_Marine communicators had the difficult task of stringing wire in dense
jungle terrain while remaining wary of the enemy._]
The various, successive objectives for the Marine and Army riflemen
were codenamed using the then-current phonetic alphabet: Dog (reached
15 November), Easy (reached 20 November, except for the 9th Marines,
slowed by an impassable swamp), Fox (finally reached by the Marines on
28 November) and How (part of it reached by the Army on 23 November
since it encountered “no opposition,” and the remainder as a goal for
the Marines). Thereafter, the Marines were to press on to the Item and
Jig objectives “on orders from Corps Headquarters.”
One account makes clear the overwhelming difficulties facing the Marine
battalions: “water slimy and often waist deep, sometimes to the arm
pits ... tangles of thorny vines that inflicted painful wounds ... men
slept setting up in the water ... sultry heat and stinking muck.”
In spite of this, elaborate plans were made to continue the attack
from west to east. The “strongly entrenched” Japanese defenses, with
1,200-1,500 men, were oriented to repel an assault from the south.
Accordingly, the artillery observers on Cibik Ridge registered their
fire on 23 November, in preparation for a thrust by two battalions of
the 3d Marines to try to advance 800 yards beyond the east fork of
the Piva River. All available tanks and supporting weapons were moved
forward. Marine engineers from the 19th Marines joined Seabees under
enemy fire in throwing bridges across the Piva River.
On 23 November, as the night fell like a heavy curtain, seven
battalions of artillery lined up, some almost hub-to-hub. There were
the Army’s 155s, 105s, mortars, 90mm AA; and the same array of the 12th
Marines’ cannons, plus 44 machine guns and even a few Hotchkiss pieces
taken from the enemy.
The attack in the morning began with the barrage at 0835, 24 November,
Thanksgiving Day; a shuddering burst of flame and thunder, possibly
the heaviest such barrage a Marine operation had ever before placed
on a target. The shells, 5,600 rounds of them, descended on a narrow
800-foot square box of rain forest, only 100 yards from the Marines,
so close that shell splinters and concussion snapped twigs off bushes
around them.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF PIVA FORKS