Marines In the Solomons

Marines In the Solomons

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Marines In the SolomonsNew Georgia and Bougainville

A Pictorial Record

Eric Hammel

Although U.S. Marines had broken the back of the Japanese on Guadalcanalin furious combat between August 1942 and February 1943, much hard fight-ing remained to be endured on jungle-choked islands to the north. Betweenlate 1942 and the end of 1943, the Marines on the ground and in the air tookpart in a series of battles and campaigns in the central and northern SolomonIslands, all part of the effort to reach and neutralize the Japanese regional air,naval, and supply base at Rabaul, at the northeastern tip of New Britain.Throughout these campaigns, first over and on New Georgia,and then overand on Bougainville, the Marines fought their way through some of the mostdifficult terrain and inhospitable weather encountered in World War II.

As a result of the unbroken chain of ground and air victories along theSolomons chain, the mighty Japanese fortress at Rabaul was brought withinrange of American and New Zealand air groups operating from Bougainville

247 Photos


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and other surrounding island air bases. The aggressive, unremitting offensiveefforts supported by these bases secured the flank of the continuing Ameri-can and Australiam campaign for eastern New Guinea. The high tide ofJapanese conquest in the South and Southwest Pacific areas would recede,and the Marines would be free to undertake the long-planned island-hop-ping campaign in the Central Pacific and the Philippines, all the way to theJapanese home islands.

Military historian Eric Hammel has scoured the archives for photos ofMarines in Pacific War combat and has unearthed thousands of rare, manynever-before-published images. In this most-comprehensive photographic his-tory of the Marine battles in the central and northern Solomons, Hammeladds to the depth of his previous World War II Marine Corps pictorial histo-ries. Hundreds of photographs coupled with Hammel’s brief, insightful nar-rative provide a fitting tribute to the Marines who fought their way acrossthe South Pacific.

Marines In the Solomonsl

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Books by Eric Hammel76 Hours: The Invasion of Tarawa (with John E. Lane)

Chosin: Heroic Ordeal of the Korean WarThe Root: The Marines in Beirut

Ace!: A Marine Night-Fighter Pilot in World War II (with R. Bruce Porter)Duel for the Golan (with Jerry Asher)

Guadalcanal: Starvation IslandGuadalcanal: The Carrier Battles

Guadalcanal: Decision at SeaMunda Trail: The New Georgia Campaign

The Jolly Rogers (with Tom Blackburn)Khe Sanh: Siege in the Clouds

First Across the Rhine (with David E. Pergrin)Lima-6: A Marine Company Commander in Vietnam (with Richard D. Camp)

Ambush ValleyFire in the Streets

Aces Against JapanAces Against Japan II

Aces Against GermanyAir War Europa: Chronology

Carrier ClashAces at War

Air War Pacific: ChronologyAces in CombatBloody TarawaMarines at WarCarrier Strike

Pacific Warriors: The U.S. Marines in World War IIIwo Jima: Portrait of a Battle

Marines in Hue City: Portrait of an Urban BattleThe U.S. Marines in World War II: Guadalcanal

The U.S. Marines in World War II: New Georgia, Bougainville, and Cape GloucesterThe U.S. Marines in World War II: Tarawa and the Marshalls

The ForgeCoral and Blood

The Road to Big WeekIslands of Hell

Always FaithfulThe Steel Wedge

Marines On OkinawaMarines In the Marshalls

Marines On PeleliuMarines On Guadalcanal


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Marines In the SolomonsNew Georgia and Bougainville

A Pictorial Record

Eric Hammel

Pacifica Military History


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Text Copyright ©2012 by Eric Hammel

Book Design and Layout Copyright ©2012 by Words To Go, Inc.All Maps Copyright ©Meridian Mapping

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in anyform or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or anyinformation storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be mailed to: Permis-sions, Pacifica Military History, 1149 Grand Teton Drive, Pacifica, California 94044.

ISBN-10: 1-890988-60-XISBN-13: 978-1-890988-60-9

Book Design and Type by Words To Go, Inc., Pacifica, CaliforniaCover Design by Tom Heffron, Hudson, WisconsinMaps by Meridian Mapping, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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For a complete listing of all the military history books written by Eric Hammel and currentlyavailable in print or as ebooks, visit: http://www.EricHammelBooks.com A free samplechapter from each book is available in the site’s Free section.

