While the Marines prepared to renew the attack on the second day,
Terunuma deployed his troops to oppose them and keep open the line of
retreat of the _Matsuda Force_. In doing so, the Japanese commander fell
back from his prepared positions on the fringes of Volupai
Plantation--including the mortar pits that had raised such havoc with
the 2d Battalion, 11th Marines--and dug in on the northwest slopes of
Mount Schleuther, overlooking the trail leading from the plantation to
Bitokara village on the coast. As soon as he realized what the enemy had
in mind, Gayle sent Company F uphill to thwart the Japanese plan, while
Company E remained on the trail and built up a base of fire. On the
right flank of the maneuver element, Company F, the weapons platoon
burst from the undergrowth and surprised Japanese machine gunners
setting up their weapon, killing them and turning the gun against the
enemy. The advance of Company F caught the Japanese in mid-deployment
and drove them back after killing some 40 of them. Gayle's battalion
established a nighttime perimeter that extended from Mount Schleuther to
the trail and embraced a portion of both.
The action on 7 March represented a departure from plan. Smith had
intended that both Barba and Gayle attack, with the 3d Battalion, 5th
Marines, commanded since 12 January by Lieutenant Colonel Harold O.
Deakin, assuming responsibility for the defense of the beachhead. The
landing craft that had carried the assault troops departed from Red
Beach during D-Day, some of them carrying the seriously wounded, in
order to pick up the 3d Battalion at Iboki Point and bring it to
Volupai. The day was waning by the time enough landing craft were on
hand for Deakin's battalion. For the reinforcements to arrive in time
for an attack on the morning of 7 March would require a dangerous
nighttime approach to Volupai, through uncharted waters studded with
sharp outcroppings of coral that could lay open the hull of a landing
craft. Rupertus decided that the risks of such a move outweighed the
advantages and canceled it at the last moment. No boat started the
return voyage to Red Beach until after dawn on 7 March, delaying the
arrival of Deakin's battalion until late afternoon. On that day,
therefore, Barba's 1st Battalion had only enough time to send Company C
a short distance inland on a trail that passed to the right of Little
Mount Worri, en route to the village of Liappo. When the trail petered
out among the trees and vines, the Marines hacked their way forward
until they ran out of daylight short of their objective.
On 8 March, the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, resumed the advance,
Companies A and B moving on parallel paths leading east of Little Mount
Worri. Members of Company A, peering through dense undergrowth, saw a
figure in a Japanese uniform and opened fire. The person was not a
Japanese, however, but a native wearing clothing discarded by the enemy
and serving as a guide for Company B. The first shots triggered an
exchange of fire that wounded the guide, killed one Marine, and wounded
a number of others. Afterward, the advance resumed, but once again the
formidable terrain--muddy ravines choked with brush and vines--slowed
the Marines, and the sun set with the battalion still on the trail.
Meanwhile, Gayle's 2d Battalion probed deeper into Terunuma's defenses.
Patrols ranged ahead on the morning of 8 March and found the Japanese
dug in at Bitokara Mission, but the enemy fell back before the Marines
could storm the position. Gayle's troops occupied Bitokara and pushed as
far as Talasea, taking over the abandoned airstrip. Other patrols from
this battalion started up the steep slopes of Mount Schleuther and
collided with Terunuma's main strength. Fire from small arms, a 90mm
mortar, and a 75mm field gun killed or wounded 18 Marines. Rather than
press his attack in the gathering darkness, Gayle pulled back from the
mountain and dug in at Bitokara Mission so artillery and mortars could
hammer the defenses throughout the night, but he left one company to
defend the Talasea airstrip.
[Illustration: _Cpl Robert J. Hallahan, a member of the 1st Marine
Division band, examines the shattered remains of a Japanese 75mm gun
used in the defense of Mount Schleuther and rigged as a booby trap when
the enemy withdrew._