After aerial bombardment and preparatory artillery fire, Buse's
battalion started up the hill at about 0930 on 13 January. His
supporting tanks could not negotiate the ravines that scarred the
hillside. Indeed, the going became so steep that riflemen sometimes had
to sling arms, seize handholds among the vines, and pull themselves
upward. The Japanese suddenly opened fire from hurriedly dug trenches at
the crest, pinning down the Marines climbing toward them until mortar
fire silenced the enemy weapons, which lacked overhead cover. Buse's
riflemen followed closely behind the mortar barrage, scattering the
defenders, some of whom tried to escape along the coastal trail, where
Buckley's task force waited to cut them down.
Apparently delayed by torrential rain, the Japanese did not
counterattack Hill 660 until 16 January. Roughly two companies of
Katayama's troops stormed up the southwestern slope only to be
slaughtered by mortar, artillery, and small-arms fire. Many of those
lucky enough to survive tried to break through Buckley's roadblock,
where 48 of the enemy perished.
With the capture of Hill 660, the nature of the campaign changed. The
assault phase had captured its objective and eliminated the possibility
of a Japanese counterattack against the airfield complex. Next, the
Marines would repulse the Japanese who harassed the secondary beachhead
at Cape Merkus and secure the mountainous, jungle-covered interior of
Cape Gloucester, south of the airfields and between the Green and Yellow
Beaches.
[Illustration: JAPANESE WITHDRAWAL ROUTES
JANUARY-MARCH 1944]
_The Mopping-up Begins in the West_
At Cape Merkus on the south coast of western New Britain, the fighting
proved desultory in comparison to the violent struggle in the vicinity
of Cape Gloucester. The Japanese in the south remained content to take
advantage of the dense jungle and contain the 112th Cavalry on the Cape
Merkus peninsula. Major Shinjiro Komori, the Japanese commander there,
believed that the landing force intended to capture an abandoned
airfield at Cape Merkus, an installation that did not figure in American
plans. A series of concealed bunkers, boasting integrated fields of
fire, held the lightly armed cavalrymen in check, as the defenders
directed harassing fire at the beachhead.
Because the cavalry unit lacked heavy weapons, a call went out for those
of the 1st Marine Division's tanks that had remained behind at
Finschhafen, New Guinea, because armor enough was already churning up
the mud of Cape Gloucester. Company B, 1st Marine Tank Battalion, with
18 M5A1 light tanks mounting 37mm guns, and the 2d Battalion, 158th
Infantry, arrived at Cape Merkus, moved into position by 15 January and
attacked on the following day. A squadron of Army Air Forces B-24s
dropped 1,000-pound bombs on the jungle-covered defenses, B-25s followed
up, and mortars and artillery joined in the bombardment, after which two
platoons of tanks, ten vehicles in all, and two companies of infantry
surged forward. Some of the tanks bogged down in the rain-soaked soil,
and tank retrievers had to pull them free. Despite mud and nearly
impenetrable thickets, the tank-infantry teams found and destroyed most
of the bunkers. Having eliminated the source of harassing fire, the
troops pulled back after destroying a tank immobilized by a thrown track
so that the enemy could not use it as a pillbox. Another tank, trapped
in a crater, also was earmarked for destruction, but Army engineers
managed to free it and bring it back.
The attack on 16 January broke the back of Japanese resistance. Komori
ordered a retreat to the vicinity of the airstrip, but the 112th Cavalry
launched an attack that caught the slowly moving defenders and inflicted
further casualties. By the time the enemy dug in to defend the airfield,
which the Americans had no intention of seizing, Komori's men had
suffered 116 killed, 117 wounded, 14 dead of disease, and another 80 too
ill to fight. The Japanese hung on despite sickness and starvation,
until 24 February, when Komori received orders to join in a general
retreat by _Matsuda Force_.
Across the island, after the victories at Walt's Ridge and Hill 660, the
5th Marines concentrated on seizing control of the shores of Borgen Bay,
immediately to the east. Major Barba's 1st Battalion followed the
coastal trail until 20 January, when the column collided with a Japanese
stronghold at Natamo Point. Translations of documents captured earlier
in the fighting revealed that at least one platoon, supported by
automatic weapons had dug in there. Artillery and air strikes failed to
suppress the Japanese fire, demonstrating that the captured papers were
sadly out of date, since at least a company--armed with 20mm, 37mm, and
75mm weapons--checked the advance. Marine reinforcements, including
medium tanks, arrived in landing craft on 23 January, and that
afternoon, supported by artillery and a rocket-firing DUKW, Companies C
and D overran Natamo Point. The battalion commander then dispatched
patrols inland along the west bank of the Natamo River to outflank the
strong positions on the east bank near the mouth of the stream. While
the Marines were executing this maneuver, the Japanese abandoned their
prepared defenses and retreated eastward.
[Illustration: Department of Defense (USMC) photo 75970
_Maj William H. Barba's 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, prepares to outflank
the Japanese defenses along the Natamo River._]
Success at Cape Gloucester and Borgen Bay enabled the 5th Marines to
probe the trails leading inland toward the village of Magairapua, where
Katayama once had his headquarters, and beyond. Elements of the
regiment's 1st and 2d Battalions and of the 2d Battalion, 1st
Marines--temporarily attached to the 5th Marines--led the way into the
interior as one element in an effort to trap the enemy troops still in
western New Britain.
[Illustration: _An officer of Maj Gordon D. Gayle's 2d Battalion, 5th
Marines, displays a captured Japanese flag from a window of the
structure that served as the headquarters of MajGen Iwao Matsuda._