_MajGen Roy S. Geiger assumed command of IMAC on 9 November 1943._]
With just such a Japanese attack anticipated, General Turnage had
dispatched a company of the 2d Raider Regiment up the Mission (Piva)
trail on D-Day to set up a road block--just up from the old Buretoni
Catholic Mission (still in operation today). At first the raiders had
little business, and by 4 November elements of the 9th Marines had
arrived to join them. The enemy, the _23rd Infantry_ up from Buin,
struck on 7 November. Their attack was timed to coincide with the
Koromokina landings. The raiders held, but “the woods were full of
Japs, dead.... The most we had to do was bury them.”
At this point General Turnage told Colonel Edward A. Craig, commanding
officer of the 9th Marines, to clear the way ahead and advance to the
junction of the Piva and Numa-Numa trails. That mission Craig gave
to the 2d Raider Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Alan B. Shapley.
The actual attack would be led by Lieutenant Colonel Fred D. Beans,
3d Raider Battalion, just in from Puruata Island and would include
elements of the 9th Marines and weapons companies.
The Japanese didn’t wait for a Marine attack; they came in on 5
November and threatened to overrun the trailblock. It soon became a
matter of brutal small encounters, and battles raged for five days.
They were many brave acts. Privates First Class Henry Gurke and Donald
G. Probst, with an automatic weapon, were about to be overwhelmed.
A grenade plopped in the foxhole between them. To save the critical
position and his companion, Gurke thrust Probst aside and threw
himself on the grenade and died. He was awarded the Medal of Honor
posthumously; Probst, the Silver Star Medal.
Mortars and artillery dueled from each side. The Japanese would
creep right next to the Marine positions for safety. Marines had to
call friendly fire almost into their laps. On the narrow trail, men
often had to expose themselves. The Japanese got the worst of it,
for suddenly, shortly after noon on 9 November the enemy resistance
crumbled. By 1500, the junction of the Piva and Numa-Numa trails was
reached and secured. Some 550 Japanese died. There were 19 Marines dead
and 32 wounded.
[Illustration: _Adm William F. Halsey (pith helmet) and MajGen Geiger
(“fore and aft” cover) watch Army reinforcements come ashore at
Bougainville._
National Archives Photo 127-N-65494
]
To consolidate the hard-won position, Marine torpedo bombers from
Munda blasted the surrounding area on 10 November. This allowed two
battalions of the 9th Marines to settle into good defensive positions
along the Numa-Numa Trail with, as usual, “aggressive” patrols
immediately fanning out. The battle for the Piva Trail had ended
victoriously.
The key logistical element in this engagement--and nearly all others
on Bougainville--was the amtrac. There were vast areas where tanks
and half-tracks, much less trucks, simply could not negotiate the
bottomless swamps, omnipresent streams, and viscous mud from the
daily rains. The amtracs proved amazingly flexible; they moved men,
ammunition, rations, water, barbed wire, and even radio jeeps to the
front lines where they were most needed. Heading back, they evacuated
the wounded to reach the desperately needed medical centers in the
rear.
[Illustration: