ABSTRACT
On 26th March, 1944 we flew 400 miles to an American base on the southwest side of Bougainville, the largest island in the Solomon Group (see page 105). There were three airstrips-‘Torokina’ was 100 yards from the coast and named after a nearby cape, while ‘Piva 1’ and ‘Piva 2’ were about two miles inland. The Americans had wrestled a short, three mile wide coastal strip of land from the Japanese the previous November. Our camp was a comfortable distance from the perimeter, which was defended by American soldiers. This was to be ‘home’ for the next seven weeks. The rest of the island was occupied by the Japanese, who had been cut off by the American Forces and who now survived as best as they could, growing vegetables and catching fish. Torokina was only six degrees south of the equator, so it was hot and humid. It was a mostly a flat, jungle-covered belt, which would became rather swampy during the wet weather.
