USS Columbia - Naval Cruise Book

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•h After three years, heading back to the Atlantic. smaller islands — Param and Eten. Both, how- ever, were strategically important since both had air strips which were the objects of much explosive attention from American bombers. Twisted wrecks of planes littered both islands and, on one air strip, patched-up bomb craters seemed to cover a larger area than did the stretches of original concrete that had not been hit. Each of three substantial concrete buildings on Eten had received direct bomb hits that tore large holes through the center of them. One of the buildings was still used as a storage place for the small food supply in which roaches of the B-29 class seemed to show as much interest as the none-too-well-fed Japs. On October 7, 1945, the inspection was completed and the COLUMBIA returned to Guam. Later that month, on the 31st day of October, 1945, the Gem bade farewell to Guam on her way back to the Philadelphia Navy Yard to join the Atlantic Fleet. Thus ended the wartime Pacific duty of the COLUMBIA. With her assignment to the Atlantic Fleet, the Gem left behind her a trail of remarkable war service. She had truly lived up to her name; she was without a doubt the Gem of the Ocean. Back in Philadelphia.

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Paratn Airfield. The following morning the American party inspected Moen Island. To the party, it seemed that only the excellent natural defenses of the surrounding coral reef, with four or five easily- mined entrances, remained to suggest the awe with which Americans viewed the former Japan- ese Pacific bastion in the early days of the war. Once, this fortress of more than 100 islands bristled with huge guns, smaller guns, pill- boxes and all the other war implements with which the Japs had fortified the islands from the time they wrested control from the Germans Figures don ' t lie — they were really by-passed. in 1914. But, as trucks of the inspecting party bounced and groaned over main highways that were little more than dirt trails, it was difficult for most observers to escape the conviction that Truk was never quite the Truk of legend because the Japs lacked something the Americans dis- played in abundance — the ability to conceive and execute big ideas. There were more than 2,000 Japanese construction battalion men on Moen Island, but there wasn ' t one road on the island, or on Dublon, that wouldn ' t have made the building demons — the American Seabees — blush for shame. Narrow, one-car lanes of gravel, rocks and dirt wound their tortuous and bumpy, way around the island. When one Jap officer was bounced ofT his truck seat he was asked why the roads were so bad. No concrete, he replied. But when asked why good roads were never built in the last 25 years, he suggested that it was a case of carelessness. He smiled, apparently understandingly, when one enthus- iastic marine pointed to a bomb-pocked airstrip patched with crushed rock and said B-29 ' s would be able to land there in a few days. With bugs and worms ravaging the sweet potato crop, the Jap garrison of 8,680 on Moen suffered sharply from malnutrition. Rank upon rank of living scarecrows lined up along the route of the inspection party, men with ankles as thin as skinny wrists, with sunken-in cheeks and with every rib showing sharply. On October 6, the survey party visited two 41

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2 2 2 OPERATIONS ABJD ENGAGEMENTS 2 2 2 CAPTURE AND DEFENSE OF GUADALCANAL Covering Force Patrol Solomons Area 7 - 9 Dec. 1942 17-21 Dec. 1942 2 - 8 Jan. 1943 1-14 Feb. 19 43 RENNELL ISLAND 29 - 30 Jan. 1943 CONSOLIDATION OF SOLOMON ISLANDS Consolidation of Southern Solomons Covering Operation for Landing and Occupation of Russell Islands 20 - 25 Feb. 1943 Covering Force Patrol Operations Solomons Area 20 - 29 March 1943 7-13 April 1943 Consolidation of Northern Solomons Bombardment of Buka-Bonis 23 - 24 Dec. 1943 NEW GEORGIA OPERATION New Georgia — Rendova — Vangunu Occupation. Diversional Bombardment and Mining Operation Shortland Area for New Georgia — Rendova — Vangunu Landings 29 - 30 June 1943 Covering Forces Patrol Operations South of New Georgia 3 - 5 July 1943 Operations to Intercept Enemy Surface Forces North of New Georgia and Kolombangara 6-8 July 1943 10-11 July 1943 Bombardment Munda Shore Installations from Blanche Channel 11 - 12 July 1943 Operations to Intercept Enemy Surface Forces South of New Georgia and Rendova 13 - 14 July 1943 Covering Forces Patrol Operations West of Rcnnell Island 21 - 22 July 1943 Vella Lavella Occupation 28 - 30 July 1943 Operations to Intercept Enemy Surface Forces West and North of Vella Lavella 25 - 26 Sept. 1943 TREASURY-BOUGAINVILLE OPERATION Occupation and Defense of Cape Torokina : 1-2 Nov. 1943 4 - 8 Nov. 1943 9 - 14 Nov. 1943 7 - 9 Dec. 1943 Bombardment of Buka-Bonis 31 Oct. - 1 Nov. 1943 Bombardment of Shortland Area 1 November 1943 Battle of Empress Augusta Bay 1 - 2 Nov. 1943 43