'a L : — Top of the Ladder: Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons by Captain John C. Chapin, USMCR (Ret) ssault landings began A for the men in the blackness of the early hours of the morning. On 1 November 1943, the troops of the 3d Marine Division were awakened before 0400, went to General Quarters at 0500, ate a tense breakfast, and then stood by for the decisive com- mand, "Land the Landing Force." All around them the preinvasion bombardment thundered, as the accompanying destroyers poured their 5-inch shells into the target areas, and spotters in aircraft helped to adjust the fire. As the sun rose on a bright, clear day, the word came at 0710 for the first LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel) to pull away from their transport ships and head for the shore, a 5,000-yard run across Empress Augusta Bay to the beaches of an island called Bougainville. Almost 7,500 Marines were entering their LCVPs (with Coast Guard crew and coxswains) for an assault on 12 color-coded beaches. Eleven of these extended west from Cape Torokina for 8,000 yards to the Koromokina Lagoon. The 12th was on Puruata Island just offshore from the beaches. On the Cover: Riflemen clad in camou- The six beaches on the right were 3d Raider Battalion. flage dungarees await the lowering of assigned to Colonel George W. As the men headed for shore, 31 their landing craft from George Clymer McHenry's 3d Marines and Marine torpedo and scout (APA 27) for their dash to the beaches in Lieutenant Colonel Alan bombers, covered by fighters, their amphibious assault landing on Shapley's 2d Raider Regiment came screaming in from their base Bougainville. (National Archives (less one battalion). The five on at Munda, bombing and strafing Photo 80-G-55810 the left and Puruata Island were to give the beaches a final plaster- At Left: Raiders, up to their hips in the objectives of Colonel Edward ing. At 0726, the first wave water, man a machine gun along a jungle trail. Department of Defense Photo A. Craig's 9th Marines and touched ground, four minutes (USMC) 70764 Lieutenant Colonel Fred D. Bean's ahead of the official H-Hour. As 1 ___ • : unopposed, the 3d Marines on the right met fierce opposition, a deadly crossfire of machine gun and artillery fire. One Japanese I - 75mm gun, sited on Cape - —- Torokina, was sending heavy - —-- . A enfilade fire against the incoming 1 landing waves. It smashed 14 — - -- - ,— - --, 4 bTohaets baonda tc gaursoeudp m caonmy cmasaunadlteier'ss. 1% craft took a direct hit, causing the — following boat waves to become 2 disorganized and confused. Machine gun and rifle fire, with 90mm mortar bursts added, cov- ered the shoreline. Companies landed in the wrong places. Dense underbrush, coming right down to the beaches, shrouded the defenders in their 25 bunkers and numerous rifle pits. The com- Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 62751 manding officer of the 1st Marine riflemen keep their heads down as they get closer to the assault beach on D- Battalion, 3d Marines, Major Day. Leonard M. "Spike" Mason, was the other waves came in, it was Lieutenant Colonel Hector de wounded and had to be evacuat- immediately apparent that there Zayas, stared at the bedraggled ed, but not before he shouted to was serious trouble in two ways. new arrivals exclaiming, "Where his men, "Get the hell in there and A high surf was tossing the have you been?" Major Schmuck fight!" Nearby, the executive offi- LCVPs and LCMs (Landing Craft, pointed back to Cape Torokina cer of the 2d Raider Regiment, Medium) around, and they were and replied, "Ask the Navy!" Lieutenant Colonel Joseph J. landing on the wrong beaches, The other trouble came from McCaffery, was directing an broaching, and smashing into the Japanese defenders. While the assault when he was severely each other in the big waves. By 9th Marines on the left landed wounded. He died that night. the middle of the morning, 64 LCVPs and 22 LCMs were hulks As seen from a beached landing craft, these Marines are under fire while wading in the littering the beaches. Three of the last few yards to the beach. designated beaches had to be abandoned as unusable. Major Donald M. Schmuck, commanding a company in the 3d Marines, later recalled how, in the "mad confusion" of the beach- head, his company was landed in the midst of heavy gunfire in the middle of another battalion's zone on the beach of Torokina. Run- ning his company on the double through the other battalion and the 2d Raiders' zone across inlets and swamp, Major Schmuck got his men to the right flank of his own battalion where they were to have landed originally. His sur- prised battalion commander, 2 La)) The fierce combat led to a wry pits, and trees were subdued, and comment by one captain, Henry then some of them got away to Applington II, comparing "steak fight another day. A two-pronged and eggs served on white table- sweep and mop-up by the raiders cloths by stewards and three on D plus 2 found 29 enemy dead . . . and a half hours and a short boat of the 70 Japanese estimated to ride later rolling in a ditch try- have been on that little island. . . . ing to kill another human being The raiders lost five killed and 32 with a knife." wounded. The devastating fire from the An hour after the landings on 75mm cannon on Cape Torokina the main beaches a traditional was finally silenced when Marine signal was flashed from Sergeant Robert A. Owens, crept shore to the command and staff up to its bunker, and although still afloat, "Situation well in wounded, charged in and killed hand." This achievement of the the gun crew and the occupants of riflemen came in spite of the inef- the bunker before he himself was fective prelanding fire of the killed. A posthumous Medal of destroyers. The men in front-line Honor was awarded to him for combat found that none of the 25 Department of Defense Photo (USMC) this heroic action which was so enemy bunkers on the right-hand Sgt Robert A. Owens was posthumously crucial to the landing. beaches had been hit. Some of the awarded the Medal of Honor. naval bombardment had begun at Meanwhile, on Puruata Island, a range of over seven miles, and In spite of the chaos, the inten- just offshore of the landing beach- sive training of the Marines took es, the noise was intense; a well- the official Marine history sum- hold. Individuals and small dug-in contingent of Japanese marized, "The gunfire plan . groups moved in to assault the offered stiff resistance to a rein- had accomplished nothing." enemy, reducing bunker after forced company of the 3d Unloading supplies and getting bunker, dropping grenades down Battalion, 2d Raiders. It was them in usable order on the chaot- their ventilators. For an hour, the midafternoon of D plus one before ic beaches was a major problem. situation was in doubt. the defenders in pill boxes, rifle Seabees, sailors, and Marines all On a beach, rifles pointing toward the enemy, Marines get ready to fight their way inland. Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 69782 I .4 ¼ -t 4 q a — 3 firing positions. Amtracs (amphi- bian tractors), supplemented by rubber boats, were used to ferry the men and ammunition to the beaches. The 90mm antiaircraft - 4 guns of the 3d Defense Battalion were also brought ashore early to defend against the anticipated air attacks.. The Japanese had been quick to respond to this concentration of American ships. Before the first assault boats had hit the beach, a large flight of enemy carrier planes was on its way to attack the Marines and their supporting ships. New Zealand and Marine LANDING AT CAPE TOROKINA fighters met them in the air and I MARINE AMPHIBIOUS CORPS I NOVEMBER 1943 the covering destroyers put up a Yn11o b.och. to, cargo unloading doling assault phase hail of antiaircraft fire, while the transports and cargo ships took evasive action. Successive Jap- turned to the task, with 40 percent the 12th Marines were struggling anese flights were beaten off; 26 of the entire landing force labor- to get their artillery pieces ashore enemy planes were shot down. ing as the shore party. They sweat- and set to fire. One battery, in sup- ed 6,500 tons of supplies ashore. port of the 2d Raider Battalion, The men in the rifle battalions Simultaneously, the batteries of waded through a lagoon to find long remembered the sight. On U AL St 5niar,s. US Li. Scia US No..i *DNlNALt I5I.M - PACIFIC OCEAN $L*NOL OLTOISA JAVA IS. V fflS **ISM CC.Ai S(A 114A1SA 4 Major General Allen H. Turnage, USMC lien Hal Turnage was born in Farmville, North Carolina, on 3 January 1891. After attending Homer Military Academy and then the University of North Carolina, at age 22 he was appoint- ed a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. Sent to Haiti, he served with the 2d Marine Regiment from 1915 to 1918, becoming a company commander in the Haitian Gendarmerie. A captain in 1917, Turnage did get to France where he commanded the 5th Marine Brigade Machine Gun Battalion. Home in 1919, he was assigned to the 5th Marines at Quantico and became regimental adjutant and an instructor for the first Field Officers School, 1920-22. A major in 1927, Turnage had three years with the Pacific fleet, and then he served with the U.S. Electoral Mission in Nicaragua (1932). He came back to Washington, made lieutenant colonel in 1934 and full colonel in 1939. He was director of the Basic School at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and, in the spring of 1939, he was sent to China to head Marine forces in North China. In summer of 1941, on the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he