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008 - Chapter 8 - Hand Grenade Hill The Koiari Raid and Hellzapoppin Ridge · Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eight 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. Hand Grenade Hill, the lead
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  Speaker 1: for the next assault on twenty five November, was given
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  Speaker 1: to the fresh troops of Lieutenant Colonel Carrie A. Randall,
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  Speaker 1: who had just taken over the first Battalion, ninth Marines.
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  Speaker 1: They were joined by the second Raider Battalion under Major
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  Speaker 1: Richard T. Washburn. Randall could almost see his next objective
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  Speaker 1: from the prime high ground of Cibic Ridge. Just ahead
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  Speaker 1: rose another knowl like the ridge, it would be the
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  Speaker 1: devil to take, for the Japanese would hold it like
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  Speaker 1: a fortress. It would soon be called hand Grenade Hill
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  Speaker 1: for good reason. Two of Randall's companies went at it
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  Speaker 1: with Washburn's raiders, but the Japanese gave a good count
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  Speaker 1: of themselves. Some seventy of them slowed the marine attack,
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  Speaker 1: but one company got close to the top. The Marines
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  Speaker 1: were from five to fifty yards away from the Japanese,
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  Speaker 1: battling with small arms, automatic weapons, and hand grenades. The
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  Speaker 1: enemy resisted fiercely, and the Marines were thrown back by
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  Speaker 1: a shower of hand grenades. One marine observed that the
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  Speaker 1: hill must have been the grenade's storehouse for the entire
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  Speaker 1: Solomon Islands. It was on hand Grenade Hill that Lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: Howel t Heflin, Big Memorable, one of Alabama's favorites, son
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  Speaker 1: of a Methodist minister, snatched up a bar Browning automatic
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  Speaker 1: rifle and sprayed the Japanese positions. He pried open away
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  Speaker 1: for his platoon almost to the hilltop, but could not
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  Speaker 1: hold there. He was awarded the Silver Star Medal, and
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  Speaker 1: later he went on to become chief Justice of the
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  Speaker 1: Alabama Supreme Court and then the senior US Senator from Alabama.
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  Speaker 1: At the end of the action filled day, the Marines
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  Speaker 1: were stalled. In the morning of twenty six November, Surprise
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  Speaker 1: scouts found that the Japanese had pulled out in the darkness.
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  Speaker 1: Now all of the wet, smelly, churned up terrain around
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  Speaker 1: the pivot forks, including the strategic ridge line blocking the
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  Speaker 1: east west trail, was in Marine hands. There now occurred
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  Speaker 1: a shuffling of units, which resulted in the following lineup
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  Speaker 1: one hundred forty eighth and one hundred twenty ninth infantry
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  Speaker 1: regiments Online in the thirty seventh Division sector on the
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  Speaker 1: left of the perimeter, ninth Marines, twenty first Marines, and
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  Speaker 1: third Marines running from left to right in the Marine sector.
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  Speaker 1: The Koiari raid as a kind of final security measure.
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  Speaker 1: Imack was concerned about a last ridge of hills some
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  Speaker 1: two one thousand yards to the front and really still
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  Speaker 1: dominating too much of the perimeter. Accordingly, on twenty eight November,
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  Speaker 1: General Geiger ordered an advance to reach inland defense Line
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  Speaker 1: Fox as a preliminary to protect this general advance from
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  Speaker 1: a surprised Japanese attack on the far right flank, a
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  Speaker 1: raid was planned to detect any enemy troop movements, destroy
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  Speaker 1: their supplies, and disrupt their communications at a place called Koiari,
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  Speaker 1: ten miles down the coast from Cape Toroquina. The first
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  Speaker 1: Parachute Battalion, just in from Vella Lavella, under Major Richard Fagin,
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  Speaker 1: drew the assignment with a company of the third Raider
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  Speaker 1: Battalion attached. While it had never made a jump in combat,
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  Speaker 1: the parachute battalion had been seasoned in the Guadalcanal campaign.
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  Speaker 1: Carried by a US Navy landing craft, the men in
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  Speaker 1: the raid were put ashore at zero four hundred twenty
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  Speaker 1: nine November, almost in the middle of a Japanese supply dump.
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  Speaker 1: Total surprise all around. The Marines hastily dug in, while
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  Speaker 1: the enemy responded quickly with a furious hail of mortar fire,
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  Speaker 1: meanwhile lashing the beachhead with machine gun and rifle fire.
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  Speaker 1: Then came the Japanese attacks, and marine casualties mounted alarmingly.
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  Speaker 1: They would have been worse except for a protective curtain
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  Speaker 1: of fire from the one hundred and fifty five millimeters
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  Speaker 1: guns of the third Defense Battalion Back at Cape Torokina.
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  Speaker 1: With an estimated twelve hundred enemy pressing in on the Marines,
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  Speaker 1: it was painfully clear that the raiding group faced disaster.
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  Speaker 1: Two attempts to extricate them by their landing craft were
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  Speaker 1: halted by heavy Japanese artillery fire. Now the Marines had
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  Speaker 1: their backs to the sea and were almost out of ammunition.
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  Speaker 1: Then about eighteen hundred three US destroyers raced in close
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  Speaker 1: to the beach, firing all guns they had come in
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  Speaker 1: response to a frantic radio signal from iMac, where the
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  Speaker 1: group's perilous situation was well understood. Now a wall of
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  Speaker 1: shell fire from the destroyers and the one fifty fives
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  Speaker 1: allowed two rescue craft to dash for the beach and
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  Speaker 1: lift off the raiding group safely. With none of the
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  Speaker 1: original objectives achieved, the raid had been a costly failure,
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  Speaker 1: even though it had left at least one hundred forty
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  Speaker 1: five Japanese dead. Hellzapop and Ridge. Now the action shifted
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  Speaker 1: to the final targets of the third Marine Division, that
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  Speaker 1: massive hills two thousand yards away. Once captured, they would
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  Speaker 1: block the east West trail where it crossed the Toroquina River,
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  Speaker 1: and they would greatly strengthen the final inland defence line
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  Speaker 1: that was the marine's ultimate objective. A supply base called
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  Speaker 1: Evansville was built up for the attack in the rear
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  Speaker 1: of Hill six hundred. For the forthcoming attacks, the first
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  Speaker 1: Marine Parachute Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Robert H. Williams was
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  Speaker 1: informed two days after its arrival on Bogainville that General
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  Speaker 1: Turnage had assigned it to occupy those hills, which iMac
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  Speaker 1: felt still dominated much of the marine ground. That ridge
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  Speaker 1: line included Hill one thousand, with its spur soon to
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  Speaker 1: be called Hellzapopen Ridge, named after Helzapoppen, a long running
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  Speaker 1: Broadway show Hill six hundred and Hill six hundred A.
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  Speaker 1: To take the terrain, Williams got the support of elements
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  Speaker 1: of the third, ninth and twenty first Marines, which had
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  Speaker 1: established on twenty seven November its own independent outpost on
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  Speaker 1: Hill six hundred. By five December, the first Parachute Regiment
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  Speaker 1: had won a general outpost line that stretched from Hill
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  Speaker 1: one thousand to the jung of the East West Trail
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  Speaker 1: and the Toroquina River. Then, on seven December, Major Robert T.
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  Speaker 1: Vance on Hill one thousand with his third parachute Battalion
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  Speaker 1: walked the ridge spine to locate enemy positions on the
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  Speaker 1: adjacent spur that had been abandoned. The spur was fortified
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  Speaker 1: by nature matted jungle for concealment, gullies to impair passage,
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  Speaker 1: steep slopes to discourage everything. That particular hump, which would
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  Speaker 1: get the app name of hellzapop and Ridge, was some
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  Speaker 1: two hundred eighty feet high, forty feet across at the top,
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  Speaker 1: and six hundred and fifty feet long, an ideal position
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  Speaker 1: for overall defense. Jumping off from Hill one thousand on
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  Speaker 1: the morning of nine December to occupy. The spur Vance's
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  Speaker 1: men were hit by a fuselade of fire. The Japanese
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  Speaker 1: had come back, two hundred and thirty five of them
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  Speaker 1: of the twenty third Infantry. The parachutists attacked again and
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  Speaker 1: again without success. Artillery fire was called in, but the
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  Speaker 1: Japanese found protective concealment on the reversed slopes. Marine shells
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  Speaker 1: burst high in the banyan trees, up and away from
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  Speaker 1: the dug in enemy. As a result, the parachutists were
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  Speaker 1: hit hard, ill equipped, and under strength. They were pulled
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  Speaker 1: back on ten December to Hill one thousand. Two battalions
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  Speaker 1: of the twenty first Marines, with a battalion of the
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  Speaker 1: ninth Marines guarding their left flank, continued the attack. It
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  Speaker 1: would go on for six grueling days. Scrambling up the slopes,
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  Speaker 1: the new attacking Marines would pass the bodies of the parachutists.
