Hell's Point, Alligator Creek

 

By Richard Moore

Pictures of Tetere Beach WWII Museum

 

To the east of Honiara lies Hell’s Point – a major ammunition dump during WWII – and a place that is off limits to visitors because of the danger of live ordnance that still lies there.

It is a shame because not far from the road are several destroyed Japanese tanks.

Just down the main road from Hell’s Point we went across country to get to the site of the Battle of Tenaru, or Alligator Creek, where a Japanese night attack was destroyed by US machinegun fire after Vouza’s warning.

Not far from the rivermouth is a memorial to the Japanese dead called the Ichiki Memorial after the colonel of the regiment.

A few kilometres further east we pulled up to Beach Red where the Allies first landed on Guadalcanal.

There’s not much to see there now, but a short drive away is the Tetere Beach WWII Museum that has a huge number of US Amtracks within its grounds.