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007 - Chapter 7 - Piva Forks Battle · Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seven of Top of the Latter Marine Operations in
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Solomons by John C. Chapin. This LibriVox recording
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  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Pivot Forks Battle. The lull
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  Speaker 1: after the Coconut Grove fight did not last long. On
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  Speaker 1: eighteen November, the usual flurry of patrol soon brought back
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  Speaker 1: information that the Japanese had set up a roadblock on
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  Speaker 1: both the New Manuma Trail and the East West Trail.
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  Speaker 1: To strike the New Manuma position, the Third Marine sent
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  Speaker 1: in its third Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph M. King to
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  Speaker 1: lead the attack. It hit the Japanese flanks, routed them,
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  Speaker 1: and set up its own roadblock. On nineteen November, the
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  Speaker 1: second Battalion of the Third Marines immediately went after the
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  Speaker 1: Japanese block on the East West Trail between the two
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  Speaker 1: forks of the Pivot River. After seizing that position, the
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  Speaker 1: next objective was a four hundred foot ridge that commanded
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  Speaker 1: the whole area and in fact provided a view all
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  Speaker 1: the way to Empress Augusta Bay. As the first high
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  Speaker 1: ground the Marines had found, it would clearly produce a
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  Speaker 1: valuable observation post for directing the artillery fire of the
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  Speaker 1: twelfth Marines, Lieutenant Colonel Hector dezaias commanding the battalion, summoned
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  Speaker 1: one of his company commanders and gave a terse order,
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  Speaker 1: I want you to take it. Thus, a patrol under
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  Speaker 1: first Lieutenant Steve Sibek was immediately sent to occupy it.
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  Speaker 1: This began a four day epic twenty to twenty three November.
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  Speaker 1: The Marines got to the top, realized the importance of
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  Speaker 1: the vantage point to the Japanese, dug in defensive positions
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  Speaker 1: and got ready for the enemy counter attacks that were
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  Speaker 1: sure to come. And they came and came and came.
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  Speaker 1: There were fanatical attempts by the Japanese to reoccupy the position,
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  Speaker 1: in the form of wild charges that sometimes carried the
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  Speaker 1: Japanese to within a few feet of their foxholes. On
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  Speaker 1: the crest of the ridge, Cibic called in marine artillery
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  Speaker 1: bursts within fifty yards of his men. The Marines held
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  Speaker 1: and were finally relieved. Exhausted but proud, Sibik was awarded
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  Speaker 1: a silver Star medal, and the hill was always known
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  Speaker 1: thereafter as Cibic Ridge. While the firestorm roared where Cibic stood,
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  Speaker 1: the third Marines were pursuing its mission of driving the
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  Speaker 1: Japanese from the first and nearest of PIVS forks. The
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  Speaker 1: second Battalion caught up with Sibic and Lieutenant Colonel Dzayis
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  Speaker 1: moved it out down the reverse slope of Cibic Ridge.
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  Speaker 1: The Japanese struck hard on twenty one November and Dazaias
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  Speaker 1: pulled back. Then, in true textbook fashion, the Japanese followed
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  Speaker 1: right behind him. The Marines were ready machine guns us
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  Speaker 1: in place. One of them killed seventy four out of
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  Speaker 1: seventy five of the enemy attackers within twenty to thirty
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  Speaker 1: yards of the gun. The third Marines was supported by
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  Speaker 1: the ninth and twenty first Marines and the Raiders, while
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  Speaker 1: the thirty seventh Infantry Division provided roadblocks, patrols and flank security.
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  Speaker 1: Support was also provided by the Army's heavy artillery, the
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  Speaker 1: twelfth Marines, and the Defense battalions. All the troops were
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  Speaker 1: now entering a new phase of the campaign, during which
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  Speaker 1: the fight would be more for the hills than for
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  Speaker 1: the trails. Reconnaissance patrols provided a good idea of what
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  Speaker 1: was out there, but they also discovered that the enemy
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  Speaker 1: was not alert as he could or should be a
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  Speaker 1: Marine rifle company, for instance, came upon a clearing where
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese were acting as if no war was on.
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  Speaker 1: The troops were lounging cobitzen drinking beer. The marine mortars
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  Speaker 1: tore them apart. Another patrol waited until the occupants of
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  Speaker 1: a bivouac lined up for child before cutting them down
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  Speaker 1: with mortars in a pandemonium of pots, pans and tea kettles.
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  Speaker 1: Jungle combat had taught the Marines the wisdom of General
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  Speaker 1: Turnage's order, Marines go nowhere without a weapon. The various
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  Speaker 1: successive objectives for the Marine and Army riflemen were a
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  Speaker 1: code name using the then current phonetic alphabet. Dog reached
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  Speaker 1: fifteen November. Easy reached twenty November, except for the ninth
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  Speaker 1: Marines slowed by an impassable swamp. Fox finally reached by
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  Speaker 1: the Marines on twenty eight November, and how part of
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  Speaker 1: it reached by the Army on twenty three November, since
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  Speaker 1: it encountered no opposition and the remainder as a goal
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  Speaker 1: for the Marines. Thereafter, the Marines were to press on
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  Speaker 1: to the Item and Jig objectives on orders from Corps Headquarters.
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  Speaker 1: One account makes clear the overwhelming difficulties facing the marine battalions.
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  Speaker 1: Water slimy and often waist deep, sometimes to the armpits,
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  Speaker 1: tangles of thorny vines that inflicted painful wounds. Men slept
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  Speaker 1: setting up in the water, sultry heat, and stinking muck.