returned to Headquarters in Washington. In 1942, as a brigadier general, he com- manded the burgeoning Marine Base and Training Center at New River, North Carolina. When the 3d Marine Division was formed in Commandant, followed by promotion to lieutenant September 1942, he was named assistant division com- general and command of FMFPac (Fleet Marine Force, mander. In the summer of 1943 Turnage was promoted Pacific). He retired 1 January 1948, and died 22 October to major general and selected to head the division. He 1971. then led the division on Bougainville and in the libera- His awards included the Navy Cross, the Navy tion of Guam, the first American territory to be recap- Distinguished Service Medal, and the Presidential Unit tured from the enemy. Citation (which his men received for both Guam and After the war, he was appointed Assistant Iwo Jima). one occasion, a Marine Corsair on the Initial Beachhead Line, 600 Anyone moving around out there was about to pull the trigger on an 1,000 yards inland. One enor- was a Japanese soldier trying to — enemy Zeke ("Zero") fighter set mous unexpected obstacle, how- infiltrate. John A. Monks, Jr., up perfectly in the pilot's sights ever, had now became painfully quoted a Marine in his book, A when a burst of fire from Marine clear. Available maps were nearly Ribbon and a Star: .50-caliber machine guns on the useless, and a large, almost From seven o'clock in the beach, meant for the Zeke, shot impenetrable swamp, with water evening till dawn, with only the American down. One of the three to six feet deep, lay right centipedes and lizards and riflemen later recalled that the behind the beaches and made scorpions and mosquitoes Marine pilot fell into the ocean movement inland and lateral con- begging to get acquainted— and surfaced with a broken leg. tact among the Marine units wet, cold, exhausted, but "We waded out to get him. He impossible. unable to sleep—you lay was ticked off—mostly because he The night of D-Day was typical there and shivered and missed the Tap." for the ground troops. By 1800, thought and hated and In spite of all these problems, the darkness had set in and the men prayed. But you stayed there. assault battalions had, by the end all knew the iron-clad rule: be in You didn't cough, you didn't of D-Day, reached their objectives your foxhole and stay there. snore, you changed your 5 away on New Britain. From Bougainville, the enemy could defend his massive air-naval com- plex at Rabaul. "Viewed from either camp, the island was a pri- ority possession." There were the usual sequences of high level planning confer- iI ences, but, on 1 October 1943, Admiral William F. Halsey, Commander, South Pacific Area, notified General Douglas Mac- Arthur, Supreme Allied Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, that the beaches on Empress Augusta Bay in the middle of Bougainville's west coast would Photo courtesy of Cyril J. O'Brien be the main objective. This loca- LtGen Haruyoshi Hyaku take, coin- tion was selected as the point to manded the Japanese forces on strike because with the main Bougainville. Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 61899 Japanese forces 25 miles away at eral, I Marine Amphibious Corps LtGen Alexander A. Vandegrift was an the opposite north and south ends (IMAC),* had in his command for early commander of IMAC. of the island, it would be the point the operation: of least opposition. In addition, it position with the least 3d Marine Division amount of noise. For it was provided a natural defensive 1st Marine ParachuteRegiment region once the Marines had land- still great to be alive. 2d Marine Raider Regiment ed and their airfields had been At sea, the transports and cargo 37th Infantry Division, USA gouged out of the swamp and jun- ships were withdrawn; there was (in reserve) intelligence that enemy naval gle. Finally, the target area would The Marine riflemen in these provide a site for a long-range forces were on the move. units were supplemented by a radar installation and an wide range of support: 155mm advanced naval base for PT Planning the Operation artillery; motor transport; amphi- (patrol torpedo) boats. bian tractor; and signal, medical, This kind of strong enemy reac- It promised to be a campaign in special weapons, Seabee, and tank a miserable location. And it was. tion, in the air and at sea, had been battalions. The 3d Division had its expected by American staff offi- There were centipedes three fin- own engineers and pioneers in the cers who had put in long weeks gers wide, butterflies as big as lit- 19th Marines and artillery in the planning the Bougainville opera- tle birds, thick and nearly impen- 12th Marines. tion. Looking at a map of the etrable jungles, bottomless man- Immediately following Vande- Solomon Islands chain, it was grove swamps, crocodile infested grift's operation order, practice obvious that this largest island rivers, millions of insects, and landing exercises were conducted heavy daily torrents of rain with (130 by 30 miles) on the northwest in the New Hebrides and on end was a prime objective to cap enervating humidity Guadalcanal and Florida Islands. the long and painful progress Major General Allen H. northward from the springboard Turnage, the 3d Marine Division Gen Vandegrift, 1st Marine Division com- of Guadalcanal at the south end. commander, summarized these mander on Guadalcanal, relieved MajGen Clayton B. Vogel as IMAC commander in July As Guadalcanal had been the horrors. "Never had men in the 1943. He in turn was relieved as IMAC com- beginning of the island chain, so Marine Corps had to fight and mander by MajGen Charles D. Barrett on 27 now Bougainville would mark the maintain themselves over such September. Gen Vandegrift was on his way top of the ladder in the Northern difficult terrain as was encoun- home to Washington to become 18th Commandant of the Marine Corps when, on Solomons. From Bougainville air- tered on Bougainville." the sudden death of Gen Barrett on 8 October, fields, American planes could To carry out this operation, he was recalled to the Pacific to resume com- mand of IMAC and lead it in the Bougainville neutralize the crucial Japanese Lieutenant General Alexander A. operation. He, in turn, was relieved by MajGen base of Rabaul less than 250 miles Vandegrift, Commanding Gen- Roy S. Geiger on 9 November. 6 Rear Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson as commander of Task Force 31. Under him were Rear Soanotalu Admiral Frederick C. Sherman with the carriers (TF 38) and Rear Admiral Aaron S. "Tip" Merrill with the cruisers and destroyers (TF 39). Their job was to soften up MONO the defenders before the landing and to safeguard the Marine-held beachhead. 8mNEW ZEALAND BRIGADE GROUP There was another key element in the American plan: diversion. To mislead the enemy on the real objective, Bougainville, the IMAC operations order on 15 October TREASURY ISLANDS LANDINGS directed the 8th Brigade Group of the 3d New Zealand Division to I MARINE AMPHIBIOUS CORPS 27 OCTOBER 1943 land on the Treasury Islands, 75 miles southeast of Empress The objectives assigned on As early as 15 August fighter Augusta Bay. There, on 27 Oct- Bougainville were to seize a sub- planes from VMF-214 (the famous ober, the New Zealanders, under stantial beachhead and build Black Sheep squadron) had Brigadier R. A. Row, with 1,900 airstrips. Then American planes strafed the Kahili airfield at the Marine support troops, went could assure final neutralization southern end of Bougainville. ashore on two small islands. of the Japanese airfields at Kahili, Now, in October, there were One was named Mono and the Buka, and Bonis airfields at the repeated strikes against the other Sterling. Mono is about four north and south ends of Japanese planes at other miles wide, north to south, and Bougainville. (By 31 October, Bougainville airfields. seven miles long. It looks like a American planes had initially ren- At sea, Halsey had designated pancake. Sterling, shaped like a dered the Japanese fields inopera- hook, is four miles long, narrow in LtCol Victor H. Krulak was commander ble.) After that would come a mas- places to 300 yards, but with plen- of the Choiseul operation. sive increase in air operations ty of room on its margins for Department of Defense Photo (USMC) against Rabaul. airstrips. Facing the invading Marines In a drizzly overcast, the 29th was a formidable enemy force dis- NZ Battalion (Lieutenant Colonel persed on the island. At Bum, for L. H. Davis) and the 36th F. instance, there were 21,800 (Lieutenant Colonel K. B. Japanese. Responsible for the McKenzie-Muirson) hit Mono at defense was an old adversary, Falami Point, and the 34th (under Lieutenant General Haruyoshi Lieutenant Colonel R.J. Eyre) Hyakutake, commander of the struck the beach of Sterling Island Seventeenth Army, and the man the F off Blanche Harbor. There was Marines had defeated at light opposition. Help for the Guadalcanal. His main force was assault troops came from LCI the 6th Division. (landing craft, infantry) gunboats Working with the ground U. S. which knocked out at least one forces were the aviators of Air deadly Japanese 40mm twin- Solomons: New Zealand fighters, mount gun and a couple of enemy Army Air Force bombers, and the bunkers. 