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  Speaker 1: John W. Yeager, a first lieutenant in the twenty first
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  Speaker 1: recalled the Para Marines made the first contact and had
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  Speaker 1: left their dead there after a few days. They had
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  Speaker 1: become very unpleasantly mind of what faced us as we
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  Speaker 1: crawled forward, in many instances right next to them. Sergeant
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  Speaker 1: John F. Pelletier, also in the twenty first, was a
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  Speaker 1: lead scout trying to cross the ridge spine over to
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  Speaker 1: Helzepop and Spur. He found dead paratroopers all over the hill.
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  Speaker 1: There were dead Japanese soldiers still hanging from trees, and
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  Speaker 1: it seemed to him that no marine had been able
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  Speaker 1: to cross to the crest and live to tell about it.
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  Speaker 1: Pelletier described what happened next. The next morning, Sergeant Oliver,
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  Speaker 1: my squad leader, told me to advance down the ridge
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  Speaker 1: as we were going to secure the point. That point
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  Speaker 1: was to become our most costly battle. We moved down
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  Speaker 1: the center until we were within twenty feet of the point.
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  Speaker 1: The Japanese hit us with machine gun, rifle and mortar fire.
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  Speaker 1: They popped out of spider holes. We were in a
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  Speaker 1: horseshoe shaped ambush. We were firing as fast as we
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  Speaker 1: he could. When Sergeant Oliver pulled me back, he gave
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  Speaker 1: me the order to pull back up the ridge. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't make it. When artillery fire proved ineffective in battering
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese so deeply dug in on Helzapop and Ridge,
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  Speaker 1: Geiger called on thirteen December for air attacks. Six marine
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  Speaker 1: planes had just landed at the newly completed Torokina Air Strip.
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  Speaker 1: They came in with one hundred pound bombs guided to
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  Speaker 1: their targets by smokeshells beyond the marine lines, but the
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  Speaker 1: Japanese were close, very close. Dozens of the bombs were
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  Speaker 1: dropped seventy five yards from the Marines. With additional planes,
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  Speaker 1: there were four bombing and strafing strikes over several days.
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  Speaker 1: A marine on the ground never forgot the bombers roaring
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  Speaker 1: in right over the brush, the ridge and the heads
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  Speaker 1: of the Marines to drop their load. It seemed right
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  Speaker 1: on top of us. Livery technique was necessary to put
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  Speaker 1: the bombs on the reverse slope among the Japanese. Helping
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  Speaker 1: to control these early strikes and a chief pinpoint accuracy,
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  Speaker 1: was Lieutenant Colonel William K. Pottinger, G. Three, Operations officer
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  Speaker 1: of the forward echelon first Marine Aircraft Wing. He had
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  Speaker 1: taken a radio out of a grounded plane, moved to
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  Speaker 1: the front lines, and helped control the attacking marine planes
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  Speaker 1: on the spot. This technique was an improvised forerunner of
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  Speaker 1: the finely tuned procedures that marine dive bombers would use
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  Speaker 1: later to achieve remarkable results in close air support of
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  Speaker 1: ground troops. The third Marine Division's history was pithy in
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  Speaker 1: its evaluation, it was the air attacks which proved to
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  Speaker 1: be the most effective factor in the taking of the ridge.
