Battle Of Marovo
pp. 38-39 · Read in the full issue
Lagoon
Oddest Naval Engagement Ever Fought
is a story of how Major D. G.
Kennedy, of the Solomons Defence Force, fought—and won—the Battle of Marovo Lagoon. Major Kennedy, it will he remembered, was a District Officer in the Solomons before the war and be tween the Japanese invasion of that area and the landing of the Americans, he waged a private amphibious war with 32 native riflemen, captured Jap equipment and a 10-ton schooner.
Just before the Americans landed on New Georgia, Kennedy was in command of a small outpost at the southern end of that island, and he had orders to hang on till a US Marine force landed. The Japs had a strong force established at Wickham Anchorage on an island be tween Kennedy’s outpost and the Nearest Allied base—in the Russells. There was nothing much Kennedy could do about the Jarps at Wickham Anchorage, but he could deal with the Jap patrols that ven tured into Marovo Lagoon.
One such patrol was sighted one day, island-hopping through the palm studded islets in the lagoon, so Major Kennedy loaded 12 of his men into his schooner “Dadavata,” and set off. After some preliminaries, the Japs appeared to be taking up defensive positions on one islet and Kennedy prepared to land; but the Japs apparently thought better of it and loaded machine-guns and equipment into their whale-boat and tried to depart.
The rest of the story is told by Harold Cooper, of the Suva Information office: — KENNEDY with his men aboard the schooner edged out into the lagoon.
There was a fairly bright moon and he could see the dark hull of the whale boat moving south, about a mile and a quarter away. Kennedy headed towards his prey with his Browning ready for action. The Japs at first rowed fran tically in the opposite direction, but when they saw they were being over taken they turned about and made straight for the schooner, obviously deter mined to fight it out.
Kennedy got in the opening burst with his Browning at 500 yards. The Japs re turned his fire and machine-gun bullets spattered along the side of the “Dada vata.”
One of them hit Kennedy in the leg, but he kept blazing away with his Browning until, after he had fired three and a half drums, it jammed. By this time the Jap machine-guns were silent and Kennedy (who later owned that by this time he was “damned annoyed”) turned to the bosun of the “Dadavata” and gave this Nelsonian order: “Full speed ahead. We’re going to ram them.” rE schooner went bouncing through the water at a majestic seven knots, while the Japs in the whale-boat, their oars long discarded and most of their number already killed Or wounded, disputed the issue only with feeble and sporadic fire from Tommy guns.
As the “Dadavata’s” bows made lurch ing contact with the doomed whale-boat, native riflemen crouching on the deck tossed a shower of hand-grenades among the helpless Japanese. A few seconds later the Battle of Marovo Lagoon was over.
As the “Dadavata” put about to survey the results of her first taste of naval war fare ten Jap corpses could be seen bobbing forlornly in the water beside the capsized whale-boat. The bodies were brought
ashore that night for burial and next morning Kennedy’s men, diving to the bottom of the shallow lagoon, recovered the bulk of the Japanese equipment, which they were later to use with good effect in other brushes with the enemy.
At Wickham Anchorage, the Japanese Commander waited in vain for the return of his patrol, and doubtless drew the conclusion that the strength of the Allied forces in southern New Georgia had not been under-estimated by the official intelligence reports. Kennedy’s outpost remained unreduced, and when the Marines began their campaign in New Georgia he was able to welcome them at their only undisputed beach-head. mHE “Dadavata” is now back on duty JL as a humble inter-island ferry craft, but on her sides she still bears scars which serve to remind her passengers that once, for a few heroic minutes, she could claim to be counted among His Majesty’s men-of-war. As for the Battle of Marovo Lagoon—that deserves a little niche of its own in the history of amphibious warfare, not only because it culminated in one of the oddest naval actions ever fought, but because, trivial as were the numbers involved, its result probably had a significant effect on the development of the American campaign in New Georgia.