As first light gave way to daylight in the morning of 15 August, the APD's carrying the 1st and 2d Battalions of the 35th Infantry arrived off Barakoma and hove to. General Mulcahy's combat air patrol from Munda and Segi Point turned up on schedule at 0605. With part of the 103d Infantry and the secret advance party already on shore and in possession of the landing beach, there was no need for support bombardment. The APD's swung landing craft into the water, troops of the 2d Battalion climbed down the cargo nets and into the boats, and the first wave, with rifle companies abreast, departed. The 2d Battalion hit the beach at 0624 and at once pushed south toward the coconut plantation around Biloa Mission, about four thousand yards from the beach. The 1st Battal Ion, having left the APD's at o615, landed with companies abreast at 0630 and pushed northward across the waist-deep Barakoma River. Thus quickly unloaded, the APD's cleared the area and with four escorting destroyers proceeded toward Guadalcanal. The twelve LCI's arrived on schedule and sailed in to the beach, but quickly found there was room for but eight at one time. Coral reefs a few yards from shore rendered the northern portion of the beach unusable. The remaining four in LCI's had to stand by offshore awaiting their turn. The 3d Battalion started unloading but had barely gotten started when enemy aircraft pounced at the invasion force. This time the Japanese were not caught so completely asleep as they had been on 30 June. In early August Japanese radio intelligence reported a good deal of Allied radio traffic, and the commanders at Rabaul were aware that ships were again concentrating around Guadalcanal. They concluded that a new invasion was impending but failed to guess the target. At 0300 of the 15th a land-based bomber spotted part of Wilkinson's force off Gatukai. Six dive bombers and forty-eight fighters were sent out on armed reconnaissance, and these found the Americans shortly before 0800. Mulcahy's planes and ships' antiaircraft guns promptly engaged them. The Japanese planes that broke through went for the destroyers, which steamed on evasive courses and escaped harm. The Japanese caused some casualties ashore by strafing, but did not attack the LST's and LCIs. They ebulliently reported repulsing fifty Allied planes. This attack, together with the limitations of the beach, delayed the unloading of the LCI's, which did not pull out until 0915. (The 35th Infantry later reported the existence of a longer beach eight hundred yards north of Barakoma.) The three LST's then beached and began discharging men and heavy cargo. Unloading continued all day. The Japanese struck again at 1227; eleven bombers and forty-eight fighters came down from the north. Some attacked the LST's but these "Large, Slow Targets" had mounted extra antiaircraft guns and brought down several Japanese planes. At 1724, some thirty-six minutes before the LST's departed, the enemy came again. Forty-five fighters and eight bombers attacked without success. The Japanese pilots who flew against the Northern Force on that August day showed a talent for making unwarranted claims. A postwar account soberly admits the loss of seventeen planes, but claims the sinking of four large transports, one cruiser, and one destroyer. It states that twenty-nine Allied planes were shot down and that four large transports were damaged. (Southeast Area Naval Operations, II, Japanese Monogr NO. 49 (OCMH), 47-48.) The ships retiring from Vella Lavella were harried from the air almost all the way, fortunately without suffering damage. D Day, a resounding success, had proceeded with the efficiency that characterized all Admiral Wilkinson's operations. Landed were 4,600 troops (700 of whom were naval personnel) and 2,300 tons of gear including eight 90-mm. antiaircraft guns, fifteen days' supplies, and three units of fire for all weapons except antiaircraft guns, for which one unit was landed. The 35th Regimental Combat Team established a perimeter defense. Field artillery was in position by 1700, and by 1530 the 4th Marine Defense Battalion had sixteen .50 caliber, eight 20mm., and eight 40-mm. antiaircraft guns and two searchlights in place. The guns engaged the last flight of enemy planes. There were some problems, of course. The LST's had been unloaded slowly, but supplies came ashore faster than the shore party could clear them off the beach. Boxes of equipment, ammunition, and rations were scattered about. The troops had brought their barracks bags and these lay rain-soaked in the mud. Unused field stoves stood in the way for several days. The bypass to Vella Lavella was easier and cheaper than an assault on Kolombangara. Twelve men were killed and forty wounded by air bombing and strafing, but D Day saw no fighting on the ground. There was never any real ground combat on Vella Lavella, because Japanese stragglers were mainly interested in escape rather than fighting. When it became known that Wilkinson was landing on Vella Lavella officers of the 8th Fleet and the 17th Army went into conference. They estimated, with an accuracy unusual for Japanese Intelligence, that the landing force was about a brigade in strength. With blithe sanguinity someone proposed sending a battalion to effect a counterlanding. General Imamura's headquarters took a calmer view and pointed out that sending one battalion against a brigade would be "pouring water on a hot stone." (Ibid., P- 48-) The 8th Area Army stated that two brigades would be needed to achieve success, but that not enough transports were available. In view of the general Japanese strategy of slow retreat in the central Solomons in order to build up the defenses of Bougainville and hold Rabaul, it was decided to send two rifle companies and one naval platoon to Horaniu at Kokolope Bay on the northeast corner of Vella Lavella to establish a barge staging base between the Shortlands and Kolombangara. Real Struggle The real struggle for Vella Lavella took place in the air and on the sea. Japanese naval aircraft made a resolute effort to destroy the American ships bearing supplies and equipment to Vella. Fighters and bombers delivered daylight attacks and seaplanes delivered a series of nocturnal harassing attacks that were all too familiar to Allied troops who served in the Solomons in 1942, 1943, and early 1944. The combat air patrol from Mulcahy's command made valiant efforts to keep the Japanese away during daylight, but as radar-equipped night-fighters did not reach the New Georgia area until late September shore- and ship-based antiaircraft provided the defense at night. (Robert Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II (Washington: Combat Forces Press, 1952), P. 163) For daylight cover Mulcahy had planned to maintain a 32-plane umbrella over Barakoma, but the limited operational facilities at Munda made this impossible at first. On 17 August only eight fighters could be sent up at once to guard Barakoma. To add to the difficulties, the weather over New Georgia was bad for a week, the fighter-director teams on Vella Lavella were new to their task, and one of the 4th Defense Battalion's radars was hit by a bomb on 17 August. The Northern Force's second echelon, under Capt. William R. Cooke, having departed Guadalcanal on 16 August, beached at Barakoma at 1626 the next day. The fighter cover soon left for Munda and at 1850, and again at 1910, Japanese planes came over to bomb and strafe. General McClure ordered Cooke not to stay beached overnight but to put to sea. Escorted by three destroyers, the LST's went down Gizo Strait where they received an air attack of two hours and seventeen minutes' duration. The convoy sailed toward Rendova until 0143, then reversed and headed for Barakoma. One LST caught fire, probably as a result of a gasoline vapor explosion, and was abandoned without loss of life. The other two reached Barakoma, suffered another air attack, unloaded, and returned safely to Guadalcanal. Capt. Grayson B. Carter led the third echelon to Vella Lavella. It was attacked by enemy planes in Gizo Strait at 0540 on 21 August; one destroyer was slightly damaged and two men were killed. Planes struck off and on all day at the beached LST's, but men of the 58th Naval Construction Battalion showed such zeal in unloading that the LST's were emptied by 1600. The next convoys, on 26 and 31 August, had less exciting trips. The weather had cleared and the air cover was more effective. During the first month they were there, the Americans on Vella Lavella received 108 enemy air attacks, but none caused much damage. In the period between 15 August and 3 September, the day on which Wilkinson relinquished control of the forces ashore, Task Force 31 carried 6,505 men and 8,626 tons of supplies and vehicles to Vella Lavella. During that period General McClure's troops had strengthened the defenses of Barakoma, established outposts and radar stations, and patrolled northward on both coasts. On 28 August a thirtyman patrol from the 25th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop that had accompanied radar specialists of the 4th Marine Defense Battalion in search of a new radar site reported considerable enemy activity at Kokolope Bay. Capture of Horaniu WARSHIP FIRING AT JAPANESE DESTROYERS near the coast of Vella Lavella, early morning, 18 August. Having decided to establish the barge base at Horaniu, the Japanese sent the two Army companies and the naval platoon, 390 men in all, out of Erventa on 17 August. Four torpedo boats, 13 troop-carrying daihatsu barges, (Daihatsu is an abbreviation for Ogata Hatsitdokitei which means a large landing barge. The daihatsu was 41-44 feet long; it could carry 100-120 men for short distances, 40-50 on long trips. The sides were usually armored, and it carried machine guns.) 2 armored