In another part of this effort, Company L, 1st Marines, led by Captain
Ronald J. Slay, pursued the Japanese retreating from Cape Gloucester
toward Mount Talawe. Slay and his Marines crossed the mountain's eastern
slope, threaded their way through a cluster of lesser outcroppings like
Mount Langila, and in the saddle between Mounts Talawe and Tangi
encountered four unoccupied bunkers situated to defend the junction of
the track they had been following with another trail running east and
west. The company had found the main east-west route from Sag Sag on the
coast to the village of Agulupella and ultimately to Natamo Point on the
northern coast.
[Illustration: Department of Defense (USMC) photo 77642
_The capture of Matsuda's headquarters provides Marine intelligence with
a harvest of documents, which the enemy buried rather than burned,
presumably to avoid smoke that might attract artillery fire or air
strikes._]
To exploit the discovery, a composite patrol from the 1st Marines, under
the command of Captain Nickolai Stevenson, pushed south along that trail
Slay had followed, while a composite company from the 7th Marines, under
Captain Preston S. Parish, landed at Sag Sag on the west coast and
advanced along the east-west track. An Australian reserve officer,
William G. Wiedeman, who had been an Episcopal missionary at Sag Sag,
served as Parish's guide and contact with the native populace. When
determined opposition stopped Stevenson short of the trail junction near
Mount Talawe, Captain George P. Hunt's Company K, 1st Marines, renewed
the attack.
On 28 January, Hunt concluded he had brought the Japanese to bay and
attacked. For three hours that afternoon, his Marines tried
unsuccessfully to break though a line of bunkers concealed by jungle
growth, losing 15 killed or wounded. When Hunt withdrew beyond reach of
the Japanese mortars that had scourged his company during the action,
the enemy emerged from cover and attempted to pursue, a bold but foolish
move that exposed the troops to deadly fire that cleared the way for an
advance to the trail junction. Hunt and Parish joined forces and probed
farther, only to be stopped by a Japanese ambush. At this point, Major
William J. Piper, Jr., the executive officer of the 3d Battalion, 7th
Marines, assumed command, renewed the pursuit on 30 January, and
discovered the enemy had fled. Shortly afterward Piper's combined patrol
made contact with those dispatched inland by the 5th Marines.
[Illustration: Department of Defense (USMC) photo 77436
_LtCol Lewis H. Puller, left, and Maj William J. Piper discuss the route
of a patrol from the village of Agulupella to Gilnit on the Itni River,
a two-week operation._]
Thus far, a vigorous pursuit along the coast and on the inland trails
had failed to ensnare the Japanese. The Marines captured Matsuda's
abandoned headquarters in the shadow of Mount Talawe and a cache of
documents that the enemy buried rather than burned, perhaps because
smoke would almost certainly bring air strikes or artillery fire, but
the Japanese general and his troops escaped. Where had _Matsuda Force_
gone?
Since a trail net led from the vicinity of Mount Talawe to the south,
General Shepherd concluded that Matsuda was headed in that direction.
The assistant division commander therefore organized a composite
battalion of six reinforced rifle companies, some 3,900 officers and men
in all, which General Rupertus entrusted to Lieutenant Colonel Puller.
This patrol was to advance from Agulupella on the east-west track, down
the so-called Government Trail all the way to Gilnit, a village on the
Itni River, inland of Cape Bushing on New Britain's southern coast.
Before Puller could set out, information discovered at Matsuda's former
headquarters and translated revealed that the enemy actually was
retreating to the northeast. As a result, Rupertus detached the recently
arrived 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, and reduced Puller's force from
almost 4,000 to fewer than 400, still too many to be supplied by the 150
native bearers assigned to the column for the march through the jungle
to Gilnit.
During the trek, Puller's Marines depended heavily on supplies dropped
from airplanes. Piper Cubs capable at best of carrying two cases of
rations in addition to the pilot and observer, deposited their loads at
villages along the way, and Fifth Air Force B-17s dropped cargo by the
ton. Supplies delivered from the sky made the patrol possible but did
little to ameliorate the discomfort of the Marines slogging through the
mud.
[Illustration: _Marine patrols, such as Puller's trek to Gilnit,
depended on bearers recruited from the villages of western New Britain
who were thoroughly familiar with the local trail net._