them more comfortable (bottom). Instead of infantrymen slugging it out on the ground, land-based bombers neutralized enemy airfields in the Buka-Bonis Plantation area of northern Bougainville, and American cruisers and destroyers shelled enemy coastal positions.
SOLOMON ISLANDS