barges, 2 submarine chasers, 1 armored boat, 4 destroyers, and 1 naval air group from the Shortlands were involved. The destroyers were intercepted north of Vella Lavella in the early morning hours of 18 August. The daihatsus dispersed. The Americans sank the 2 submarine chasers, 2 motor torpedo boats, and 1 barge. The Japanese destroyers, two of which received light damage, broke off the action and headed for Rabaul. (For a complete account see Morison, Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, pp. 234-37.) Harried by Allied planes, the daihatsus hunted for and found Horaniu, and the troops were ashore by nightfall on 19 August. About the same time, General Sasaki took alarm at the seizure of Barakoma and sent the 2d Battalion, 45th Infantry, and one battery of the 6th Field Artillery Regiment from Kolombangara to defend Gizo. When General McClure received the report from the reconnaissance troop patrol on 28 August, he ordered Maj. Delbert Munson's 1st Battalion to advance up the cast coast and take the shore of Kokolope Bay for a radar site. To take the 1st Battalion's place in the perimeter defense, McClure asked Griswold for a battalion from New Georgia. The 1st Battalion, 145th Infantry, was selected. On the morning of 30 August Major Munson dispatched A Company up the east coast ahead of his battalion, and next day, after the arrival of the 1st Battalion, 145th Infantry, the main body of the 1st Battalion, 35th, started north. Josselyn and Bishop Silvester had provided native guides and the bishop gave Munson a letter instructing the natives to help the American soldiers haul supplies. C Company, 65th Engineer Battalion, was to build a supply road behind Munson. By afternoon of 1 September A Company had reached the vicinity of Orete Cove, about fourteen miles northeast of Barakoma. The main body of the battalion was at Narowai, a village about seven thousand yards southwest of Orete Cove. The coastal track, which had been fairly good at first, narrowed to a trail that required the battalion to march in single file. Inland were the jungled mountains of the interior. Supply by hand-carry was impossible, and McClure and Colonel Brown, who had been informed that higher headquarters expected the Japanese to evacuate, decided to use landing craft to take supplies to Munson. On 2 September supplies arrived at Orete Cove along with seventeen Fiji scouts tinder Tripp, who had recently been promoted to major. From that day until 14 September Munson's battalion, supported by the 3d Battalion, 35th, and C Battery, 64th Field Artillery Battalion, moved forward in a series of patrol actions and skirmishes. Horaniu fell on 14 September. The Japanese did not seriously contest the advance. Instead they withdrew steadily, then moved overland to the northwest corner of the island. New Zealanders Up to now troops of the United States had borne the brunt of ground combat in the Solomons, but Admiral Halsey had decided to give the 3d New Zealand Division a chance to show its mettle. He had earlier moved the division from New Caledonia to Guadalcanal. On 18 September Maj. Gen. H. E. Barrowclough, general officer commanding the division, took over command of Vella Lavella from General McClure. On the same day the 14th New Zealand Brigade Group under Brigadier Leslie Potter landed and began the task of pursuing the retreating enemy. (A brigade group was similar in strength and composition to a U.S. regimental combat team. For details of Potter's operations see Oliver A. Gillespie, The Pacific, "The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War, 1939-1945" (Wellington, New Zealand, 1952), pp. 125-42.) Battalion combat teams advanced up the east and west coasts, moving by land and by water in an attempt to pocket the enemy. But the Japanese eluded them and got safely off the island. The Seabees had gone to work on the airfield at once. As at Munda, good coral was abundant. By the end of August they had surveyed and cleared a strip four thousand feet long by two hundred feet wide. They then began work on a control tower, operations shack, and fuel tanks. The first plane to use the field landed on 24 September, and within two months after the invasion the field could accommodate almost a hundred aircraft. The decision to bypass Kolombangara. yielded this airfield in return for a low casualty rate. Of the Americans in the northern landing force, 19 men were killed by bombs, 7 died from enemy gunfire, and 108 were wounded. Thirty-two New Zealanders died, and 32 were wounded. More After Munda The Airfield Cleaning Up Plans Seizure of Barakoma Final Operations Jumbo Map: The Clean-Up (very slow: 264K) Back to Table of Contents -- Operation Cartwheel Back to World War Two: US Army List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Coalition Web, Inc. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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