40th Infantry Division

Five more men drowned in the fast-moving waters of the Kulu River, and a native hired as a guide defected.

already weak and physically komori came down with an attack of malaria but he forced himself to continue the survivors struggled onward toward cape hoskins and ultimately on nine april easter sunday four half-starved japanese wandered on to the san remo plantation where gale's battalion had bivouacked after pursuing the enemy eastward from the willimes peninsula the marine unit was preparing to pass in review for the regimental commander later that day when a sentry saw the intruders in open fire the ensuing skirmish killed three of the enemy one of the dead proved to be major comory his pack contained a rusty revolver and a diary describing the sufferings of his command colonel sado with the rest of the rear guard for the matsuda force set out from agitni on seven march one day after komori who sent back word on the nineteenth that patrols from the fifth marines had fanned out from the willemes peninsula where the reinforced regiment had landed almost two weeks earlier when sato reached linga linga and came across a bivouac abandoned by a marine patrol his force had dwindled to just two hundred fifty men less than half the number that started out he received a shock the following day when american landing craft appeared as his men prepared to cross the kapalook river he immediately set up a perimeter to beat back the expected attack but the boats were carrying elements of the second battalion first marines under major charles h brush jr a patrol from brush's company aft landed on a beach beyond the former site of a japanese supply cache and dispatched one platoon led by first lieutenant william c shlipe westward along the coastal track even as sato aware only of the general location of the landing groped eastward toward the village on twenty sixth march the two collided the japanese surprising the marines in the act of crossing a small stream and pinning them down for some three hours until the approach of reinforcements from company f forced the enemy to break off the action take to the jungle and bypass as the head of sato's column disappeared in the jungle one of the division's light airplanes scouting landing sites for brush's battalion sighted the trail near linga the pilot captain petrus turned over the controls to brigadier-general earl c long also a pilot sketched the location of the japanese and dropped the map to one of the troop laden landing craft petrus then led the way to an undefended beach where brush's marines waded ashore and set out in pursuit of sado on thirty march second lieutenant richard b watkins at the head of an eight-man patrol spotted a pair of japanese their rifles slung who turned out to be members of a seventy three man patrol far too many for watkins to handle once the enemy column had moved off watkins and his men hurried to kandoka where he reported to major brush and obtained mortars and machine guns before again taking to the trail brush followed bringing a reinforced rifle platoon to increase the marine fire power meanwhile the japanese encountered yet another marine patrol this one led by sergeant frank cleek who took up a position on high ground that commanded the trail when they heard cleek's group open fire watkins and brush hurried to its aid the resulting slaughter killed fifty-five japanese including colonel sato who died sword in hand but the marines did not suffer even one casualty on nine april the third battalion first marines under lieutenant-colonel hankins replaced brush's first battalion and continued the search for enemy stragglers the bulk of the matsuda force and whatever supplies it could transport had by this time retreated to cape hoskins and beyond and army troops were taking over from the marines almost four months had elapsed since the landing at cape gloucester clearly the time had come for the amphibious troops to move on to an operation that would make better use of their specialized training and equipment the final action fought by the leathernecks took place on twenty two april when an ambush sprung by the second battalion fifth marines killed twenty japanese and resulted in the last marine fatality of the campaign in seizing western new britain as part of the isolation of rabal the division suffered three hundred ten killed in action and one thousand eighty three wounded roughly one-fourth the estimated japanese casualties early in february nineteen forty four after the capture of the cape gloucester airfields but before the landing at volapai general rupertus warned that his first marine division might remain on new britain indefinitely having the unit tied down for an extended period alarmed the recently appointed commandant of the marine corps general vandergrift six months there he remarked referring to an extended commitment in new britain and it will no longer be a well-trained amphibious division vandergrift urged admiral ernest j king the chief of naval operations to help pry the division from macarthur's grasp so it could again undertake amphibious operations admiral chester w nimitz commander-in-chief pacific ocean areas wanted the division for the impending invasion of the palaw islands the capture of which would protect the flank of macarthur's advance to the philippines In order to obtain the Marines, Nimitz made the Army's 40th Infantry Division available to MacArthur, in effect swapping a division capable of taking over the New Britain campaign for one that could spearhead the amphibious offensive against Japan.

MacArthur, however, briefly retained control of one component of the Marine Division, Company A 1st Tank Battalion.

that unit's medium tanks landed on twenty two april at hollandia on the northern coast of new guinea but a swamp just beyond the beachhead prevented the shermans from supporting the advance inland the commanding general of the army's fortieth infantry division major-general rapp brush arrived at new britain on ten april to arrange for the relief his advance echelon arrived on the twenty third and the remainder of the division five days later the first marine division departed in two echelons on six april and four may left behind was the twelfth defense battalion which continued to provide anti-aircraft defense for the cape gloucester airfields until relieved by an army unit late in may in a campaign lasting four months the first marine division had plunged into the unforgiving jungle and overwhelmed a determined and resolute enemy capturing the cape gloucester airfields and driving the japanese from western new britain a number of factors helped the marines defeat nature and the japanese allied control of the air and the sea provided mobility and disrupted the coastal barge traffic upon which the enemy had to depend for the movement of large quantities of supplies especially badly needed medicines during the retreat to warships and landing craft armed with rockets supplemented by such improvisations as tank or rocket equipped amphibian trucks firing from landing craft supported the landings but the size of the island and the lack of fixed coastal defenses limited the effectiveness of the various forms of naval gunfire Using superior engineering skills, the Marines defied swamp and undergrowth to bring forward tanks that crushed enemy emplacements and added to the already formidable American firepower.