U.S. Marine Corps.
Via Zimmerman
(1949)
Coast watchers were intelligence agents posted in remote areas to watch for enemy activity and report by radio. The most famous coast watchers were those of the Australian “Ferdinand” organization, which dated back to 1939 and consisted of reservists recruited from among planters, colonial officials, and missionaries in areas like the Solomons, New Guinea and the Bismarcks. These men frequently gave the air forces at Guadalcanal several hours’ warning of incoming raids, allowing fighters from Henderson Field to take off and gain attack altitude. Coast watchers also rescued an estimated 120 Allied airmen during the first year of the Solomons campaign.
The commander of the Australian coast watchers, Lieutenant Commander Eric Feldt, was a graduate of Australia's first class of naval cadets, a veteran of the First World War, and a former civilian warden of the gold fields at Wau in New Guinea. He was acquainted with the character of the "islanders" from whom he recruited for his organization, and he was determined to establish a solid chain of pickets along the natural fence of New Guinea and the Solomons. By mid-1941 he had 64 stations operating.
Feldt had never envisioned his organization
operating as a clandestine espionage ring. His original concept was
that the coast watchers would watch for enemy naval sorties, raids, and
other transient incursions. However, when most of the areas covered by
his network were occupied by the Japanese, Feldt hoped that many of the
coast watchers would find ways to continue transmitting from behind
enemy lines. He was not disappointed.
Although coast watchers were primarily an intelligence asset and most avoided combat (hence the name "Ferdinand", after a pacifist bull in a children's story), a few engaged in significant guerrilla activities. Of these, the most successful was New Zealand coast watcher Donald G. Kennedy at Segi Point on New Georgia. In addition to intelligence gathering and rescue of downed Allied airmen, Kennedy remained in touch with local villages, telling them:
These islands are British and they are to remain British. The Government is not leaving. Even if the Japanese come, we shall stay with you and in the end they will be driven out.
Kennedy is estimated to have ambushed over a hundred Japanese soldiers near his base, and he ran a small flotilla of native schooners. The Japanese tried to bluff Kennedy into surrendering, then sent a company of infantry to hunt him down. Kennedy radioed for help and was joined by two companies of 4 Marine Raider Battalion that were the vanguard of the New Georgia invasion.
Other notable coast watchers included Jack Read at
the northern tip of Bougainville;
Paul Mason near Buin at
the southern
end of the island; Donald S. MacFarland and Kenneth D. Hay at Gold
Ridge on Guadalcanal; F. Ashton Rhoades on western Guadalcanal; and
Martin Clemens on the northeast coast of Guadalcanal.
Coast watchers also rescued survivors of sunken
Allied ships. The most
famous example was the rescue of the survivors
of PT-109,
including future
President John F. Kennedy. Coast watchers also rescued 165 survivors of
Helena
whose lifeboats drifted ashore on Vella
Lavella.
However, coast watchers were not exclusively an Allied asset. As the Allies advanced into areas formerly controlled by Japan, and especially as garrisons were leapfrogged, the Japanese began using coast watchers of their own to warn of Allied activity.
References
Zimmerman
(1949; accessed 201--5-30)
The Pacific War Online
Encyclopedia © 2007-2008, 2010 by Kent G. Budge. Index
