marines on new britain

Marines On New Britain


Marines On New BritainCape Gloucester and Rabaul

A Pictorial Record

Eric Hammel215 Photos

The Guadalcanal-blooded 1st Marine Division’s assault on Cape Gloucester in western New Britain on December 26,1943, was unconnected to the preceding seventeen-month slog along the nearby Solomon Islands chain. Nor did it haveanything to do with the neutralization of the Japanese naval and air fortress at Rabaul, on the eastern end of New Britain.True enough, the Cape Gloucester invasion happened to strategically isolate the vast Rabaul logistics base from Japanese-held areas in nearby New Guinea. But the invasion of Cape Gloucester was a tactical operation aimed at preventing a pairof badly built airfields from supporting an effort to interdict the passage of two Australian Army divisions then fightingtheir way along the New Guinea shore adjacent to Vitiaz Strait. On the eastern shore of Vitiaz Strait, the Cape Gloucesterairfields, once captured and improved, were to support the Australian drive—but not the air offensive against Rabaul.

All that said, this volume also covers the rather thinly photographed role of Marine Air in isolating Rabaul’s airdefenses and pummeling them into neurality from mid-December 1943 to the last days of the Pacific War.

Military historian Eric Hammel has scoured the archives for photographs of Marines in Pacific War combat and hasunearthed thousands of rare, many never-before-published images. In this most-comprehensive photographic history ofthe Marine battles at both ends of New Britain, Hammel adds to the depth of his previous World War II Marine Corpspictorial histories. More than two hundred gripping photographs, coupled with Hammel’s brief, insightful narrative, pro-vide a fitting tribute to the Marines who fought their way across the South Pacific.

Marines On New Britain provides an engrossing and vivid pictorial account of one of the forgotten Marine Corps islandconquests of World War II.


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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 GuadalcanalMarines In the Solomons


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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: 1-890988-61-8ISBN-13: 978-1-890988-61-6

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 Pacific


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Contents

Author’s Note ixGlossary & Guide to Abbreviations xiMaps xivChapter 1: Cape Gloucester 1Chapter 2: Rabaul 197


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The invasion and occupation of Empress Augusta Bay on the island ofBougainville in November and December 1943 was the culminating

action in a brutal, grueling seventeen-month American drive that had be-gun, all in a rush, in August 1942 at Guadalcanal. Following six months ofintense, heart-stopping touch-and-go ground, air, and naval combat to seizeand hold the strategically vital Allied air-base complex on Guadalcanal’snorth-central coast, the Allied forces in the South Pacific Area had pro-ceeded cautiously with an air campaign aimed at softening up Japanese de-fenses around Munda Field, New Georgia, and finally moving in late June1943 to seize the airfield. The capture and rehabilitation of Munda Field inearly August 1943 then led to a continuation of the Solomons air campaign,now aimed at neutralizing a number of bases around the periphery ofBougainville. Several outlying bases north of Munda were seized or builtfrom scratch, and when Japanese air power in the northern Solomons hadbeen neutralized, a reinforced Marine division had invaded Empress Au-gusta Bay, Bougainville, for the sole purpose of covering construction of anair-base complex from which Allied fighters and bombers could reach theJapanese naval and air fortress at Rabaul, in eastern New Britain. The vic-tory at Bougainville and use of the airfields at Empress Augusta Bay in De-cember 1943 ended the Solomons campaign, per se, and heralded the deci-sion to bypass Rabaul in favor of bombarding the place until Japanese forcesthere ceded air and naval supremacy.

Author’s Note


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The 1st Marine Division’s assault on Cape Gloucester in western NewBritain on December 26, 1943, was unconnected to the neutralization ofRabaul even though it happened to strategically isolate the vast base fromJapanese-held areas in nearby New Guinea. Indeed, the invasion of CapeGloucester was a tactical operation aimed at preventing a pair of badly builtJapanese airfields from supporting an effort to interdict the passage of twoAustralian Army divisions then fighting their way along the New Guineashore adjacent to Vitiaz Strait. On the eastern shore of Vitiaz Strait, theCape Gloucester airfields, once captured and improved, were to support theAustralian drive—and not the air offensive against Rabaul.

All that said, this volume also covers the rather thinly photographedrole of Marine Air in isolating Rabaul’s air defenses and pummeling theminto neurality from mid-December 1943 to the last days of the Pacific War.

*During the first two years of the Pacific War, the Marine Corps devoted

few resources to documenting the action on film. Very few photographerswere deployed to the Pacific, and they were neither trained nor often calledupon to act as combat photographers. That worldview, the name, and thetraining to go with it, did not really emerge until late 1943, at Bougainvilleand Tarawa. The invasion and developing operations at Cape Gloucesterwere well documented by Marine combat photographers, and so to a lesserand necessarily repetitious degree was the air assault on Rabaul.

Beginning at Bougainville, as the ground fighting there and at Tarawaand New Britain mount in intensity, the photos are of better quality, moreimmediate, more sympathetic toward the combat Marines who have to takethe hills and comb the valleys and forests and reduce the Japanese defensesthat mark the long, long road to victory. They become more knowing, moreinsightful, also, as the photographers begin to share the day-to-day, moment-by-moment, life-and-death struggles their combatant comrades are throwninto. The photographs are less public-relations tools than an honest andreally quite brave effort to depict the reality of war.

For you, the reader, there lies within this volume the largest collection ofphotos of Marines in action at both ends of New Britain that has been pub-lished to date, or maybe ever will be published. This collection was paid forin blood and sacrifice.

Eric HammelNorthern California

Summer 2012


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Glossary andGuide to Abbreviations

IMAC I Marine Amphibious CorpsA6M Imperial Navy Mitsubishi “Zero” fighterADC Assistant division commanderAirNorSols 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 bomberBetty Imperial Navy Mitsubishi G4M twin-engine land attack bomber


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C-47 U.S. Army Air Forces Douglas Skytrain twin-engine transport(Same as R4D)

Catalina U.S. Navy Consolidated PBY twin-engine amphibious patrolbomber

Corsair U.S. Navy/Marine Vought F4U fighterD3A Imperial Navy Aichi Val dive-bomberDauntless U.S. Navy/Marine Douglas SBD dive-bomberDUKW U.S. amphibious truckF4U U.S. Navy/Marine Vought Corsair fighterF6F U.S. Navy Grumman Hellcat fighterG4M Imperial Navy Mitsubishi Betty twin-engine land attack bomberHE High explosiveHellcat U.S. Navy Grumman F6F fighterLCI Landing Craft, InfantryLCI(R) Landing Craft, Infantry rocket gunshipLCT Landing Craft, TankLCVP 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 halftrackM3 U.S. .45-caliber “grease gun” submachine gunMAG 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-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

bomberPioneers U.S. Marine shore party troopsPV U.S. Marine twin-engine Ventura night-fighter variantR4D U.S. Navy/Marine Douglas Dakota twin-engine transport (Same as

C-47)


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RAAF Royal Australian Air ForceRNZAF Royal New Zealand Air ForceSBD 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/TBM U.S. Navy/Marine Grumman/General Motors Avenger carrier

torpedo/light bomberVal Imperial Navy Aichi D3A carrier dive-bomberVentura U.S. Marine twin-engine PV night-fighter variantVF U.S. Navy fighting squadronVMB U.S. Marine bombing 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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Hell’s Point

The December 28 attack was delayed to allow time for the 5th Marines toreach Cape Gloucester and get into position to support the 1st Marines. Amessage announcing a one-day delay in the reinforcement operation wastoo garbled to be understood, but the reserve regiment’s nonarrival was noted,so the 1st Marines resumed its attack after only a brief delay.

Beginning at 0800 hours, 2/11 bombarded the Japanese defensive zone,and at 0900 Fifth Air Force A-20 twin-engine ground-attack bombers ar-rived to strafe and bomb the objective for an hour. The 1st Marines was tohave jumped off as the last A-20s flew from the scene, but Colonel Whalingrequested an hour’s delay to bring up more tanks At 1100 on the dot, 3/1stepped off toward Hell’s Point in the same formation it had employed theday before. Then 1/1 moved up to cut a flanking path through the forest onthe side of the coastal track.

A 105mm howitzer supports the 1stMarines advance along the coastal

track. (Official USMC Photo)


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The Japanese were ready. While the defensive zone had been constructedto repel a beach assault, many crew-served weapons could be rejiggered toinland bearings and thus face the 1st Marines. An intact infantry battalionsupported by 75mm dual-purpose guns occupied the defenses.

The battle was joined on the flank at 1145 when Company A, 1/1, raninto the prepared defenses five hundred yards from the beach. The first shotswere fired by concealed Japanese troops as Company A broke out of theforest into an area of chest-high grass. The Marines pulled back to the con-cealing tree line; and then the fight developed into a four-hour stalemate asforces of equal size duked it out with rifles and machine guns. The Marinesbeat off two infantry flanking assaults, but they could not overcome the steadyJapanese stand by any means at hand. Eventually, under covering fires putout by 2/11, Company A, 1/1, pulled back for the night to draw ammunitionat its battalion perimeter. A stronger attack force that kicked off at dawn onDecember 29 fell into ground that had been abandoned overnight.

In the meantime, 3/1 bored into the main defensive line, right on Hell’sPoint, throughout daylight on December 28. Rain and dense foliage helpedshield both sides from fire but also hampered both sides equally. Marine tank-infantry teams went up against defensive positions protected by land minesand barbed wire as well as by interlocking bands of fire from other emplace-ments fielding 20mm antiaircraft cannon, 70mm infantry guns, and at leastthree 75mm field guns. In some places, infantry-supported M4s ran rightover pillboxes, smashing them in and exposing the occupants to direct infan-try fire, but for the most part the infantry-supported tanks stood off fromtheir targets and doggedly reduced one position at a time with pinpoint 75mmfire. The hellish all-out battle ended at 1630 hours, when the last beachsidebunker was overcome without a fight, its occupants having withdrawn min-utes earlier as part of a general retreat. There was nothing left between theMarines and the airfields. During the night, 266 Japanese corpses were countedwithin the Hell’s Point defensive zone. Fewer than twenty Marines had beenkilled and fewer than fifty wounded in the two-day battle—a testament tothe effectiveness of the tank-infantry teams.


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Marines of 1/1 advance along the coastal track on December 28 through asteady downpour. (Official USMC Photo)


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The tank-infantry team stepped off into the Hell’s Point defensive zone at1100 hours on December 28. (Official USMC Photo)


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The Shermans and their bodyguards spread out into line-abreast formationas they approach Hell’s Point across a wide field. (Official USMC Photo)


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A jeepborne Weapons Company, 1st Marines, 37mm antitank gun and moreinfantry ease forward along the coastal track to help reduce the Hell’s Pointdefensive network. (Official USMC Photo)


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The Japanese defensive sector featured continuous interlocking bands of fire from beautifully placed positions that hadbeen planned to deter a frontal assault from the sea rather than the flank attack that fell upon it. Emplacements such as

this, all built from local materials, were almost impossible to see from any distance unless their occupants could beinduced to open fire prematurely. (Official USMC Photo)


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Official USMC Photo


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A rifleman has climbed to a perch behind the turret so he can bring the main gun on target by yelling commands via theopen gunner’s hatch. The tankers were all but blind in facing the close-in woods and there was no other way for the

accompanying infantrymen to communicate with them. (Official USMC Photo)


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Seabees arriving atHell’s Point after theattack force hasmoved on take timeout from road-improvement work toassess the pillbox andgawk at the deadJapanese. (OfficialUSMC Photo)


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Dense undergrowth that had to be traversed to approach Hell’s Point defenses threatened the cohesion of the attack, butthe infantrymen and tank crews persevered even where visibility was limited and cooperation became tenuous. (Official

USMC Photo)


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Official USMC Photo


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Marines prevailed in reducing the Hell’s Point complex on December 28because their training was so ingrained that all the players came back tothe game plan whenever that plan was disrupted by terrain, mistakes, or

Japanese action. The Marine infantrymen looked out for the tanks, and thetank crews remained true to the bargain. (Official USMC Photo)


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This squad is monitoring its surroundings in all directions. (Official USMC Photo)


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Official USMC Photo


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A hospital corpsman inserts an intravenous needle into the arm of a badly wounded Marine. Conditions were hardlysterile, but every precaution against infection that could be taken was taken. (Official USMC Photo)


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As one corpsmen writes an evacuation tag, another treats this Marine’s back wound in a front-line dispensary—a hole inthe ground. (Official USMC Photo)


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A litter team rushes a wounded man through the forest in the hope of hooking him up with motorized transport to therear. By the time most casualties arrived in a rear-area aid station, their chances of survival were fairly good. All the besttechnology of the day was pressed into service of the wounded. (Official USMC Photo)


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