page_title: Battle of Koromokina Lagoon
section_title: Tank support
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Koromokina Lagoon / Battle / Tank support
caption_attribution_description: English: Map depicting the fighting around Koromokina Lagoon, 7/8 Nov 1943
context_page_description: The Battle of the Koromokina Lagoon was fought between the United States Marine Corps and Imperial Japanese Army forces on Bougainville Island. It took place on 7–8 November 1943 during the Bougainville campaign.
  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.
  Over the next two days the Japanese attacks were defeated with heavy losses to the attackers. After the battle, Allied forces continued to expand their beachhead on Bougainville with the goal of constructing airfields to attack and neutralize Japanese forces located at Rabaul and nearby areas.
context_section_description: The two companies of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment—under the command of Major John P. Brody—found the going tough as the Japanese positions were well-hidden, and they found themselves under heavy machine gun and automatic weapons fire. Tanks moved up to help with the assault, and the Marines advanced slowly as the tank fire eliminated the enemy emplacements. Late that afternoon, the advance was halted and a heavy artillery concentration, in preparation for a full-scale attack by the 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment against the enemy defenses in front of the Marines. The artillery fire raged through the enemy positions and Companies B and C placed mortar fire almost on top of their own positions.
  The attack by the 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment—under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ernest W. Fry, Jr.—was set for 17:00, but it was postponed until the next morning (8 November). Throughout the night, groups of Japanese troops pushed through US defensive lines, threatening the field hospital that had been established by the 3rd Medical Battalion. A hasty defense was mounted by rear echelon troops, subsequently turned back the assault, protecting the medical staff.
  Several Marine units had been cut off from the main forces during 7 November. One of these, a platoon from Company K, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment had scouted the upper Laruma River region, and ambushed a pursuing Japanese patrol several times before escaping into the interior. The platoon returned to the Marine lines 30 hours later, with one man wounded and one man missing after inflicting a number of casualties on the Japanese landing force. Another patrol from Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment was cut off on the beach between two enemy forces and when the radio of the artillery officer with the patrol had failed, he headed back to the main lines directing an artillery barrage that landed on the Japanese position to the left of the patrol from Company M. The patrol then moved toward the Marine lines, only to find the beach blocked by Japanese forces opposing Company K. A message was written in the sand of the beach, which was seen by an air spotter with two tank lighters evacuating the patrol from the beach. Sixty men were evacuated successfully after killing an estimated 35 Japanese. Only two of the Marines had been wounded.
  Two other Marine groups became isolated in the fighting along the perimeter. One platoon from the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment—scouting the Japanese flank position—slipped through the jungle and passed by the enemy force without being observed. Choosing to head for the beach instead of the interior, the platoon struggled to the coast. There, the patrol cleaned its weapons with gasoline from a wrecked barge, and spent the night in the jungle. The next morning, the attention of an Allied plane was attracted and within an hour the platoon was picked up by a tank lighter and returned to the main lines. The other isolated unit—a patrol from Company B—was cut off from the rest of the battalion during the fighting and spent the night of 7–8 November behind Japanese lines without detection.
  After a 20-minute preparatory barrage by five batteries of artillery together with machine gun, mortar and antitank-gun fire on the morning of 8 November, the 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment passed through the lines of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment companies and began the attack. The infantry were supported by light tanks. Only a few Japanese soldiers fought off the attack with these being killed or captured. More than 250 dead Japanese were found in the area. Moving about 1,500 yd (1,400 m) through the jungle parallel to the shoreline, no further opposition was encountered. That afternoon, a defensive line was established behind a lagoon and extensive patrols were sent out without making contact with the Japanese.
  On the morning of 9 November, the area between the Marine positions and the Laruma River was bombed and strafed by American dive bombers from Munda Airfield on New Georgia. Patrols found the bodies
caption: Map depicting the fighting around Koromokina Lagoon, 7/8 November 1943
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