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005 - Chapter 5 - The Battle for Piva Trail · Marine Operations in the Northern Solomons

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five 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. The Battle for Pivot Trail
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  Speaker 1: Captain Conrad M. Fowler, a company commander in the first Battalion,
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  Speaker 1: ninth Marines, later recalled how an attack down the trails
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  Speaker 1: was expected. They had to come our way to meet
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  Speaker 1: us face to face. The trails were the only way
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  Speaker 1: overland through that rainforest. His company would be there to
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  Speaker 1: meet them. He was awarded a Silver Star medal. With
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  Speaker 1: just such a Japanese attack anticipated, General Turnage had dispatched
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  Speaker 1: a company of the second Raider Regiment up the Mission
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  Speaker 1: Pivot Trail on d Day to set up a roadblock
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  Speaker 1: just up from the old beer Tony Catholic Mission. At
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  Speaker 1: first the Raiders had little business, and four November elements
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  Speaker 1: of the ninth Marines had arrived to join them. The enemy,
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  Speaker 1: the twenty third Infantry, up from Bowen Struck on seven November.
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  Speaker 1: Their attack was time to coincide with the Coromo Kino landings.
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  Speaker 1: The Raiders held, but the woods were full of Japs dead.
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  Speaker 1: The most we had to do was bury them. At
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  Speaker 1: this point. General Turnag told Colonel Edward A. Craig, commanding
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  Speaker 1: officer of the ninth Marines, to clear the way ahead
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  Speaker 1: and advance to the junction of the Pivot and Numa
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  Speaker 1: Numa trails. That mission Craig gave to the second Raider
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  Speaker 1: Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Allen B. Shapley. The actual attack
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  Speaker 1: would be led by Lieutenant Colonel fred D. Beans third
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  Speaker 1: Raider Battalion, just in from Purada Island and would include
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  Speaker 1: elements of the ninth Marines and weapons companies. The Japanese
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  Speaker 1: didn't wait for a marine attack. They came in on
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  Speaker 1: five November and threatened to overrun the trail block. It
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  Speaker 1: soon became a matter of brutal small encounters and battles
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  Speaker 1: raged for five days. There were many brave acts. Private's
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  Speaker 1: first Class Henry Gurky and Donald G. Probs, with an
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  Speaker 1: automatic weapon, were about to be overwhelmed. A grenade plopped
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  Speaker 1: in the foxhole between them to save the critical position
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  Speaker 1: and his companion. Gurky thrust Probes aside and threw himself
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  Speaker 1: on the grenade and died. He was awarded the Medal
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  Speaker 1: of Honor posthumously, Probes the Silver Star Medal mortars and
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  Speaker 1: artillery dueled from each side. The Japanese would creep right
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  Speaker 1: next to the Marine positions. For safety, Marines had to
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  Speaker 1: call friendly fire almost into their laps. On the narrow trail,
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  Speaker 1: men often had to expose themselves. The Japanese got the
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  Speaker 1: worst of it, for Suddenly, shortly after noon on nine November,
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  Speaker 1: the enemy resistance crumbled. By fifteen hundred the junction of
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  Speaker 1: the PIVT and New Minuma trails was reached and secured.
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  Speaker 1: Some five hundred and fifty Japanese died. There were nineteen
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  Speaker 1: Marines dead and thirty two wounded. To consolidate the hard
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  Speaker 1: won position, marine torpedo bombers from Munda blasted the surrounding
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  Speaker 1: area on ten November. This allowed two battalions of the
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  Speaker 1: ninth Marines to settle into good defensive positions along the
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  Speaker 1: New Minuma Trail, with as usual aggressive patrols immediately fanning out.
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  Speaker 1: The battle for the Pivot Trail had ended victoriously. The
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  Speaker 1: key logistical element in this engagement and nearly all others
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  Speaker 1: on Bogainville, was the Amtrak. There were vast areas where
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  Speaker 1: tanks and half tracks, much less trucks simply could not
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  Speaker 1: gootiate the bottomless swamps, omnipress and streams and viscous mud
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  Speaker 1: from the daily rains. The amtraks proved amazingly flexible. They
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  Speaker 1: moved men, ammunition rations, water, barbed wire, and even radio
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  Speaker 1: jeeps to the front lines where they were most needed.
