Currin went ashore with part of his headquarters and Companies O and P,
followed by Army and Navy forces to begin the airstrip. After linking
up with Kennedy, Currin turned his attention to his initial goal, the
seizure of the protected anchorage at Viru Harbor. He had to accomplish
this prior to the arrival of the invasion force on 30 June, and on the
night of 27 June, he and his Marines set out by rubber boats across the
mouths of the Akuru and Choi rivers for Viru.
After an eight-mile paddle, the raiders arrived at Regi Village early
on 28 June. Led by native guides, Currin began the approach march to
Viru Harbor. Fighting a stubborn combination of terrain, weather, and
Japanese patrols, the raiders were short of their objective on 30 June.
Meanwhile, the landing force arrived on schedule and stood off the
beach after taking fire from Japanese coastal defense guns.
[Illustration: _The approach to Rendova Harbor as seen from the deck
of an LSD carrying Marines ashore. It sails through the narrow Renard
Entrance with Rendova Peak in the background and the Lever Brothers’
landing at the right just around the bend._
Marine Corps Historical Collection
]
The raiders launched their attack at 0900, 1 July, to seize Tetemara
and Tombe Villages. Captain Walker attacked Tombe with part of his
company, while the remainder attacked Tetemara with First Lieutenant
Raymond L. Luckel’s Company O. After six hours of fighting and a
Japanese counterattack, the objectives were captured. Sergeant Anthony
P. Coulis’ Company P machine gun squad finished mopping up and searched
for food and water. The 4th Raider Battalion lost 13 killed and 15
wounded in this action. The Japanese defenders withdrew, with an
estimated 61 dead and 100 wounded. Currin turned the beachhead over to
the Army occupation force and was taken back on board ship and returned
to Guadalcanal. The remainder of the 4th Battalion headquarters and
two companies, led by battalion executive officer Major James Clark,
carried out separate tasks in accordance with plans to secure Wickham
Anchorage at Vangunu Island to protect lines of communication from
the Russells and Guadalcanal for the New Georgia operation. On 30
June, Captain Earle O. Snell, Jr.’s Company N and Captain William L.
Flake’s Company Q supported an Army landing force by going ashore at
Oloana Bay, where it joined a scouting party and Coastwatchers already
there. Raider Irvin L. Cross later wrote that he and the other raiders
disembarked from his assault transport “in Higgins Boats during a
typhoon. In the dark it was impossible to see the landing craft from
the deck.” Despite a confused landing in poor conditions, by afternoon
the Marines and units of the Army 2d Battalion, 103d Infantry reached
the Kaeruka River and attacked the Japanese located there. This
position was taken and then defended. A member of Company Q, John
McCormick, recalled that the attack “was not very productive,” but that
a battle went on all day with the Japanese, who had gotten “quickly
organized” and fought back with their machine guns and mortars. On 2
July, the Japanese tried to land three barges with supplies, but were
met on the beach and shot up. The raiders lost 14 killed and 26 wounded
securing Vangunu. The next raider deployment was like those at Viru and
Vangunu, a supporting exercise to back the main XIV Corps effort to
take Munda Point. Soon after the Rendova landings, Colonel Liversedge’s
mission was changed from being the landing force reserve to being an
assault force designated the Northern Landing Group directed to attack
Japanese positions on New Georgia’s northwest coast at the Dragon’s
Peninsula.
Three of the 1st Raider Regiment’s four battalions had been sent
elsewhere. Liversedge’s landing group consisted of the Marine raider
regimental headquarters, the 1st Raider Battalion; the 3d Battalion,
145th Infantry; and the 3d Battalion, 148th Infantry. Because the
operating area was too far from the main landing force for support,
fire support and supply came from the sea and air. Communications were
dependent upon radio until a land-line linkup could be made with the
rest of the occupation force to the south.
Liversedge was assigned several tasks. First he was to land and move
against the Japanese forces at Enogai Inlet and Bairoko Harbor. Then he
was to block the so-called Bairoko Trail and disrupt Japanese troop and
supply movements between Bairoko Harbor and Munda. The enemy, weather,
and terrain together conspired against this venture from the beginning
and the raiders found themselves in a protracted frontline fight rather
than a swift strike in the Japanese rear. One of Liversedge’s battalion
commanders, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel B. Griffith II, observed on
embarking at Guadalcanal that although they shot off no fireworks on
Independence Day, “we consoled ourselves with the knowledge that there
would be plenty of those later.”
[Illustration: