This film is of the documentary series “True Adventure” which ran from the 1950’s to the 1960’s and was created by Bill Burrud who also served as host (:19). This episode takes viewers to Guadalcanal, a major battleground during WW2, with Milas Hinshaw and Martin Clemens (1:26). Clemens was a District Officer on Guadalcanal of the British Solomon Islands protectorate in 1941 when Japan invaded (1:57). Unlike most who fled, Clemens and others like him chose to remain on the island with the natives and form a unit known as the Coast Watchers (2:12). Due to their actions, information was able to be relayed back to the Allies of Japanese ship and troop movements as well as their rebuilding activities on the islands (2:20). They informed the Allies of the construction of Henderson Field in Guadalcanal. That in turn led commanders to focus on attacking Guadalcanal (2:40). This will be Clemens’ first time back since the war had ended two decades prior (2:54). From their plane, the Solomon Islands are spotted below (3:11). Combat footage follows as WW2 had made these islands infamous (3:35). The plane flies over Guadalcanal (4:01) and they land onto Henderson Field (4:05). Save for the remaining rusted debris of the war (4:31), the island is pictured as peaceful. The high commissioner of the Solomon Islands, Sir David Trench, had allowed the pair to use his ship the ‘Coral Queen’ pictured at (5:27). They are seen leaving from Point Cruise and heading along the coastline. Along the way, they pass Savo Island which was the scene of the Battle of Iron Bottom Bay (5:38) as well as Cape Esperance where the second Battle of Savo Island took place (5:54). Aboard the ship with them are the Gilbertese natives and their native music is heard (6:01) as they head towards Gizo. They pull into the Yandina Harbor in the Russel Islands (6:49) which had served as a supply and staging base (6:55). Tall palms wave on the island as the coconut business was back in full swing again (7:27). A Volkswagen Beetle rides down the dirt road that was once Banika Airfield (7:37). One of the Lever Brothers plantations (a company now known as Unilever), is shown with the main crop of copra being harvested (7:57). The Lever Brothers introduced livestock herds to keep the underbrush down (8:06). The rusty remains of a PT boast base follows (8:13). To uncover equipment left in the ground, the British Salvage men dig up anything from abandoned trucks, sheet iron to Coca Cola bottles (8:51). Slugs that are retrieved are sent to Japan or Hong Kong for use as scrap iron (9:44). The airfields have all been converted by the British into golf courses (10:52). The group then heads to New Georgia and Munda (11:12). Munda is first, and here Clements will reunite with some of his old scouts (12:00). Folk songs of the island are heard which often times tell tales of US servicemen (12:59) such as one about a Marine capturing a Japanese machine gun nest (13:15). The group then moves to Gizo (13:39) which had been operated by the Japanese during the war yet was made famous by being the closest inhabited location to the offshore island JFK and his crew hid from Japanese forces on (14:06). The PT-109 that Kennedy had been commander of, sank after being hit by the Japanese and he and his crew fled to an island known as Plum Pudding Island. JFK would become a war hero for his actions here. Many of those who had aided in their rescue from the island still lived there (14:23) and a few are pictured such as Benjamin (14:28) who was flown to the US for a television appearance about the incident (14:43), as well as another man named Aaron (14:53). Kumana and Gasa (15:11) are the ones who had first found Kennedy and brought back the coconut with his message on it. JFK kept the skin from that coconut and an interview takes place between the man who had organized the rescue of Kennedy and Clements (16:51). An experimental program was in place at the time of moving inhabitants from the over populated Gilbert Islands to the lesser populated Solomon Islands (18:13). The young girls of the village present a native dance for the visitors (14:08). The film returns to Bill Burrud and he and Milas discuss the natives’ high opinion of Americans (22:25) as well as debate the question of whether or not any Japanese were still hidden there (24:04). The film was presented by Bill Burrud Productions and produced by Michael Carr (25:21).

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