Crouching behind the M3s, the US infantry advanced again, this time breaking through a depleted enemy company, its ranks further scattered after that charge. Momi was still holding, but this attack was flanking the town and threatening to cut the road beyond. Sensing opportunity at last, Patch sent orders back for Colonel Tuttle to bring up his 147th RCT, and Operation Push was finally about to build up a good head of steam in the south. The line further east with the 138th and 182nd was still rather static, as neither regiment had been able to make much headway over the first 48 hours of the attack.
On the far right, the182nd had been trying to find the enemy flank, engaging in a little duel with 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Formosa regiment. It was about to receive an unexpected surprise when the Kamimura Cavalry Recon battalion emerged from seeming thin air on the extreme right and rear of the US line. It had been ordered to try and flank the US position, and moved all night to gain this advantage.
Already in these first hours of fighting, a characteristic pattern was forming around US operations. While they moved and deployed smartly, the infantry had been relying on the vehicles and halftracks of the recon battalion, and those M3 tanks to sustain the advance at Momi. When checked, the Americans would fall back and call for artillery.
By contrast, the Japanese would hold the line tenaciously, and just when it seemed a position was about to be overrun, the defenders threw themselves into a fanatical counterattack, screaming Bonzai as they charged. Sometimes these attacks shocked and pushed back the lest experienced US infantry, but when a GI company held its ground, and had its machineguns forward in good supporting positions, they inflicted terrible losses on the already failing Japanese company they were facing. By day’s end the Americans had the advantage by sheer weight, then they stopped.
Night fighting was one area where the US troops did not excel, at least not yet. Come dusk the battalions pulled back a little, consolidated their position, laid out mine sand wire, registered their mortars and positioned machine guns. They had already heard from the Marines that the Japanese were prone to making most of their major attacks at night, and so the US moved into a passive defense, though each battalion would send out patrols. Needless to say, that duty wasn’t popular, and none of the grunts wanted to be selected for night patrol sweeps, as they were called. A little rest behind that wire and those machineguns seemed a whole lot more appealing, though sleep was restless, for the enemy was very near.
But this night, the Japanese did not come. The problem they were facing was now an increasing shift in the balance of forces. All this time, he had only been facing two thirds of the Japanese 48th Division. With the threat of a possible amphibious landing very real, General Yuitsu Tsuchihashi could not afford to commit his entire division to the defense, holding back the 47th Regiment at Nandi to guard the port, supply depots, and airstrip. The fact that their battalions were composed of four rifle companies and a weapons company allowed the Japanese to field 30 companies of fighting troops between the two regiments they deployed, and this had been enough to seriously stall the US offensive.
Patch had 36 infantry based companies in his entire division, three more of engineers, three recon platoons and the three tank companies. So his edge was only 47 to 30 in raw numbers of fighting units on the field. Now, however, he was calling up his reserve regiment on the morning of day three. From his perspective, he had his enemy in a firm grip, and now he was going to hit them with everything he had.
One other advantage his troops would possess would be the lavish allotment of artillery in a US infantry division. Each of his four regiments could field five batteries of four guns each, or twenty firing tubes—80 field guns there. Added to these were the self-propelled guns in the cannon company attached to each regiment, eight guns in each of the four companies. So he was going to open the day with a rolling barrage from 112 tubes, and he had the ammunition to keep it hot and keep it coming. Against this the Japanese regiments fielded no more than 60 field pieces.
Unhappy with what he had seen in the first two days of fighting, Patch called together his battalion commanders on the night of the 8th and read them the riot act. They were going to hit the enemy in the morning, and fight all day and all night if they had to, but one way or another, he was pushing Tojo off the field. That was exactly how he put it, and he wanted no doubts about what he expected the following day.
The thunder of that artillery resounded from the nearby hills and rolled over the still waters of the bay. He gave it to the enemy for a full thirty minutes, and then he had ordered his battalion COs to use their rally whistles and send everyone in in one concerted attack. It was the largest coordinated attack by US forces thus far in the war.
Colonel Imai’s 1st Formosa took the worst of that attack on the coastal plain beyond Momi. Tanaka’s 2nd Formosa was posted much farther inland, and they were not hit nearly as hard, as all the tanks and recon elements had been restricted to advancing along Queen’s Road. So it was one hell of a left hook that hit Imai’s regiment, with 1st Company, I Battalion, 164th Regiment leading the attack into Momi, supported by a company of the 754th Tank and one more of engineers.
Patch and his 23rd Pacifica Division took Momi on the morning of January 9th, and he had it before the 147th Regiment had even been able to deploy. So he sent word back that the battalions were to remain in march column, ready to surge through any gaps his men created in the enemy line. He wanted to use that reserve regiment to keep up the momentum of his attack, and try to roll right on through to Nandi, but there was still a lot of fight left in the Japanese battalions. They would simply not fall back, even before clearly superior firepower and numbers in the assaulting forces. Instead they either dug in their heels, fighting to the last few squads, and then simply hurled themselves at their foes in a last desperate charge.
General Yamashita had suffered grievous harm when he had tried to launch a major assault at the Tengah Airfield on Singapore, and now this tenacious Japanese defense was a portent of many bloody battles that remained to be fought in this war. The Americans could not simply drive this enemy off as they might have expected. The Japanese had to be annihilated to take any ground they were determined to hold, and that was a pattern that would repeat itself time and time again in the Pacific War.
Chapter 8
In the center of the board, the high mountainous country that made up most of the island, the drama was much more focused. This time the cast was all fighting Leathernecks, Edson’s 1st Raider Battalion, Carlson’s 2nd Raiders and the 2nd USMC Regiment.
The two Raider Battalions had been formed in February of 1942 out of an interest, fomented by President Roosevelt himself, for a specialized commando type unit like those the British had been forming. In fact, Roosevelt’s own son James would become the Deputy Commander in Carlson’s Battalion. The two units were quite different, in spite of their similar designation and overall mission, and this was largely due to the differing temperament of their commanding officers.
Colonel Merrit A. Edson grew up as a farm boy from Vermont, where he spent most of his life outdoors, hunting, fishing, and developing what the Aussies might call good “bush craft.” He was athletic, but soft spoken, with a quiet and calm disposition, and as cool as his deep blue eyes under fire. Edson put together his 1st Battalion from a regular Marine Battalion in the 5th Regiment, and so it was structured along traditional Marine lines, with four companies composed of three platoons each, and with eight man squads.