Wartime’s trash is the new treasure

ONE of many American M3 Stuart tanks still rusting away in the Solomon Islands’ jungles. (Roderick Eime)

TRAVEL writing colleague Roderick Eime has long had a fascination with the Solomon Islands, in particular its Pacific War history and the relics it seems capable of constantly throwing-up no matter how many forays are made through the region by scrap dealers and buffs in search of wartime memorabilia.

And on a recent trip, this time ranging across the island of New Georgia and his third to the region in eight years, Roderick says that once again he wasn’t disappointed in his search for wartime debris revealing little-known tales and mysteries from those long-past dark years.

“My Pacific initiation was back in 1971 aboard P&O’s Himalaya to Noumea, Fiji and New Zealand,” Roderick recalled. “But it was nearly 20 years before I resumed my explorations of the region, and with that renewed interest, investigating the many Pacific War sites scattered throughout the area.

“So many of these sites are just so rewarding and poignant, particularly where Papua New Guinea and the Solomon’s fiercest battles took place. There’s a feeling you have to experience for yourself in coming upon not-before-seen wrecks of planes, ships and tanks – albeit rusty and derelict now – in the jungle, or junk yards or in museums, and which can be so hard to explain.

“Even with my three visits in eight years, I come upon new and exciting finds each time: this most-recent included the wreckage of an American P-39 Airacobra fighter plane on New Georgia’s south coast, and an M3 Stuart tank on its north coast.”

Roderick says it was while talking with locals of his interest in wartime memorabilia that they told him of the P-39 – followed by an offer to take him there. “With bush knives flying, they took me off on a trail through jungle and cassava fields… until there it was, or what was left from a pretty untidy salvaging job to get as much as possible, including its guns, out to the scrap dealers.”

The villagers also told Roderick that it was the tribal chief at the time who had rescued the pilot of the P-39, as he’d actually bailed out when the aircraft was shot down in a skirmish with Japanese Zero fighters. But it’s the true fate of that pilot that Roderick is now investigating, as initial enquiries on his return to Australia identified him as still officially ‘Missing in Action.’

The Stuart tank was easier to get a history on, with a local guide named Tusker telling Roderick it had been knocked out of action during a US attack on Japanese ground forces in September 1943 – and interestingly, in its case left largely intact, including all guns still in place.

And Tusker was also able to point out five 140mm naval guns that the Japanese had installed at Enagai to defend their position against American attack there in the 1940s, while Roderick knew that a little way away they’d had less success while building an airstrip at Munda in 1943.

In a clever move the Japanese had created a camouflage of thousands of coconut fronds hung from wire ropes above their airstrip worksite, but the Americans had discovered them and after nine months of attacks from sea and air, were able to capture the airfield in August 1943 (and which is still Munda’s local airport today.)

Another local, Barney Paulsen also showed Roderick his “open air museum” of Pacific War shell casings, medicine bottles, an aircraft engine, helmets, hand grenades and a Thompson sub-machine gun with its magazine still in place. And Barney pointed out that those who kept their eyes open, were today still finding personal items once belonging to American servicemen – he’s found numerous watches, badges and identification ‘dog tags’ himself in the jungle.

And those who go under the sea, like Dive Munda’s Graeme Sanson, discover treasures down there too. “We’ve located a Japanese ‘Nell’ bomber and an American P-39 Airacobra fighter,” Graeme said. “And we’re currently working with the US authorities to identify the remains of the pilot we found inside an F4F Wildcat fighter.

“Plus we’re currently looking for a US Avenger dive bomber we know is down there somewhere… there are dozens of aircraft still missing and waiting to be found, the mysteries of their disappearances to be solved.”

More information: www.visitsolomons.com.sb/
David Ellis, ellispr@bigpond.net.au