Cactus Air Force
The Cactus Air Force was the ensemble of Allied air power assigned to the island of Guadalcanal from August 1942 until December 1942 during the most heavily contested phases of the Guadalcanal Campaign, particularly those operating from Henderson Field. The name is based on "Cactus", the Allied code name for the island. In 1943, the Cactus Air Force was absorbed into AirSols, a joint command of Allied air units in the Solomon Islands.
Background
On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack crippled much of the U.S. Pacific battleship fleet and led to a state of war between the two nations. In launching this war, Japanese leaders sought to neutralize the American fleet, seize possessions rich in natural resources, and obtain strategic military bases to defend their far-flung empire. Japanese forces also attacked and took control of Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, Wake Island, New Britain, and Guam.Two attempts by the Japanese to extend their defensive perimeter in the south and central Pacific were thwarted in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. These two strategic victories for the Allies provided an opportunity to take the initiative and launch a counter-offensive against the Japanese somewhere in the Pacific. The Allies chose the Solomon Islands, specifically the southern Solomon Islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida.
Allied strategists knew the Japanese Navy occupied Tulagi in May 1942 and constructed a seaplane base near there. During early July 1942, the Japanese Navy began constructing a significant airfield near Lunga Point on nearby Guadalcanal island. After completion, these bases would protect Japan's major base at Rabaul, threaten Allied supply and communication lines across the South Pacific to Australia and New Zealand, and establish a staging base for potential offensives against the New Hebrides, Fiji, Samoa, and New Caledonia.
The Allied plan to attack the southern Solomons was conceived by U.S. Navy Admiral Ernest King, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet. King proposed the counter-offensive to deny the use of the southern Solomon Islands by the Japanese as bases to threaten the supply routes between the United States and Australia, and to use them as starting points for a campaign with the goal of isolating the new and major Japanese base at Rabaul while supporting the Allied New Guinea campaign. All of this had the eventual goal of opening the way for the U.S. to retake the Philippines. American Admiral Chester Nimitz, the Allied Commander-in-Chief for all forces in the Pacific, created the South Pacific theater of operations, with Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley placed in command on 19 June 1942, to direct the Allied offensive in the Solomons.
On 7 August 1942, the First Marine Division landed on Tulagi and Guadalcanal at Lunga Point, capturing the uncompleted Japanese airfield, and marking the first counter-offensive by the Allies in the Pacific Theater. The Allies continued construction on the airfield immediately using captured Japanese equipment. On 12 August, the airfield was renamed Henderson Field, for Major Lofton R. Henderson, killed during the Battle of Midway, the first Marine Corps pilot killed during the battle. By 18 August, Henderson Field was ready for operation.
Henderson Field
Immediately after landing on Guadalcanal, Marines from the 1st Engineer Battalion worked around the clock using captured Japanese heavy equipment to complete construction of the airfield. The first plane to land was a US Navy PBY Catalina that touched down on August 12 to assess the condition of the field. At that time the field was 2600ft long, good enough for fighters but still too short and soft for bombers. Three days later the first Seabee unit arrived with a Carryall which dramatically sped up construction. The field was declared ready for flight operations on August 18. As the first planes arrived, Henderson Field could barely be described as an airfield. It was an irregular blob cut out of the island growth, half-in and half-out of a coconut grove, with a short runway, and few revetments to protect the aircraft from shrapnel. Upon landing on Henderson Field on 4 September, Commanding Officer of Marine Aircraft Group 25, Colonel W. Fiske Marshall described the scene -- "looked like a Doré drawing of hell."The runway was a northwest to southeast running, long gravel surface with an extra of Marston Mat frequently pockmarked with craters from Japanese artillery and naval gunfire. The strip was in such poor condition that it caused as many losses to aircraft as enemy action. In the heat, the field was a bowl of black dust which fouled the warplanes' engines; during rain, the airfield quickly turned muddy, miring planes in liquid muck. Major Marion Carl described it as "...the only place on Earth you could stand up to your knees in mud and still get dust in your eyes." The heavier SBD dive bombers had it the worst, since their hard rubber tires, designed for aircraft carrier landings and take-offs, ripped up the runways like plowshares. Wooden wheels were experimented with, but these did not fare any better. The runway was extended and widened several times during the long Guadalcanal campaign, and it was long and wide by 4 September.
Henderson Field was also very close to the thinly-held lines of the U.S. First Marine Division, so security was always a concern. There were no fuel trucks, aircraft hangars, or repair buildings. Damaged aircraft were cannibalized for spare parts, and with no bomb hoists, all aircraft munitions had to be hand-loaded onto the warplanes. Fuel, always critically low, had to be hand pumped out of 55 gallon drums. After the arrival of fuel trucks, aviation gasoline still had to be hand-pumped into the trucks.
On 9 September 1942, the U.S. 6th Naval Construction Battalion opened up a second runway about to the east of Henderson Field's original runway. This new runway, called "Fighter 1", consisted of tamped-down sod, and it was about long and wide. The Marine fighter squadrons operated out of Fighter 1, while the rest of the aircraft operating out of Henderson Field continued to use the original runway, referred to as "Bomber Field No. 1".
Henderson Field's facilities improved around 15 November, after it was officially a Marine Corps Air Base. Proper runways were installed using shipped-in ground-up coral, since the local coral was deemed rotten and slushy.
Living conditions
Living conditions on Guadalcanal were some of the most difficult faced by Marine aviation. Pilots and mechanics lived in mud-floored tents in a flooded coconut plantation called "Mosquito Grove." Most contracted tropical diseases such as malaria, dysentery, dengue fever, or fungal infections.The misery was accompanied by mortal danger. The airfield was bombed nearly every day around noon by Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers flying at in a perfect "Vee formation" escorted by fighter planes. It was frequently shelled as well, by Japanese artillery in the day and Japanese warships at night. The worst night of bombardment was on 13–14 October 1942—two Japanese battleships fired more than 700 heavy shells into Henderson Field, providing cover for the Japanese Navy's landing of Imperial Marines and army reinforcements further west on Guadalcanal. The bombardment killed six CAF pilots.
Commanders
From the time of the first Marine squadron landed on 20 August until 25 August, there was no commanding officer for Marine air, which instead reported directly to General Vandegrift. The Marines had not designated an air operations commander, the Army already had a squadron present and the field acquired the air of a naval base after they were promised to certain naval units. The first Marine commander was Colonel William W. Wallace, but he retained command temporarily. Cactus Air Force technically was under the command of Rear Admiral John S. McCain, who commanded all land based Allied aircraft in the South Pacific. Vandegrift and his operational commanders, however, exercised local command over the Allied aircraft operating out of Henderson Field.On 3 September 1942, the fortunes of the beleaguered aviators changed with the arrival of Brigadier General Roy Geiger on board the first Marine Aircraft Group 25 plane to land on the island, an R4D Skytrain. As the "Commander, Aircraft, Guadalcanal" and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Geiger established his headquarters in a wooden Japanese pagoda on a hill about from the airfield. Through his energy, example, and sheer force of personality, he raised the collective spirits of the squadron's survivors. He was described as "...curt, cold, and some said ruthless....he was determined to squeeze the ultimate ounce of performance from men and machines". During his time in command, press-releases said there was a "sense of desperation but never defeatism," Ultimately, the strain of command and harsh living conditions seriously fatigued, both mentally and physically, the 57-year-old Geiger. Geiger turned over the command on 7 November to his Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Louis E. Woods.
Brigadier Woods, a 21-year aviation veteran, commanded the Cactus fliers during the lowest point of the campaign. He quickly transformed from a "kindly colonel to a blood thirsty brigadier general." The day after Christmas, Woods turned the Cactus command to Brigadier General Francis P. Mulcahy, Commanding General of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
Japanese
The majority of the Japanese aircraft engaged by the Cactus Air Force were from Imperial Japanese Navy air units. On 7 August, during the Guadalcanal campaign, 5th Air Attack Force, under Rear Admiral Sadayoshi Yamada, operated from Rabaul, New Britain, and Lae, Papua New Guinea, and were responsible for naval air operations in eastern New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The 5th was a hybrid organization consisting of attached units from the 25th Air Flotilla, and reported to the 11th Air Fleet, under Nishizo Tsukahara. On the morning of 7 August, the 5th's air strength consisted of 39 fighters, 32 medium bombers, 16 dive bombers, and 17 seaplanes, including the 15 seaplane aircraft at Tulagi destroyed in the initial Allied air strikes during the landings on Tulagi and Guadalcanal.The 5th's principal bomber unit was the 4th Air Group operating Mitsubishi G4M Type 1 "Betty" bombers. Twenty-four of the fighter aircraft in the 5th belonged to the Tainan Kōkūtai under Captain Masahisa Saito. The Tainan contained some of the top-scoring Japanese fighter aces, and flew the A6M2 Zero fighter. With 55 pilots and 24 aircraft, only the most experienced and able Tainan pilots were allowed to consistently participate in combat operations. The dive bombers and the rest of the fighters belonged to the 2nd Air Group. Most of the dive bombers were lost during the 7 and 8 August strikes on the Allied landing forces. Also on 7 and 8 August, the Misawa Air Group of the 6th Air Attack Force under Vice Admiral Seigo Yamagata from Tinian with 27 Type 1 bombers joined the 5th Air Attack Force at Rabaul. Around the same time, Admiral Tsukahara moved from Tinian to Rabaul to supervise air operations against Allied forces around Guadalcanal.
The 4th and Misawa Air Groups took heavy losses during attacks on the Allied landing fleets off Guadalcanal on 7 and 8 August, losing 24 bombers and 153 crewmen killed while the Tainan Air Group lost four Zeros and four pilots. Until reinforcements could arrive, the 5th Air Attack Group was unable to continue attacking Marine positions on Guadalcanal, giving the U.S. time to prepare the captured airfield at Lunga Point uninterrupted by air attack. On 20 August 19, Type 1s from the Kisarazu Air Group of the 6th Air Attack Force arrived at Kavieng. On 2 September, ten Type 1s from the Chitose Air Group of the 24th Air Flotilla joined them at Kavieng. Both groups participated in subsequent bombing raids on Guadalcanal. Thirteen Zeros and pilots from the 6th Air Group joined the 2nd Air Group at Rabaul on 31 August, flying combat missions over Guadalcanal on 11 September.
From 1 October until the end of the war, the 11th Air Fleet was commanded by Jinichi Kusaka, also located at Rabaul. Some notable pilots flying with the 11th Air Fleet included Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Junichi Sasai.
A force of Japanese seaplanes called the R-Area Air Force was created on 28 August under Rear Admiral Takatsugu Jojima, and operated from Rabaul as well as forward operating bases at Buin, the Shortland Islands, and Rekata Bay, Santa Isabel. The R-Area aircraft came from the four squadrons assigned to the Japanese seaplane tenders Kamikawa Maru, Chitose, Sanyo Maru, and Sanuki Maru. The R-Area Air Force mainly provided cover for Japanese convoys delivering troops and supplies to Guadalcanal, conducted reconnaissance missions around the Solomon Islands' area, and occasionally attacked Henderson Field. Also, air units from Japan's Combined Fleet's aircraft carriers, including Shōkaku, Junyō, Zuikaku, and Ryūjō, either operating from land bases with the 11th Air Fleet, or operating from the carriers, engaged Cactus Air Force aircraft during the Guadalcanal campaign.