_The Capture of the Cape Gloucester Airfields_
The 1st Marine Division's overall plan of maneuver called for Colonel
Frisbie's Combat Team C, the reinforced 7th Marines, to hold a beachhead
anchored at Target Hill, while Combat Team B, Colonel William A.
Whaling's 1st Marines, reinforced but without the 2d Battalion ashore at
Green Beach, advanced on the airfields. Because of the buildup in
preparation for the attack on Conoley's battalion, General Rupertus
requested that Kreuger release the division reserve, Combat Team A,
Colonel John T. Selden's reinforced 5th Marines. The Army general
agreed, sending the 1st and 2d Battalions, followed a day later by the
3d Battalion. The division commander decided to land the team on Blue
Beach, roughly three miles to the right of the Yellow Beaches. The use
of Blue Beach would have placed the 5th Marines closer to Cape
Gloucester and the airfields, but not every element of Selden's Combat
Team A got the word. Some units touched down on the Yellow Beaches
instead and had to move on foot or in vehicles to the intended
destination.
While Rupertus laid plans to commit the reserve, Whaling's combat team
advanced toward the Cape Gloucester airfields. The Marines encountered
only sporadic resistance at first, but Army Air Forces light bombers
spotted danger in their path--a maze of trenches and bunkers stretching
inland from a promontory that soon earned the nickname Hell's Point. The
Japanese had built these defenses to protect the beaches where Matsuda
expected the Americans to land. Leading the advance, the 3d Battalion,
1st Marines, under Lieutenant Colonel Hankins, struck the Hell's Point
position on the flank, rather than head-on, but overrunning the complex
nevertheless would prove a deadly task.
Rupertus delayed the attack by Hankins to provide time for the division
reserve, Selden's 5th Marines, to come ashore. On the morning of 28
December, after a bombardment by the 2d Battalion, 11th Marines, and
strikes by Army Air Forces A-20s, the assault troops encountered another
delay, waiting for an hour so that an additional platoon of M4 Sherman
medium tanks could increase the weight of the attack. At 1100, Hankins's
3d Battalion, 1st Marines, moved ahead, Company I and the supporting
tanks leading the way. Whaling, at about the same time, sent his
regiment's Company A through swamp and jungle to seize the inland point
of the ridge extending from Hell's Point. Despite the obstacles in its
path, Company A burst from the jungle at about 1145 and advanced across
a field of tall grass until stopped by intense Japanese fire. By late
afternoon, Whaling abandoned the maneuver. Both Company A and the
defenders were exhausted and short of ammunition; the Marines withdrew
behind a barrage fired by the 2d Battalion, 11th Marines, and the
Japanese abandoned their positions after dark.
[Illustration: _A 75mm pack howitzer of the 11th Marines fires in
support of the advance on the Cape Gloucester airfields._