Reinforcing Hanna’s cannoneers became the next order of business.
Devereux felt compelled to keep Peale’s Battery B intact to deal
with surface threats, and Battery E (which, by that point, had a
full complement of guns and crews along with the only heightfinder
and director) to deal with enemy planes. That left Godbold’s Battery
D, which by that point possessed only two operational guns and no
fire-control gear. Devereux directed Godbold to send one section (nine
men) to the battalion command post to reinforce Hanna’s crew. Under
Corporal Leon A. Graves, the squad clambered on board a contractor’s
truck and reached the command post about 0315. They were to proceed
along the road that paralleled the shoreline to a junction some 600
yards south of the airfield, where they were to leave the truck and
proceed through the brush to Hanna’s position. Quickly, they set out
into the night.
The flames from the wrecked _Patrol Boat No. 33_ disclosed Japanese
troops advancing past the west end of the airstrip into the thick
undergrowth in front of the mobile reserve’s positions. Poindexter,
after ordering one machine gun section to keep up a fire into the brush
to interdict that movement and protect his own flank, heard machine
gun fire from Camp 1, behind him. Wanting to see for himself if more
Japanese landing craft were coming ashore to his rear, the lieutenant,
accompanied by his runner, left the front in charge of Sergeant “QT”
Wade, and hurried back to the camp.
There, unable to see at what his neophyte sailor-gunners were expending
their ammunition, Poindexter asked each to point out his target. Two
could not--they’d opened fire only because the other two had done
so--but a third pointed to the dim outline of what appeared to be
a “large landing barge on the order of a self-propelled artillery
lighter.” When another craft of the same type seemed to materialize out
of the murk, Poindexter ordered firing resumed at what proved to be two
large landing craft that were attempting to ground themselves 1,200
yards east of the entrance to Wilkes Channel.
The enemy coxswains, however, appeared to be having difficulty coaxing
the unwieldy landing craft onto the beach, backing off and trying again
and again to land the _Special Naval Landing Force_ men crouched behind
the gunwales, which seemed to be deflecting the .30-caliber bullets
peppering them. Seizing the moment, Poindexter called for volunteers
to pick their way down the rocky beach to the water’s edge, there to
lob grenades into the boats. Poindexter organized two teams--Mess
Sergeant Gerald Carr and a civilian, Raymond R. “Cap” Rutledge (who had
served in the Army in France in World War I), in one, Poindexter and
Boatswain’s Mate First Class Barnes in the other. The grenadiers dashed
to the water’s edge while the machine guns momentarily held their fire.
Barnes, taking cover behind coral heads, remained hidden until the
barges ground ashore again. Then, exposing himself to enemy fire, he
hurled several grenades toward the Japanese craft, and managed to land
at least one inside, killing or wounding many of the troops on board.
The valiant efforts of Poindexter and his men, however, stopped the
Japanese just momentarily, for soon they began swarming ashore and
moving inland. Shortly before the wire communications to Devereux’s
command post failed, Poindexter reported the result of his foray.
Having seen flares streaking skyward in the murk, Captain Godbold on
Peale, meanwhile, sent out two patrols, one to move westward toward the
naval air base, and the other to go eastward along the lagoon’s shore.
Neither patrol encountered any enemy troops. A half-hour later, Godbold
established an outpost at the bridge connecting Peale and Wake.
[Illustration: MAP 4