Commitment of the 37th Division
General Griswold, preparing for his corps offensive, needed fresh troops at the front. On 18 July he ordered Colonel Baxter to advance west with the 2d Battalion of his 148th Infantry and relicve the 169th Infantry as soon as possible. Baxter, whose 1st and 2d Battalions had arrived at Zanana that morning, effected the relief by 21 July after being delayed by Japanese detachments at the Barike.
After the 169th's relief, regimental command changed again. Colonel Holland took over his old regiment, the 145th, while Lt. Col. Bernardi. Lindauer succeeded to command of the i 69th. Lindauer's regiment returned to Rendova for rest and reorganization. Its 3d Battalion, after receiving 212 replacements, was sent into reserve at Laiana on 24 July.
By 23 July the major part of the 37th Division had arrived at New Georgia and was either in action or ready to be committed. Present were Division and Division Artillery Headquarters; the 145th and 148th Infantry Regiments less their 3d Battalions, which were under Liversedge; the 135th and 136th Field Artillery Battalions; the 37th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop; and the signal, quartermaster, ordnance, engineer, and medical units (except B Company, 117th Engineer Battalion, and B Company, 112th Medical Battalion).
General Griswold, on 22 July, directed General Beightler to resume command at noon of all his units then on New Georgia except the 136th Field Artillery Battalion. To the 37th Griswold attached the 161st Regimental Combat Team less its artillery, and the 169th and 192d Field Artillery Battalions of the 43d Division. The 136th Field Artillery Battalion was serving as part of corps artillery. The other three organic and attached artillery battalions were under the 37th Division for direct fire support missions only; for all others they would be controlled by corps artillery, now commanded by General Barker.
Griswold, reshuffling units for the offensive, set the boundary between divisions along an east-by-south-west-bynorth line approximately thirteen hundred yards north of Ilangana. The 43d Division was on the left (south), with the 103d and 172d Regiments in line from south to north. (The 2d Battalion, 103d, having been relieved by the 1st Battalion, had come up from Wickham Anchorage.)
The 172d moved right to establish contact with the 37th Division's left.
The 37th Division, assigned an indefinite frontage north of the 43d Division, gave the 145th Infantry a narrow front of 300 yards on the left, because only the 2d Battalion, 145th, which had been covering the gap north of the 172d Infantry, was immediately available. The 1st Battalion was still holding the high ground taken over from the 169th Infantry. The 161st Infantry was given a 500-yard front in the center. One of its battalions constituted the corps reserve. The 148th Infantry was put on the right, with no definite frontage, and assigned the responsibility for protecting the corps' right flank and rear.
All units had moved into position by 24
July. The 161st Infantry (at right, debarking from LCI in New Georgia, 22 July 1943), whose transfer had been approved by General Harmon, had arrived
at Baraulu Island on 21 July, moved to New
Georgia the next day, and suffered its first
casualties of the campaign when two captains
of the regimental staff were killed on
reconnaissance. On 23 July the regiment moved
to assembly areas in preparation for the
offensive. Most of the 161st's zone of action lay
north of the high ground taken by the 169th
Infantry.
The corps line of departure ran northwest from a point near Ilangana. In the 161st's zone, it lay about three hundred yards west of the assembly areas, and ran over Horseshoe Hill. Colonel Dalton, who had taken over command of the regiment in the closing days of the Guadalcanal Campaign, sent out patrols to reconnoiter for the line of departure. These patrols were stopped short of the line by Japanese on a ridge that formed part of the northeast slope of Horseshoe Hill, and returned to report to Dalton that there were two pillboxes on the ridge.
A reinforced platoon went out to deal with the enemy. This platoon came back and claimed the destruction of two positions but reported the presence of several more. Because Beightler did not want to commit the regiment to general action before 25 July, he ordered Dalton to use one rifle company to clear the ridge on 24 July. I Company, supported by M Company's 81-mm. mortars, attacked and reported knocking out two more pillboxes, apparently by killing the occupants. But I Company also reported the presence of a dozen more pillboxes. Before nightfall, patrols reported that the Japanese had reoccupied the two positions I Company had attacked. Thus just before D Day the 161st Infantry was aware that a strong enemy position lay camouflaged between it and the line of departure.
Reorganization
In the days following his assumption of command, General Griswold and his staff were deeply occupied with administrative as well as tactical matters. Reinforcements from the 25th and 37th Divisions had to be received and assigned. The supply system was overhauled; medical services were improved.
General Griswold immediately designated Baraburn Island as supply dump for the 43d Division, Kokorana for the 37th. Ships from Guadalcanal would land equipment and supplies in these islands, whence landing craft would transport them through the barrier islands to Laiana or to other positions on the barrier islands.
Hester's move to Laiana was paying dividends. Although low, swampy ground had at first slowed construction of the trail from Laiana north to the Munda Trail, six hundred yards had been built by 17 July, and on 20 July the whole trail was opened to motor traffic. As a result, Hester reported, his regiments would no longer need to be supplied from the air. The 43d Division command post moved from Zanana to Laiana on 21 July. At the same time most of the 43d Division's service installations moved to Laiana. Two-lane roads were built within the dump areas, and additional trails out of Laiana, plus more trails to the various regiments, were also built. Bulldozer operators working inland received fire from enemy riflemen on occasion.
After one driver was wounded, the engineers fashioned shields for the bulldozers with steel salvaged from wrecked enemy landing craft. A D-4 and a much heavier D-7 bulldozer that came in with A Company, 65th Engineer Battalion, on 23 July, speeded construction of a trail to the 161st Infantry and of lateral trails in the 37th Division's area. With the roads built it was possible to assemble supplies close behind the infantry regiments and to plan their systematic delivery in the future.
