We have the anniversary of the US marine landings on Guadalcanal coming up next month, August 7. This year there will be about 80 international visitors to commemorate the August 1942 to February 1943 battle. Sadly though the Guadalcanal battlefields are deteriorating. The main accelerator for this is the market for scrap metal. Every so often we get a big tug boat pulling a dumb barge up to a beach and the crew set up scales as people bring in any old iron for cash. A lot of rubbish goes out but among it are a lot of battlefield relics. I have attached some pictures. The pig tail posts would have been removed from the perimeter positions in which they had sat since the end of the war. The marsden matting most likely from Carney Field. The hilux is loaded with parts of a Betty bomber that has been chopped up with an axe or a bush knife, this one came from somewhere west of Honiara, between Kakabona or Visale or possibly the war museum at Vilu. All this scrap goes to Malaysia, the Philippines or China. Sadly too the western side of the old Bloody Ridge battlefield is being excavated for fill to reclaim land on the sea front. View attachment 13784
LRusso I have to agree with you, it is sad, but they have to make a living too. Selling the scrap metal allows them to live a little better.
Thanks skipper And please don't forget there are nine 1st division marine raiders MIA in that section just west of bloody ridge. It is an area of less then three acres.
As time goes on, the relics will just rust away into the jungle. If a collector/museum will not claim them, I think they would be better served by being sold as scrap, recycled and reused, along the way helping the native islanders with a bit more hard currency. Battlefields change over time, are lost to the jungles or plowed under for fields. I do hope the remains of the 9 are found and given a proper military burial.
Unfortunate that it's being scrapped but the silver lining at least is that it will hopefully help the locals improve their quality of life long term. I've never understood why so many ships are scrapped, especially those that hold a lot of historical significance but the situation is obviously different here. Hopefully some collectors can pick up a few things.
I asked one of the guys cutting up a quonset hut between Henderson and Bloody Ridge how much they get for the scrap. He said they get about 30 solomon island cents per kilo - that is about US$0.4 cents per kilo. When the stuff was intact they used to get 50 solomon dollars per tourist - thats about US$7.00. try and figure that out? I guess they are loading tons of the stuff and trucking it to the point of sale. When the stuff was in situ local historian John Innes could take you to a fox hole on almost any of the battlefields and name the occupant and describe that action. It made history very personal and absolutely riveting.
Its too bad there isn't a market for it. I know many military vehicle collectors that I'm sure would like a fusalage of a Betty in their frontyard, or a Guadalcanal quonset hut as a cabin. I would happily snap up a few pieces myself if there was a way that didn't involve me flying out there!