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  Speaker 1: The most successful examples of close air support thus far
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  Speaker 1: in the Pacific War, Geiger wasn't through the battery of
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  Speaker 1: the army's one hundred fifty five millimeter howitzers, moved by
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  Speaker 1: landing craft to new firing positions near the mouth of
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  Speaker 1: the Torokuina River. Now the artillery could pour down the
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  Speaker 1: enemy positions on the reverse slopes. In one of the
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  Speaker 1: daily marine assaults, one company went up the ridge for
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  Speaker 1: two attacks against Japanese who would jump into holes they
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  Speaker 1: had dug on the reverse slope to escape bombardment. The
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  Speaker 1: Japanese finally were tricked when another company, relieving the first one,
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  Speaker 1: jumped into the enemy foxholes before their rightful owners. It
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  Speaker 1: cost the Japanese heavily to try to return. In a
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  Speaker 1: final assault on eighteen December, the two battalions of the
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  Speaker 1: twenty first moved from Hill one thousand to the spur
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  Speaker 1: in a pincer and double envelopment, but the Artillerian bombs
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  Speaker 1: had done their work. The Japanese and their fortress were shattered.
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  Speaker 1: Stunned defenders were easily eliminated. Patrick O'sheel, a Marine combat correspondent,
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  Speaker 1: summed up the bitter battle. No one knows how many
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  Speaker 1: Japs were killed. Some thirty bodies were found, another dozen
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  Speaker 1: might have been put together from arms, legs, and torsos.
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  Speaker 1: The twenty first suffered twelve killed and twenty three wounded
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  Speaker 1: with hellzapop and finally behind them Marines could count what
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  Speaker 1: blessings they could find and recount how rotten their holidays were.
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  Speaker 1: There had been a Thanksgiving Day spent on the trail
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  Speaker 1: while gnawing a drumstick on the way to another engagement
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  Speaker 1: at Pivot Forks. And now on twenty one December, four
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  Speaker 1: days until Christmas, and the troops still had Hill six
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  Speaker 1: hundred a to square away. Reconnaissance found fourteen to eighteen
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  Speaker 1: Japanese on that hill, down by the Toroquina River. A
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  Speaker 1: combat patrol from the twenty first Marines moved to drive
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese off the knob. It wasn't hard, but it
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  Speaker 1: cost the life of one marine and one was wounded.
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  Speaker 1: But Imak wanted a permanent outpost on the hill, and
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  Speaker 1: the third Battalion twenty first drew the assignment. It began
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  Speaker 1: with one rifle platoon and a platoon of heavy machine
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  Speaker 1: guns on twenty two December. Hill six hundred Ay was
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  Speaker 1: a repeat of past enemy tactics. The Japanese had come
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  Speaker 1: back to occupy it. They held against all efforts, even
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  Speaker 1: against a two pronged attack. A full company came up
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  Speaker 1: and made three assaults that didn't help either. Laid on
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  Speaker 1: the twenty third. The Marines held for the night, preparing
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  Speaker 1: to mount another attack in the morning. That morning was
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  Speaker 1: Christmas Eve nineteen forty three. Scouts went up to look
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese had gone. Christmas wasn't merry, but it was
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  Speaker 1: for the third Marine Division. The war was over on Bogainville.
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  Speaker 1: The landing force had seized the beachhead, destroyed or overcome
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  Speaker 1: the enemy, and won the ground for the vital airfields.
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  Speaker 1: Now they prepare to leave, as the airfields were being
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  Speaker 1: ready to reduce reball in its environs. Since ten December,
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  Speaker 1: f four U Vaut corsairs of Marine Fighting Squadron VMF
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  Speaker 1: two sixteen first Marine Aircraft Wing had settled on the
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  Speaker 1: new strip on Torokeina, almost washed by the sea. The
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  Speaker 1: fighter planes would be the key to the successful prosecution
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  Speaker 1: of the Air Sauls Air Solomon's offensive against Reball. For
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  Speaker 1: as escorts, they made large scale bombing rates feasible. Major
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  Speaker 1: General Ralph J. Mitchell USMC had become head of Air
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  Speaker 1: Sauls on twenty November nineteen forty three. By nine January
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  Speaker 1: nineteen forty four, both the fighter and bomber aircraft were
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  Speaker 1: operating from the Pivot strips. Following Bogainville, Mitchell would have
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  Speaker 1: twice the air power and facilities that the Japanese had
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  Speaker 1: in all of the Southwest Pacific area. The campaign had
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  Speaker 1: cost the Marines four hundred twenty three killed in one thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred eighteen wounded. Enemy dead were estimated at two thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred fifty eight, with only twenty three prisoners captured.
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  Speaker 1: It was now time for the Third Marine Division to
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  Speaker 1: go home to Guadalcanal. With a well done from Halsey
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  Speaker 1: and the Admiral's colorful language. A message to Geiger said,
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  Speaker 1: you have literally succeeded in setting up and opening for
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  Speaker 1: business a shop in the Jap's front yard. Now there
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  Speaker 1: would be plenty of papayas and Lister bags, as well
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  Speaker 1: as a px A post office and some sports and movies.
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  Speaker 1: General Turnage was relieved on twenty eight December by Major
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  Speaker 1: General John R. Hodge of the Americal Division, which took
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  Speaker 1: over the eastern sector. The thirty seventh Infantry Division kept
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  Speaker 1: its responsibility for the western section of the Bogainville perimeter.
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  Speaker 1: Admiral Halsey directed the Commanding General fourteen Corps, Major General
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  Speaker 1: Oscar W. Griswold, to relieve General Geiger Commanding General iMac.
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  Speaker 1: The Army assumed control of the beachhead as of fifteen December.
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  Speaker 1: The third Marines left Bougainville on Christmas Day. The ninth
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  Speaker 1: left on twenty eight December and had a party with
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  Speaker 1: two cans of beer per man. The twenty first, last
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  Speaker 1: to arrive on the island was the division's last rifle
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  Speaker 1: regiment to leave on nine January nineteen forty four. Every
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  Speaker 1: man in those regiments knew full well the crucial role
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  Speaker 1: that the supporting battalions had played. The nineteenth Marines pioneers
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  Speaker 1: and engineers had labored ceaselessly to build the bridges and
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  Speaker 1: trails that brought the vital water, food, and ammunition to
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  Speaker 1: the front lines through seemingly impassable swamps, jungle and water
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  Speaker 1: water everywhere, and the amtraks of the third Amphibian Tractor
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  Speaker 1: Battalion had proven essential in getting twenty two thoy nine
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  Speaker 1: hundred twenty two tons of those supplies to the riflemen.
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  Speaker 1: They were the most important link in the all important
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  Speaker 1: supply chain. Working behind the amtraks were the unsung men
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  Speaker 1: of the third Service Battalion, who, under the Division Quartermaster
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  Speaker 1: Colonel William C. Hall, brought order and efficiency from the
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  Speaker 1: original chaotic pile up of supplies on the beach. As
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  Speaker 1: roads were slowly built, the six by six trucks of
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  Speaker 1: the third Motor Transport Battalion moved the supplies to advanced
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  Speaker 1: dumps for the amtraks to pick up. The twelve Marines
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  Speaker 1: and Army Artillery had given barrage after barrage of preparatory
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  Speaker 1: fire seventy two thousand, six hundred forty three rounds in all.
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  Speaker 1: The invaluable role of marine aviation, as previously mentioned, was
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  Speaker 1: symbolized by General Turnage's repeated requests for close air support
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  Speaker 1: ten strikes in all the seabees, working at a feverish rate,
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  Speaker 1: had miraculously carved three airfields out of the unbelievable morass
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  Speaker 1: that characterized the area, and it was from those bases
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  Speaker 1: that the long range strategic effects of Bogainville would be
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  Speaker 1: felt by the enemy. The third Medical Battalion had taken
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  Speaker 1: care of the wounded, with omnipress and cormen on the
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  Speaker 1: front lines in every battle, and eight stations and field
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  Speaker 1: hospitals right behind the riflemen knew they had been well tended.
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  Speaker 1: General turnage summarized the campaign well. Seldom have troops experienced
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: a more difficult combination of combat, supply and evacuation. From
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  Speaker 1: its very inception, it was a bold and hazardous operation.
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  Speaker 1: Its success was due to the planning of all echelons
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  Speaker 1: and the indomitable will, courage, and devotion to duty of
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  Speaker 1: all members of all organizations participating. Thus it was that
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  Speaker 1: the capture of Bogainville marked the top of the ladder
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  Speaker 1: after the long climb up the chain of the Solomon Islands.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter eight