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  Speaker 1: In spite of this, elaborate plans were made to continue
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  Speaker 1: the attack from west to east. The strongly entrenched Japanese
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  Speaker 1: defenses with twelve hundred to fifteen hundred men, were oriented
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  Speaker 1: to repel an assault from the south. Accordingly, the artillery
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  Speaker 1: observers on Civic Ridge registered their fire on twenty three
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  Speaker 1: November in preparation for a thrust by two battalions of
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  Speaker 1: the third Marines to try to advance eight hundred yards
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  Speaker 1: beyond the east fork of the Pivot River. All available
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  Speaker 1: tanks and supporting weapons were moved forward. Marine engineers from
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  Speaker 1: the nineteenth Marines joined Seabees. Under enemy fire and throwing bridges,
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  Speaker 1: crossed the Pivot River on twenty three November. As the
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  Speaker 1: night fell like a heavy curtain. Seven battalions of artillery
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  Speaker 1: lined up, some almost hub to hub. There were the
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  Speaker 1: armies one fifty fives, one oh fives mortars ninety millimeters
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  Speaker 1: AA and the same array of the twelfth Marines cannons,
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  Speaker 1: plus forty four machine guns and even a few Hotchkiss
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  Speaker 1: pieces taken from the enemy. The attack in the morning
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  Speaker 1: began with the barrage at zero eight thirty five, twenty
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  Speaker 1: four November Thanksgiving Day, a shuddering burst of flame and thunder,
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  Speaker 1: possibly the heaviest such barrage a marine operation had ever
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  Speaker 1: before placed on a target. The shells, fifty six hundred
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  Speaker 1: rounds of them, descended on a narrow eight hundred foot
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  Speaker 1: square box of rainforest only one hundred yards from the Marines,
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  Speaker 1: so close that shell splinters and concussions snapped twigs off
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  Speaker 1: bushes around them. Yet, as the two assault battalions moved out,
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  Speaker 1: the redoubtable Japanese twenty third Infantry crashed in with their
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  Speaker 1: own heavy barrage. Their shells left Marines dead, bleeding, and
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  Speaker 1: some drowned in the murky Pivot River, the heaviest casualties
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  Speaker 1: of the campaign. Twice the enemy fire walked up and
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  Speaker 1: down the attacking Marines with great accuracy, but the third
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  Speaker 1: Marines came on with a juggernaut of tanks, flamethrowers, and
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  Speaker 1: machine gun, mortar and rifle fire. Where the Army marine
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  Speaker 1: artillery barrages fell, however, there was desolation. Major Schmuck, a
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  Speaker 1: company commander in one of the assault battalions, later remembered.
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  Speaker 1: For five hundred yards, the Marines moved in a macabre
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  Speaker 1: world of splinter trees and burned out brush. The very
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  Speaker 1: earth was a churned mass of mud and human bodies.
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  Speaker 1: The filthy, stinking streams were cesspools of blasted corpses. Overall
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  Speaker 1: hung the stench of decaying flesh and powder and smoke,
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  Speaker 1: which revolted even the toughest. The first line of strong points,
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  Speaker 1: with their grisly occupants, was overrun and the five hundred
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  Speaker 1: yard phase line was reached. The Japanese were not through.
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  Speaker 1: As the Marines moved forward, a Nambu machine gun stuttered
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  Speaker 1: and the enemy artillery roared, raking the marine line. A
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  Speaker 1: Japanese counter attack hit the marine's left flank. It was
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  Speaker 1: hand to hand and tree to tree. One company alone
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  Speaker 1: suffered fifty casualties, including all of its officers. Still, the
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  Speaker 1: Marines drove forward, finally halting one hundred fifty yards from
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  Speaker 1: their jump off point, where resistance suddenly ended. The Japanese
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  Speaker 1: twenty third infantry had been totally destroyed, with one hundred
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  Speaker 1: seven men dead on the field. The Marines had incurred
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  Speaker 1: one hundred fifteen dead and wounded. The battle for Pivot
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  Speaker 1: Forks had ended with a dramatic, hard fought victory which
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  Speaker 1: had broken the back of an organized enemy resistance. There
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  Speaker 1: was one final flourish. It had been, after all, Thanksgiving Day,
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  Speaker 1: and a tradition had to be observed. President Franklin D.
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  Speaker 1: Roosevelt had decreed that all servicemen should get turkey one
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  Speaker 1: way or another out there on the line. The men
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  Speaker 1: got it by the other. Yet few Marines of that
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  Speaker 1: era would give the old Corps bad marks for hot chow.
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  Speaker 1: If they could get it to the frontline troops, they
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  Speaker 1: would a marine recalled. The carrying parties did get turkey
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  Speaker 1: to them. Nature won, though the turkey had spoiled. Another
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  Speaker 1: man was watching the big birds, embedded in rice and
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  Speaker 1: five gallon containers, much like home, except for baseball and
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  Speaker 1: apple pie. Some However, just before the turkey was served,
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  Speaker 1: the word came down prepared to move out. Those men
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  Speaker 1: got their turkey and aided on the trail on the
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  Speaker 1: way to a new Engagement hand Grenade Hill Before that
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  Speaker 1: could be assaulted, there was a reorganization. On d plus
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  Speaker 1: twenty four, the beat up Third Marines was beefed up
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  Speaker 1: by the Ninth Marines and the Second Raiders. Since D Day,
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  Speaker 1: a total of twenty fourteen Japanese dead had been counted,
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  Speaker 1: but total enemy casualties must have been at least three
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  Speaker 1: times that figure, and as a portent for the future
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  Speaker 1: use of Bogainville as a base for massive air strikes
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  Speaker 1: against the Japanese, US planes were now able to use
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  Speaker 1: the airstrip right by the Torokina beachhead. With the enemy
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  Speaker 1: at last driven east of the Torokina River, Marines now
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  Speaker 1: occupied the high ground which controlled the site of the
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  Speaker 1: forthcoming Pivot Bomber air strip. End of Chapter seven