Top of the Ladder: Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons. John C. Chapin

Top of the Ladder: Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons - John C. Chapin


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       John C. Chapin

      Top of the Ladder: Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4064066217020

       Top of the Ladder : Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons

       Top of the Ladder: Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons

       Major General Allen H. Turnage, USMC

       Planning the Operation

       3d Marine Division

       Diversionary Landings

       The Coastwatchers

       Battle at Sea

       Action Ashore: Koromokina

       37th Infantry Division

       The Battle for Piva Trail

       War Dogs

       The Coconut Grove Battle

       Navajo Code Talkers

       ‘Corpsman!’

       Piva Forks Battle

       Hand Grenade Hill

       The Koiari Raid

       Hellzapoppin Ridge

       Epilogue

       Bougainville Finale

       Sources

       About the Author

       Marine Operations in the

       Northern Solomons

       Table of Contents

      Marines in

       World War II

       Commemorative Series

      By Captain John C. Chapin

       U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Ret)

      Riflemen clad in camouflage dungarees await the lowering of their landing craft from George Clymer (APA 27) for their dash to the beaches in their amphibious assault landing on Bougainville. (National Archives Photo 80-G-55810)

      Raiders, up to their hips in water, man a machine gun along a jungle trail. Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 70764

       Marine Operations in the

       Northern Solomons

       Table of Contents

      by Captain John C. Chapin, USMCR (Ret)

      Assault landings began 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 command, “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. The six beaches on the right were assigned to Colonel George W. McHenry’s 3d Marines and Lieutenant Colonel Alan Shapley’s 2d Raider Regiment (less one battalion). The five on the left and Puruata Island were the objectives of Colonel Edward A. Craig’s 9th Marines and Lieutenant Colonel Fred D. Bean’s 3d Raider Battalion.

      As the men headed for shore, 31 Marine torpedo and scout bombers, covered by fighters, came screaming in from their base at Munda, bombing and strafing to give the beaches a final plastering. At 0726, the first wave touched ground, four minutes ahead of the official H-Hour. As the other waves came in, it was immediately apparent that there was serious trouble in two ways. A high surf was tossing the LCVPs and LCMs (Landing Craft, Medium) around, and they were landing on the wrong beaches, broaching, and smashing into each other in the big waves. By the middle of the morning, 64 LCVPs and 22 LCMs were hulks littering the beaches. Three of the designated beaches had to be abandoned as unusable.

      Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 62751

      Marine riflemen keep their heads down as they get closer to the assault beach on D-Day.

      Major Donald M. Schmuck, commanding a company in the 3d Marines, later recalled how, in the “mad confusion” of the beachhead, his company was landed in the midst of heavy gunfire in the middle of another battalion’s zone on the beach of Torokina. Running his company on the double through the other battalion and the 2d Raiders’ zone across inlets and swamp, Major Schmuck got his


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