For this operation, the 2d and 3d Raider Battalions were organized as
the 2d Raider Regiment, with Shapley in command. Lieutenant Colonel
Joseph P. McCaffery took over the 2d Raider Battalion. Because of
insufficient shipping, the initial landing consisted of just two
regiments of the 3d Marine Division, reinforced by the raiders and the
3d Defense Battalion. The remainder of the Marines and the Army’s 37th
Division would follow at a later time.
On 1 November, the 3d and 9th Marines, assisted by the 2d Raider
Battalion, seized a swath of the coast from Cape Torokina to the
northwest. At the same time, the 3d Raider Battalion (less Company M)
assaulted Puruata Island off Cape Torokina. Japanese defenses in the
landing area consisted of a single company supported by a 75mm gun.
One platoon occupied Puruata and a squad held Torokina Island, while
the rest of the Japanese infantry and the gun were dug in on the cape
itself.
The small Japanese force gave a good account of itself. The 75mm gun
enfiladed the eastern landing beaches, while machine guns on the two
small islands and the cape placed the approaches to this area in a
crossfire. The result was havoc among the initial right flank assault
waves, which landed in considerable disorder. The 75mm gun destroyed
four landing craft and damaged 10 others before Sergeant Robert A.
Owens of the 1st Battalion, 3d Marines silenced it. (He received a
posthumous Medal of Honor for his single-handed charge against the key
position.)
The 2d Raider Battalion, landing just to the left of Owens’ battalion,
suffered from the gun, and from mortar and machine gun fire raking the
beach. McCaffery succeeded in reorganizing his force on the beach and
launching an attack that swept away the enemy defenses, but he fell
mortally wounded in the process. Other battalions farther to the west
met little or no resistance, except from high surf that caused many
landing craft to broach. Company M, 3d Raiders, temporarily attached
to the 2d Raider Battalion, moved out at noon and occupied a blocking
position 1,500 yards up the Piva Trail, the main avenue of approach
into the beachhead. The 3d Raiders silenced the machine guns on Puruata
on D-day, and destroyed the last defenders on that island by late
afternoon on 2 November. Total raider casualties to this point were
three killed and 15 wounded.
[Illustration: