Pelletier described what happened next:
The next morning Sergeant Oliver [my squad leader] told me to
advance down the ridge as we were going to secure the point. That
point was to become our most costly battle. We moved down the
center until we were within 20 feet of the point. The Japs hit us
with machine gun, rifle, and mortar fire. They popped out of spider
holes. We were in a horseshoe-shaped ambush. We were firing as fast
as we could when Sergeant Oliver pulled me back. He gave me the
order to pull back up the ridge. He didn’t make it.
When artillery fire proved ineffective in battering the Japanese so
deeply dug in on Hellzapoppin Ridge, Geiger called on 13 December for
air attacks. Six Marine planes had just landed at the newly completed
Torokina airstrip. They came in with 100-pound bombs, guided to their
targets by smoke shells beyond the Marine lines. But the Japanese were
close, very close. Dozens of the bombs were dropped 75 yards from the
Marines. With additional planes, there were four bombing and strafing
strikes over several days. A Marine on the ground never forgot the
bombers roaring in right over the brush, the ridge, and the heads of
the Marines to drop their load, “It seemed right on top of us.” (This
delivery technique was necessary to put the bombs on the reverse slope
among the Japanese.)
[Illustration: EXPANSION OF THE BEACHHEAD