Vegas
06-24-2009, 09:29 PM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/army-obituaries/5626327/Major-Martin-Clemens.html
Major Martin Clemens, who died on May 31 aged 94, was the district commissioner responsible for supplying the American 1st Marine division with intelligence as they sought to dislodge a 30,000-strong Japanese force from Guadalcanal Island in the Pacific during the Second World War.
Aided by some 300 islanders, policemen and planters, he established a hideout on Mount Austen. It was not as high up as he would have liked, and mountain mists affected his transmitter. Nevertheless he and his men had a good view of both Tulagi, the Solomon Islands' capital 25 miles away across the straits, and the airfield directly below the mountain, which the Japanese were frantically trying to build.
General Archer Vandegrift's marines landed on August 7 1942, capturing Guadalcanal and renaming it Henderson Field. A week later, Clemens descended with flag and scouts. Although cutting an unprepossessing figure – gaunt, bearded, dressed in rags and barefoot – he was not shot by the astonished sentries, but welcomed and appointed British liaison officer with US XIV Corps.
Major Martin Clemens, who died on May 31 aged 94, was the district commissioner responsible for supplying the American 1st Marine division with intelligence as they sought to dislodge a 30,000-strong Japanese force from Guadalcanal Island in the Pacific during the Second World War.
Aided by some 300 islanders, policemen and planters, he established a hideout on Mount Austen. It was not as high up as he would have liked, and mountain mists affected his transmitter. Nevertheless he and his men had a good view of both Tulagi, the Solomon Islands' capital 25 miles away across the straits, and the airfield directly below the mountain, which the Japanese were frantically trying to build.
General Archer Vandegrift's marines landed on August 7 1942, capturing Guadalcanal and renaming it Henderson Field. A week later, Clemens descended with flag and scouts. Although cutting an unprepossessing figure – gaunt, bearded, dressed in rags and barefoot – he was not shot by the astonished sentries, but welcomed and appointed British liaison officer with US XIV Corps.