Hitoshi Imamura
In response to the Allied landings on Bougainville at Cape Torokina, Japanese General Hitoshi Imamura, commander of the 8th Area Army at Rabaul, determined to launch a counterattack. Underestimating the size of the Allied landing forces, the Japanese dispatched a force of 850 soldiers to execute a counter landing to attempt to drive the Allied forces back into the sea. The Japanese soldiers landed from four destroyers near Koromokina Lagoon on the night of 7 November and engaged two battalions of U.S. Marines from the 3rd and 9th Marine Regiments under the command of Major General Allen H. Turnage.