_The high ground at Munda airfield fell on 5 August 1943. This picture
is taken at the site of the former mission on Kokengolo Hill looking
towards Biblio Hill to the north._]
On 1 August, a Japanese air raid hit the torpedo boat mooring basin
at Rendova. Nearby on Tombusolo was Edwin Jakubowski with 9th Defense
Battalion Special Weapons, firing at the attacking aircraft. “A PT
Boat was strafed and blew up next to my little island. Plywood flying
all over me and one of its torpedoes went by,” he recalled. Captain
Theron A. Smith, commanding Battery F, had just inspected his Number
3 Searchlight Section when the attack occurred and later wrote “some
Sunday, alerts and [Condition] Reds all last night and most of the day.
Attacked by two dive bombers and Zeros (estimated 50) about 1600. Two
PTs destroyed, another sunk and beyond salvage.” In a footnote to the
campaign, Lieutenant (jg) John F. Kennedy’s PT 109 was rammed and sunk
early the next morning while operating from the Rendova base.
[Illustration: _Wreckage and debris were soon pushed aside in the rapid
progress to open the field for American use. The captured airfield
included aircraft, in this case a Zero fighter in a coconut and coral
enclosure, that could not take off after the American landing._
Marine Corps Historical Collection
]
Field artillery firing missions against the New Georgia area continued
to be conducted by Battery B until 3 August. The tank platoon of the
10th Defense Battalion, reinforced by five tanks from the 11th Defense
Battalion and the surviving tank of the 9th Defense Battalion, led the
assault on Kokengolo and Biblio Hills on 4 and 5 August. After two
days of heavy fighting, they routed the defending forces. The Marine
tanks then cleared the way to the principal objective of the entire
New Georgia campaign, the Munda airfield, which was captured and
occupied by XIV Corps Army troops on 5 August 1943. Regiments of the
25th Infantry Division pursued the Japanese as they withdrew north
from Munda Point. On the night of 6 August a naval battle was fought in
Vella Gulf, where Japanese destroyers and barges bringing in supplies
and reinforcements were turned back.
[Illustration: DRIVE TOWARDS MUNDA POINT