The XIV Corps and its assigned units also undertook the improvement of medical care. Several hours after he assumed command Griswold asked Harmon to send the 250-bed 17th Field Hospital from Guadalcanal to Rendova at once. Harmon approved. Because of physical frailty some medical officers had become casualties themselves, and the resulting shortage prevented careful supervision and handling of casualties.
Griswold asked Harmon for fifteen medical officers physically able to stand the rigors of field service. To make sure that casualties being evacuated from New Georgia received proper medical attention during the trip to Guadalcanal, the corps surgeon arranged with naval authorities for a naval medical officer to travel on each LST carrying patients.
Finally, all units benefited by the 43d Division's experience in dealing with war neurosis. Rest camps, providing hot food, baths, clean clothes, and cots, were established on the barrier islands, and Colonel Hallam tried to see to it that more accurate diagnoses were made so that men suffering from combat fatigue were separated from true neurotics and sent to the camps.
Air Support
Air support of the New Georgia operation had been generally good, and the scale of bombing was increasing. Completion of the Segi Point field on 10 July and full employment of the Russells fields made it possible for fighters to escort all bombing missions. These missions could therefore be executed in daylight with resulting increases in accuracy. South Pacific air units were able to put more planes in the air at one time than ever before. Regular strikes against the Shortlands and southern Bougainville were intensified.
Allied fighters providing the 0700 to 1630 cover for the New Georgia Occupapation Force also escorted the almost daily bombing attacks against Munda, Bairoko, and Vila. Fighter operations were proving especially effective in protecting the beachheads and shipping. On 15 July some seventy-five Japanese bombers and fighters were intercepted by thirty-one Allied fighters, who reported knocking down forty-five enemy craft at a cost of three American planes. Thereafter Japanese aircraft virtually abandoned daylight attacks against Rendova and New Georgia and confined their efforts to nocturnal harassment.
BOMBING OF MUNDA AIRFIELD, EARLY MORNING, 12 July 1943. Photograph taken from Kokorana Island.
Bombing and strafing missions in support of the ground troops were numerous and heavy, considering the number of aircraft in the South Pacific. On 16 July 37 torpedo bombers and an equal number of dive bombers struck at Lambeti with thirty-six 1,000-pound, eighteen 2,000-pound, and eighty-eight 500-pound bombs at 0905. The strike was followed by another against Munda by 36 SBD's and TBFs. These dropped twelve 1,000-pound and twelve 2,000-pound bombs at 1555.
On 19 July 20 TBF's and 18 SBD's hit at positions north of Munda, and the next day 36 SBD's dropped 1,000-pound bombs at suspected gun positions north of Lambeti. Two days later 36 SBD's and 18 TBF's again bombed the Munda gun positions, which were struck once more by 16 SBD's on 23 July. On 24 July, the day before the corps offensive began, 37 TBF's and 36 SBD's with a screen Of 48 fighters dropped thirty-seven 2,000-pound and thirty-six 1,000-pound bombs on Bairoko in the morning. In late afternoon 18 SBD's and 16 TBF's hit Munda and Bibilo Hill.
Most of the aircraft flying these missions were piloted by marines. It will be noted that this air support was, according to then current Army doctrine, direct air support. Most of these missions were flown as part of "a combined effort of the air and ground forces, in the battle area, to gain objectives on the immediate front of the ground forces." (see FM 100-20, Command and Employment of Air Power (1943), P. 16. See also TM 20-205, Dictionary of United States Army Terms (1944), P. 90.)
But as most of the targets were several thousand yards from the front lines, this was not close air support, which was defined after the war as "attack by aircraft on hostile ground or naval targets which are so close to friendly forces as to require detailed integration of each air mission with the fire and movement of these forces." (SR 320-5-1, Dictionary of United States Army Terms, (Aug 50), P. 48.)
South Pacific commanders, including General Harmon, had hoped to make extensive use of close air support on New Georgia, and a few close air support missions such as that requested by Colonel Holland had been executed, but they were difficult for the air forces to execute and dangerous to the ground troops. There was, at that time, no systematized target marking system nor any good means of radio communication between the front lines and the aircraft. The Thirteenth Air Force had no tactical air communications squadron. The dense jungle and rolling terrain where the troops were operating had so few landmarks that pilots could not easily orient themselves. Nor could the ground troops orient themselves any more easily. Panels marking the front lines could scarcely be seen from the air. Enemy positions could rarely be identified by spotters in observation planes or by air liaison parties on the ground.
Because maps were inexact, and the troops had difficulty in locating themselves precisely, bombing missions executed close to the front lines resulted in casualties to American troops. Three soldiers of the 172d Infantry were killed in that way on 16 July. For these reasons close air support was seldom used in any of the CARTWHEEL operations. The direct air support on New Georgia was, however, of great value, and General Griswold had every intention of following Harmon's order that the New Georgia operation employ air support to the maximum degree.
Griswold, in the nine days following his assumption of command, had improved supply and evacuation on New Georgia. In spite of the failure at Bairoko, the tactical position, too, had improved. The tired 169th had been relieved, and fresh 25th and 37th Division regiments were ready to enter the fight. The troops had repulsed a counterattack, improved their position by seizing high ground, and now held a southeastnorthwest line about three thousand yards from the east end of Munda field.
The XIV Corps could look forward to receiving the same resolute, effective air and naval support that had aided the 43d Division. With the logistic and tactical situations of his troops thus improved, and sure of ample air and naval support, Griswold was ready to attack Munda.
More Griswold Takes Over
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