1st and 2d Marine Aircraft Wings. A simultaneous landing was 7 3d Marine Division With Japan's initial conquests spread over vast elements, the regiment arrived in New Zealand 11 reaches of the Pacific, it quickly became obvi- March 1943. ous that additional Marine divisions were The reinforcing of the infantry regiments to make sorely needed. Accordingly, a letter from the them into self-sustaining regimental combat teams Commandant on 29 August 1942 authorized the forma- drew heavily on their two complementary regiments: tion of the 3d Marine Division. the 12th Marines and the 19th Marines. The 12th There was the 3d Marines, which had been activated Marines was a salty old unit, led by Brigadier General first on 20 December 1916 at Santo Domingo in the Smedley D. Butler in China in the 1920s. It's antecedent Dominican Republic. Deactivated in August 1922, the was a small provisional contingent sent to protect regiment was again brought to life on 16 June 1942 at American interests in China and designated the 12th Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and strengthened by Regiment (infantry), 4 October 1927. The 12th was reac- boots from Parris Island. Its commander, Colonel Oscar tivated at Camp Elliott on 1 September 1942 for World R. Cauldwell, soon led to it to Samoa, arriving there in War II as an artillery regiment under command of September 1942. Intensive training in jungle tactics and Colonel John B. Wilson. Concluding its training, the practice landings took place there. Then, in March 1943, regiment arrived in New Zealand on 11 March 1943. it received a substantial number of reinforcing units The 19th Marines was different. It was made up of and became a full-fledged regimental combat team, Seabees, engineers, bakers, piledrivers, pioneers, beefing up its strength to 5,600. Finally, in May 1943, it paving specialists, and many old timers from the 25th sailed for New Zealand, where the 3d Marine Division Naval Construction Battalion at the U.S. Naval would come together. Advance Base, Port Hueneme, California. It, too, was Also with World War I roots, the 9th Marines was formed at Camp Elliott and its birthday was 16 born 20 November 1917 at Quantico, Virginia, and was September 1942. This was the regiment with pontoons sent to Cuba. From there it moved to Texas, before for bridges, power plants, photographic darkrooms, being deactivated at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in bulldozers, excavators, needles, thread, and water April 1919. Reactivated on 12 February 1942 at Camp purification machinery. No landing force would dare Elliott, California, under Colonel Lemuel C. Shepherd, take an island without them. Colonel Robert M. Jr., it underwent training at the new Camp Pendleton. Montague took command of the unit in New Zealand Similarly reinforced, by 1 January 1943 it was ready as on 11 March 1943. a regimental combat team with 5,500 men. Movement The division's first commander was Major General overseas brought it to New Zealand on 5 February Charles D. Barrett, a veteran of World War I. He 1943. assumed command in September 1942, but left a year The third infantry regiment that would make up the later to take charge of IMAC and the planning for the division was the 21st Marines. It was formed from a Bougainville operation. cadre of well-trained men from the 6th Marines, who had just returned from duty in Iceland. Arriving at His assistant division commander had been Camp Lejeune on 15 July 1942, the cadre was augment- Brigadier General Allen H. Turnage, and, upon ed by boots from Parris Island and officers from Barrett's death, he was promoted to major general and Quantico. Colonel Daniel E. Campbell assumed com- given command of the division which he would soon mand and the training began. Moving to join the other lead at Bougainvifle. then made on the opposite or of their eyes." They killed 40 of the back to higher ground, were hunt- north side of Mono Island at Japanese and dispersed the rest. ed down, and killed. Surrender Soanotalu. This was perhaps the There was unexpected machine was still not in their book. On 12 most impOrtant landing of all, for gun fire at Sterling. One Seabee November, the New Zealanders there New Zealand soldiers, bulldozer operator attacked the could call the Treasuries their own American Seabees, and U.S. radar machine gun with his big blade. with the radar station in opera- specialists would set up a big An Army corporal, a medic, said tion. Japanese dead totaled 205, long-range radar station. he couldn't believe it, "The and the brigade took only eight The Japanese soon reacted to Seabee ran his dozer over and prisoners. The operation had the Soanotalu landing and hurled over the machine gun nest until secured the seaside flank of themselves against the perimeter. everything was quiet It all Bougainville, and very soon on . . . . On one occasion, 80-90 Japanese began to stink after a couple of Sterling there was an airfield. It attacked 50 New Zealanders who days." began to operate against enemy waited until they saw "the whites Outmanned, the Japanese drew forces on Bougainville on 8