With the US Navy 'going up the Slot'

1st July 1943: A machine-gunner on the USS Montpelier describes a hit and run attack in the treacherous waters of the Solomon Islands

The USS Montpelier in December 1942

The USS Montpeliers raid was partly a diversion for landings at Rendova. Landing operations on Rendova Island, Solomon Islands, 30 June 1943. Attacking at the break of day in a heavy rainstorm, the first Americans ashore huddle behind tree trunks and any other cover they can find. (

If Japanese had abandoned their attempt to cling on to Guadalcanal, they still held on to bases on other islands in the archipelago. There were many bitter battles still to be fought in the region, battles that would continue right to the end of the war. The Montpelier’s gunnery action on the 1st July was far from unusual - but this first-hand account by a crew member is.

James J. Fahey¹ was an ordinary seaman on the light cruiser, the USS Montpelier. He was writing a far-from-ordinary diary, albeit on many different scraps of paper. At the time he was writing in secret, as such diaries were against orders. But when it was published in 1963 it was acclaimed as a rare - even unique - record of the perspective of the ordinary US seaman: