Emergency strip located inland and directly in front of 'Coffin Corner', running East-West. For aircraft bound for Henderson or Fighter 1 and Fighter 3. Photo via Peter Flahavin.

John Innes adds:
"At the time of the Battle of Coffin Corner October 25-26, 1942 there was a roller on the Crash Strip. During the attack the code word 'Banzai' was flashed to Japanese headquarters meaning 'right wing has captured the airfield'. The Japanese saw they were on an airfield (the Crash Strip) and mistakenly thought it was part of Henderson Field. History books never say this. They say that the Japanese commander was suffering from malaria and in a fevered state of mind mistakenly sent the 'Banzai' message. It is far more likely that a Japanese runner had come back saying that they were engaging the enemy on an airfield which in fact was The Crash Strip."

Peter Flahavin adds:
"General Twining (commander 13th AF in January 1943) says in his book that the crash strip was secret, hardly used and apeared on no map. The fact that it looked like some sort of field probably caused the Japanese to think and report that they had taken henderson in the October battle."