Please also visit http://www.PacificaMilitary.com


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This book is respectfully dedicated to the gallant American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who stood their groundand achieved the stunning victory in the Solomon Islands


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Contents

Author’s Note ixGlossary & Guide to Abbreviations xiMaps xvChapter 1: After Guadalcanal 1Chapter 2: New Georgia 47Chapter 2: Marine Air Strikes North 93Chapter 3: Bougainville 111


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There is a lot of ground and time to cover here—more than six hundredmiles, nearly a year. United States Marines took part in two major groundcampaigns and a major air campaign between late 1942 and late 1943. Thesewere as major participants in the Solomons air campaign, as minor partici-pants on the ground in the central Solomons, and as the landing force andchief architects of the Bougainville campaign.

All these many facets, large and small, were really parts of the effort toplace the main Japanese regional nerve center at Rabaul under aerial domi-nation. At all times during this long slog, Marines operated as part of aninterservice and multinational team. More than 150 years of subordinationto the U.S. Navy made the Marines good team players, but there were alsoMarine leaders who, throughout the long slog, led the interservice and mul-tinational forces to victories unimagined in their scope during the decadesthose leaders had served before World War II.

Author’s Note


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*During the year of campaigning covered in this volume—and nearly two

years into the Pacific War—the Marine Corps devoted few resources to docu-menting the war on film. Very few photographers were deployed to the Pa-cific, and they were neither trained nor often called upon to act as combatphotographers. That worldview, the name, and the training to go with it, didnot really emerge until late 1943, at Bougainville and Tarawa. There was nogreat loss incurred during the ground phase of the New Georgia campaign inmid-1943; few Marines were involved. The sense of lost opportunities arisesfrom a review of photos of the long, intense aerial offensive over the Solomons.No one should die taking a picture, but it is quite clear that not much effortor risk went into covering the war part of the air war. This volume will incor-porate every combat photo I have been able to glean from official sourcesover the course of many years of looking for them. That’s precious few.

But this shouldn’t be about spilled milk.The photographic record perks up at the outset of the Bougainville cam-

paign and actually mounts in intensity as the Marines move on across thePacific. The photos are of better quality, more immediate, more sympathetictoward the combat Marines who have to take the hills and comb the valleysand forests and reduce the Japanese defenses that mark the long, long roadto victory. They become more knowing, more insightful, also, as the photog-raphers begin to share the day-to-day, moment-by-moment, life-and-deathstruggles their combatant comrades are thrown into. That will become evi-dent as you encounter the Bougainville collection in this volume.

So even though the early parts of the photographic record memorializedin these pages fall short of the best game Marine combat photographers even-tually came to play in Pacific island battles, the sum of my spending severalyears locating and scanning several hundred central Solomons campaignphotos serves as the basis for that part of this volume. For you, the reader,there lies within this volume the largest collection of photos of Marines inthe central and northern Solomons that has been published to date, or maybeever will be published. This collection was paid for in blood and sacrifice.

Eric HammelNorthern CaliforniaSummer 2012


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Glossary andGuide to Abbreviations

IMAC I Marine Amphibious CorpsA6M Imperial Navy Mitsubishi “Zero” fighterAirNorSols Aircraft, Northern SolomonsAirSols Aircraft, Solomon IslandsAirSoPac Aircraft, South Pacific AreaAmtrac Amphibian tractorAvenger U.S. Navy/Marine Grumman TBF carrier torpedo/light bomberB-17 U.S. Army Air Forces Boeing Flying Fortress four-engine heavy

bomberB-24 U.S. Army Air Forces Consolidated Liberator four-engine heavy

bomberB-25 U.S. Army Air Forces North American Mitchell twin-engine me-

dium bomber


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Betty Imperial Navy Mitsubishi G4M twin-engine land attack bomberC-47 U.S. Army Air Forces Douglas Skytrain twin-engine transport

(Same as R4D)Catalina U.S. Navy Consolidated PBY twin-engine amphibious patrol

bomberCorsair U.S. Navy/Marine Vought F4U fighterD3A Imperial Navy Aichi Val dive-bomberDauntless U.S. Navy/Marine Douglas SBD dive-bomberF4F U.S. Navy/Marine Grumman Wildcat fighterF4U U.S. Navy/Marine Vought Corsair fighterF6F U.S. Navy Grumman Hellcat fighterFlying Fortress U.S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 four-engine heavy

bomberG4M Imperial Navy Mitsubishi Betty twin-engine land attack bomberHE High explosiveHellcat U.S. Navy Grumman F6F fighterLCVP Landing craft, vehicle, personnelLightning U.S. Army Air Forces Lockheed P-38 twin-engine fighterLST Landing ship, tankLVT Landing vehicle, tracked; amphibian tractor; amtracM1 U.S. Garand .30-caliber semi-automatic rifleM3/M3A1 U.S. Stuart light tankM3 U.S. 75mm tank destroyer halftrackMAG Marine Air GroupMASP Marine Air, South PacificMitchell U.S. Army Air Forces North American B-25 twin-engine me-

dium bomberP-38 U.S. Army Air Forces Lockheed Lightning twin-engine fighterP-39 U.S. Army Air Forces Bell Airacobra fighterP-40 U.S. Army Air Forces Curtiss Warhawk fighter; Royal New Zealand

Air Force Kittyhawk fighterPBJ U.S. Marine Corps North American Mitchell twin-engine medium

bomber; identical to B-25PBY U.S. Navy Consolidated Catalina twin-engine amphibian patrol

bomberPB4Y U.S. Navy/Marine version of the Consolidated B-24 LiberatorPioneers U.S. Marine shore party troopsPV U.S. Navy Lockheed Ventura twin-engine land-based patrol bomber;

also Marine Corps experimental radar-equipped night fighter


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R4D U.S. Navy/Marine Douglas Dakota twin-engine transport (Same asC-47)

SBD U.S. Navy/Marine Douglas Dauntless dive-bomberSeabees Members of U.S. Navy construction battalions (CBs)SoPac South Pacific AreaSoWesPac Southwest Pacific AreaSPM Self-propelled mount; a halftrack mounting a 75mm antitank/anti-

emplacement gunTBF U.S. Navy/Marine Grumman Avenger carrier torpedo/light bomberVal Imperial Navy Aichi D3A carrier dive-bomberVentura U.S. Navy Lockheed PV twin-engine land-based patrol bomber;

also Marine Corps experimental radar-equipped night fighterVF U.S. Navy fighting squadronVMD U.S. Marine Photographic SquadronVMF U.S. Marine fighting squadronVMF(N) U.S. Marine night fighting squadronVMSB U.S. Marine scout-bombing squadronWildcat U.S. Navy/Marine F4F Wildcat fighterZero Imperial Navy Mitsubishi A6M fighter


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Chapter 4Bougainville

Introduction

The Marine landings at Empress Augusta Bay in central Bougainville hadexactly one aim: to bring the great Japanese air and naval fortress at

Rabaul within the operational range of AirSols land-based fighters operatingfrom three new airfields that would be built from scratch. By doing so, theAllied planners understood that they would be bringing the Bougainvilleinvasion fleet and the three airfields well within the operational range ofRabaul-based fighters and strike aircraft, and so they planned to fight anattritional air campaign over central Bougainville and its northern approaches.Thus, beginning at first light on D-day, AirSols fighters based at Munda andon Kolombangara and Vella Lavella were out in force, flying offensive patrolpatterns in several sectors from north of the invasion beaches to south of theinvasion beaches.


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Marine Corsairs based at Munda Field prepare to take off to provide coverfor the Bougainville invasion fleet. (Official USMC Photo)


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The secrecy of the Cape Torokina invasion site prohibited a lengthypreinvasion bombardment, but this was offset by the isolation of theobjective and the scarcity of defenses. Here, a Marine SBD buzzes an areabehind the invasion beaches in search of a target for its 500-pound bomb.(Official USMC Photo)


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On its way to attack a shore target, a bomb-laden Marine SBD flies over a parade of destroyers and large landing ships. Awhite smoke plume showing beneath the SBD’s tail will deepen the haze already in evidence over the invasion area.

(Official USMC Photo)


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This gaggle of Japanese landing craft moored off the invasion area hasbeen bombed to wreckage ahead of the landings. (Official USMC Photo)


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Invasion

The Bougainville invasion, planned and overseen by I Marine AmphibiousCorps (IMAC) headquarters, opened on November 1, 1943, when two regi-mental landing teams of the untried 3d Marine Division and two attachedMarine Raider battalions—seventy-five hundred combat troops in all—landed from eight attack transports on and to the west of Cape Torokina, incentral Bougainville’s Empress Augusta Bay. Beginning at 0726 hours, the9th Marine Regiment (9th Marines), on the division left, landed in roughsurf but against zero opposition. On the right, the 3d Marines and the 2dRaider Battalion landed in smoother waters but faced serious opposition inthe form of several defensive sectors that consisted of highly motivated troopsmanning well-camouflaged bunkers, pillboxes, and antiboat guns.

Marines stream down the landingnets to board their ride to the beach.



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Marine Raiders scramble down cargo nets to an LCVP bound for PuruataIsland. Note that a war dog is being lowered by sling. Bougainville markedthe combat debut of Marine war dogs, which were organized into aplatoon assigned to 2d Raider Battalion. (Official USMC Photo)


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Official USMC Photo


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By this stage of thewar Marines andboat crews operatedas a well-coordinated teamduring the final run-up to an amphibiouslanding. TheseMarines and CoastGuard boat crewshave undergonetough training andnumerous practicelandings atGuadalcanal to getthe timing down.(Official CoastGuard Photo)


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Tension runs high as this Marine-laden LCVP nears the invasion beach. Note the column of white smoke rising at far left,a signal to begin the landing. (Official USMC Photo)


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Official USMC Photo


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Marine-laden LCVPs and LCMs squeeze between Puruata Island (left) andTorokina Island on the final lap to the 9th Marines’ beaches. (Official USMC

Photo)


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White smoke rising from a wooded area behind one of the invasionbeaches is the signal for landing craft to turn to land their Marinepassengers. (Official USMC Photo)


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Trouble on the Beaches

The invasion plan, which depended too heavily on deception as to the land-ing site, was inadequately supported by advance ground reconnaissance, andit set aside too many combat troops for use as shore party—the wrong lessonfrom the calamitous shore party plan at Guadalcanal in August 1942. Onthe five beaches in the 9th Marines zone high tide, narrow beaches, ob-structed beach exits, and pounding surf played havoc with the boat forma-

High rollers and shallow approachesforced many boatloads of the 9thMarines to abandon their landingcraft well off the beach and wadethrough water between chest and

thigh deep. Fortunately, thesebeaches were entirely undefended.



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tions and, indeed, wrecked sixty-four LCVPs and twenty-two larger LCMsin two days. Eight of twelve transports and cargo ships were emptied on D-day alone, but fouled beaches as well as unmapped swamps and otherunreconnoitered obstructions just behind the beaches prevented an orderlybuild-up of matériel. The bulk of what was landed went ashore in the wrongplaces and was moved inland simply to clear the beaches rather than toensure accessibility. Moreover, the large number of artillery troops suckedinto shore party details actually prevented some needed fire missions.

The 3d Marines enjoyed smoothlandings in gentle surf conditions,but their beach assault was hotlycontested by a dug-in Japaneseinfantry company. (Official USMCPhoto)


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Official USMC Photo


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Several squads of the 1st Battalion, 3d Marines (1/3) charge ahead and fanout to secure the coconut grove just back of Cape Torokina. (Official USMCPhoto)


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All of the pillboxes uncovered and neutralized by the 3d Marines on D-daywere constructed of native ironwood logs strengthened by earth or coral

and camouflaged with living jungle growth. (Official USMC Photo)


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The white circle in the embrasure of this second pillbox is the muzzle of amedium machine gun. (Official USMC Photos)


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Beachheads Secured

Excellent training, often at the hands of Guadalcanal veterans, won theright flank of the beachhead, where two battalions of the 3d Marines andthe reinforced 2d Raider Battalion landed on five beaches south of theKorokomina River. On the regimental right, the 1st Battalion, 3d Marines(1/3), and the 2d Raider Battalion, which landed to 1/3’s right, faced pre-pared defenses on a bitterly defended strip of beach. The Marine units werebadly jumbled when landing craft scrambled off course to avoid fire from awell-concealed and perfectly situated 75mm antiboat gun. Fourteen land-ing craft in all were hit by the one gun before it could be neutralized. Never-theless, once on the beach, junior troop leaders rallied ad hoc assault squadsand platoons that fought bitterly to overcome expertly camouflaged defensesgallantly held by a reinforced Imperial Army infantry company. Pinpointfire by the 3d Marines’ 75mm halftrack tank destroyers was crucial to thedestruction of five of the twenty-five stoutly built bunkers that were eventu-ally located and reduced. By midmorning victorious Marines counted 153dead Japanese in the defended zone.

On Puruata Island, off Cape Torokina, the main body of the 3d RaiderBattalion (one company had been attached to the 2d Raiders) faced aboutseventy determined foes who had to be pried out of the dense growth, oneposition at a time. The battalion became fully committed in intense fightingand was able to advance only after the 9th Marines sent its 75mm halftracksto Puruata. The island was declared secure at 1530 on November 2.

Air and Naval Cover

The first D-day air raid mounted from Rabaul against the landing force com-menced at about the time the first assault waves hit the beaches. As the firstof two linked attack waves approached from the north, the transports uppedanchor and took violent evasive action that disrupted the flow of troops andgoods to the beach for two hours. Several beaches were strafed and bombedwith little effect, and one destroyer was slightly damaged by a near miss.Fifteen Japanese aircraft were shot down by AirSols fighters, which patrolledoverhead from north to south of the invasion fleet in dawn-to-dusk relays.A third attack wave of seventy aircraft arrived at about 1300, and the trans-ports fled again. One transport briefly ran aground, but the attack inflictedno other damage. In all, claims for Japanese planes shot down on November1 reached twenty-six while AirSols lost four fighters and one pilot.


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Marines In the Solomons