Forty Bombers Headed Yours

Deep within Japanese-controlled territory, with only a few pistols among themselves, Colonel LaVerne Saunders and his fellow B-17 crewmembers could have been forgiven for assuming their troubles had just begun. It was November 18, 1942, and they'd just taken refuge on a small jungle island after their plane had been shot down over the Solomon Sea.

Three hours after the crash, a native canoe approached the fliers' hiding place. An Australian naval officer stepped out of the canoe, handed Saunders a business card and began distributing K-rations and medical supplies. That evening the airmen were ferried to a safer spot on Vella Lavella while a hidden transmitter radioed their position to Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. The next day a Navy flying boat splashed down just offshore, and they were loaded aboard for the flight home.

For Saunders and his men, the episode had been a brief but impressive encounter with that remarkable efficient breed of individualists known as Coastwatchers. Operating far behind enemy lines, this small band of dedicated men had an enormous impact on the battle for control of the Solomon Islands -- some military scholars have even credited them with being the decisive factor in that battle.