_The engineering effort pushed forward and built upon the Japanese
construction that remained. The work was completed within 10 days after
the airfield was captured._]
The battle for Munda airfield over, the Zanana Beach and Laiana Beach
detachments moved on 6 August to participate in the Munda defenses.
The detachments destroyed 12 enemy planes while at these locations. A
day later, the 9th Defense Battalion began moving to the Munda area.
The moves were so organized that there was no more than a quarter of
the battalion’s weapons out of action at any one time. The battalion
was transported largely by various types of landing craft, which made
the displacement a slow, laborious process. Captain Well’s Battery B
of the 155mm Group moved to Kindu Point on New Georgia on 8 August and
was assigned the mission with its large guns of guarding the western
approaches to Blanche Channel. On landing, Battery B and an Army
antitank platoon cleared the area of remaining Japanese stragglers.
At Munda Airfield, immediately after the area was cleared of Japanese,
construction units moved in to repair and enlarge the “emergency”
field built by the enemy. By the evening of 13 August, this work had
progressed sufficiently to permit four Army Curtiss P-40 Warhawks to
make an unscheduled landing and to “christen” the field with a brief
fly-over. This was soon followed by the arrival of Marine air units,
including VMF-123 and -124. Other Marine squadrons soon arrived,
including the VMF-214 “Black Sheep” of Major Gregory Boyington, who
became a grudging admirer of the 9th’s antiaircraft marksmanship and a
source of entertainment with his radio transmissions while flying over
Munda.
[Illustration: _Seabees clear a Japanese tunnel at the base of
Kokengolo Hill for use in the face of the still present Japanese
menace. This threat made the discomfort of the cave, filled with refuse
and corpses, seem a small price to pay for the security of overhead
cover from artillery and air attack._
Marine Corps Historical Collection
]
Instead of attacking the main Japanese force on Kolombangara at Vila,
the American force isolated the enemy by landings on nearby Vella
Lavella on 15 August. Admiral Halsey did not want another slugging
match like Munda. A landing force was built around the uncommitted Army
35th Regimental Combat Team, commanded by the 25th Infantry Division’s
assistant commander, Brigadier General Robert B. McLure, and supported
by the Marine 4th Defense Battalion. The Japanese resisted in the air
and sea, but enemy ground forces were too busy withdrawing to put up
a determined resistance. The 4th Defense Battalion, led by Lieutenant
Colonel Harold S. Fassett, defended the beachhead against 121 attacks
and downed 42 Japanese planes. The Allied occupation of these positions
and pressure from Arundel and New Georgia put Vila on Kolombangara in
a precarious position. In many ways, this was a prelude to the Marine
Bougainville campaign as it brought I Marine Amphibious Corps and new
units not involved in the fighting into the New Georgia area. American
fighter cover came from the Munda and Segi Airfields.
[Illustration: CAPTURE OF MUNDA POINT