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  Speaker 1: Heading back, they evacuated the wounded to reach the desperately
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  Speaker 1: needed medical centers in the rear. Other developments came at
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  Speaker 1: this juncture in the campaign. As noted, the thirty seventh
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  Speaker 1: Infantry Division was fed into the perimeter at the top
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  Speaker 1: of the command echelon. Major General Roy S. Geiger relieved
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  Speaker 1: Vandergrift as Commanding General iMac on nine November and took
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  Speaker 1: charge of marine and army units in the campaign from
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  Speaker 1: an advanced command post on Bogainville. The sibs and marine
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  Speaker 1: engineers were hard at work, now operating dangerously fifteen hundred
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  Speaker 1: yards ahead of the front lines. Ard by a strong
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  Speaker 1: combat patrol, they managed to cut two five thousand foot
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  Speaker 1: survey lanes east to west across the front of the
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  Speaker 1: perimeter sidebar war Dogs. In an interview with Captain will C. O'Bannon.
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  Speaker 1: Long after the war, Captain John Monks junior gained an
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  Speaker 1: insight into one of the least known aspects of marine tactics.
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  Speaker 1: It was an added asset that the Official Marine History
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  Speaker 1: called invaluable war dogs. O'Bannon the first patrol leader to
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  Speaker 1: have them related. One dog was a German shepherd female,
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  Speaker 1: the other was a Doberman male, and they had three
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  Speaker 1: men with them. The third man handled the dogs all
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  Speaker 1: the time in the platoon area prior to our going
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  Speaker 1: on patrol, petting the dogs, talking to them and being
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  Speaker 1: nice to them. The other two handlers one would go
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  Speaker 1: to the head of the column and one would go
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  Speaker 1: to the rear with the female messenger dog. If the
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  Speaker 1: dog in front received enemy fire and got away, he
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  Speaker 1: could either come back to me or circle to the
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  Speaker 1: back of the column. If I needed to send a message,
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  Speaker 1: I would write it, give it to the handler, and
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  Speaker 1: he would pin it on the dog's collar. He would
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  Speaker 1: clap his hands and say report, and the dog would
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  Speaker 1: be off like a gunshot to go to the third
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  Speaker 1: man in the rear who had handled him before the patrol.
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  Speaker 1: The war dogs proved very versatile. They ran telephone wire,
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  Speaker 1: detected ambushes, smelled out enemy patrols, and even a few
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  Speaker 1: machine gun nests. The dog got gi chow, slept on
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  Speaker 1: nice mats and straw, and in mud filled foxholes. First
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Clyde Henderson, with one of the dog platoons, recalled
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  Speaker 1: how the speed and intelligence of dogs was crucial in
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  Speaker 1: light of the abominable communications in the jungle, where sometimes
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  Speaker 1: communications equipment was not much better than yelling. Under such circumstances,
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  Speaker 1: a German shepherd named Caesar made the difference between life
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  Speaker 1: and death for at least one company. With all wires
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  Speaker 1: cut and no communication, Caesar got through repeatedly to the
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  Speaker 1: battalion command post and returned to the lines. One Japanese
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  Speaker 1: rifle wound didn't stop him, but a second had. Caesar
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  Speaker 1: returned to the rear on a stretcher. A memorable letter
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  Speaker 1: from Commandant Thomas B. Holcombe described how Caesar another time
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  Speaker 1: had saved the life of a marine when the dog
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  Speaker 1: attacked a Japanese about to throw a hand grenade. The
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  Speaker 1: commandant also cited in letters four other dogs for their
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  Speaker 1: actions on Bogainville. Sergeant William O. McDaniel in the Ninth
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  Speaker 1: Marines remembered one night one of the dogs growled and
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  Speaker 1: slim livesay a squad leader from Montana shot and hit
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  Speaker 1: a Jap right between the eye. We found the Jap
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  Speaker 1: the next morning, three feet in front of the hole.
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  Speaker 1: One marine said that what marines liked most was the
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  Speaker 1: security dogs gave at night and the rare chance to
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  Speaker 1: sleep in peace. No enemy would slip through the lines
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  Speaker 1: with a dog on guard. There were fifty two men
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  Speaker 1: and thirty six dogs in the canine company on Bogainville.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter five