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6. Expanding the Perimeter The marines on the narrow beachhead adjacent to Cape Torokina were totally unaware of the crucial naval and air battles that did so much to secure their operations. They were, almost to a man, tired and wet and still apprehensive that the Japanese were ready to launch a counterattack in great force against the shallow perimeter. Such fears as the ordinary marine might have had were not shared by the higher command . General Vandegrift was so certain of the ultimate success of the operation that he relinquished command of the troops ashore to General Turnage and returned with Admiral Wilkinson to Guadalcanal . Until 9 November, when General Geiger assumed command of IMAC, Turnage was for all practical purposes in charge of operations on Bougainville. He had two main interconnected problems. The first was the need to expand the beachhead inland to give the marines enough depth to check any major Japanese attack. The second problem concerned the need to sort out the supplies landed haphazardly on the beach. This would be no easy task, given the nature of the terrain and the lack of any usable roads leading into the interior. General Turnage decided to realign his two combat regiments, shifting the 3d Marines, whose units had suffered the most casualties, to the left sector of the beachhead and moving the relatively fresh 9th Marines to the right, where he believed the Japanese would not mount any serious counterthrust. The beachhead was so crowded that he had to make these changes piecemeal. Some of the troops had to be transported to their new locations by amphibian tractors. After two days, most of the elements of the two regiments had been moved and 94 Bougainville the 3d and 9th Marines had changed places. Despite the many logistical difficulties, the marines were able to move swiftly largely because ofthe lack of any Japanese opposition. Some small-arms fire had been directed at the beach from Torokina Island. On 3 November the small-caliber guns of the 3d Defense Battalion and one 105-mm battery of the 12th Marines fired directly at the island for approximately fifteen minutes. Marines of the 3d Raider Battalion followed up the barrage but discovered that all the Japanese who had been there were either dead or had fled the island.1 While some of the units were shifting positions, others were slowly advancing the boundaries of the perimeter, particularly in the center. There was also constant patrolling ahead of the main bodies and roadblocks established at key positions along the Piva and Mission trails. Other patrols searched vainly for a trail that could be used for lateral movement from the west to the east flank. An outpost far to the left of the main perimeter line guarded against a surprise attack by any Japanese who might cross the Laruma River. Further patrols on 4 November scouted as far north as the Laruma and south to the Torokina River. These patrols met not even small-scale organized resistance. Only occasional sniper fire disturbed the marines. One sniper was killed near the Piva River, but most ofthe Japanese left alive had quietly disappeared into the jungle.2 By the close of the day on 3 November 2d Raider Battalion had extended the beachhead by almost fifteen hundred yards. Patrolling would become a daily fact of life for all units involved on Bougainville for the next twenty months, and despite the general quiesence of the Japanese over long periods, it was always potentially dangerous. The thick undergrowth and lack of well-defined trails made it easy for the Japanese to set up an ambush. One addition to some patrols were the dogs of the K9 companies, whose senses were sharper than those of even the most alert Marine. Wilcie O'Bannon was the first patrol leader to have dogs. He recalled how the dogs were used on his patrol: One dog was a German Shepherd female, the other was a Doberman male, and they had three men with them. The third man handled the dogs all the time in the platoon area prior to our going on patrol-petting the dogs, talking to them, and being nice to them. The other two handlers-one would go to the head of the column and one would go to the rear with the female messenger dog.... If the dog in front received enemy fire and got away he could either come back to me or circle to the...

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