| Original caption: “Retreating at first into the jungle of Cape Gloucester, Japanese soldiers finally gathered strength and counterattacked their Marine pursuers. These machine gunners pushed them back.” Infantry, likely of Colonel Odell M. Conoley’s (November 9, 1913 – September 1, 1993) 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, armed with M1 30 caliber (7.62 millimeter) carbines, a Browning M1917 30 caliber machine gun, and a M1 Thompson 45 caliber (11.5 millimeter) submachine gun, prepare to receive a counterattack from the Imperial Japanese Army at Cape Gloucester. The 2nd Battalion, 53rd Infantry Regiment, under Imperial Japanese Army Major Shinichi Takabe (September 16, 1919 – ????), moved into position late on the afternoon of D-Day, December 26, 1943. They took up opposite Conoley’s 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, which clung to a crescent-shaped position, both of its flanks sharply refused and resting on the marshland to the rear. After sunset, the darkness beneath the forest canopy became absolute, pierced only by muzzle flashes as the intensity of the firing increased. The Japanese clearly were preparing to counterattack. Conoley’s battalion had a dwindling supply of ammunition, but amphibious tractors could not begin making supply runs until it became light enough for the drivers to avoid tree roots and fallen trunks as they navigated the damp flat. To aid the battalion in the dangerous period before the skies grew pale, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller (June 26, 1898 – October 11, 1971), the Executive Officer of the 7th Marines, organized the men of the regimental Headquarters and Service Company into carrying parties to load themselves down with ammunition and wade through the dangerous swamp. 1 misstep, and a Marine burdened with bandoliers of rifle ammunition or containers of mortar shells could stumble and drown. When Colonel Julian N. Frisbie (November 30, 1894 – April 28, 1963), the Regimental Commander, decided to reinforce Conoley’s Marines with D Battery, 1st Special Weapons Battalion, Puller had those men leave their M3 37 millimeter (1.45-inch) guns behind and carry ammunition instead. A guide from Conoley’s Headquarters met the column that Puller had pressed into service and began leading them forward, when a blinding downpour, driven by a monsoon gale, obscured landmarks and forced the heavily laden Marines to wade blindly onward, each man clinging to the belt of the 1 ahead of him. Not until 0805 Hours, some 12 hours after the column started off, did the men reach their goal, put down their loads, and take up their rifles. Conoley’s Marines had, in the meantime, been fighting for their lives since the storm 1st struck. A curtain of rain prevented mortar crews from seeing their aiming stakes; indeed, Conoley, the Battalion Commander, described the men as firing “by guess and by God.” Mud got on the small arms ammunition, at times jamming rifles and machine guns. Although forced to abandon water-filled foxholes, the defenders hung on. With the coming of dawn, Takabe’s soldiers gravitated toward the right flank of Conoley’s unit, perhaps in a conscious effort to outflank the position, or possibly forced in that direction by the fury of the battalion’s defensive fire. An envelopment was in the making when D Battery arrived and moved into the threatened area, forcing the Japanese to break off the action and regroup. United States Marine Corps Sergeant Robert R. Brenner (July 30, 1923 – February 2, 1953) enlisted in May 1940, after completing a vocational course in photography after high school. He covered the Guadalcanal and New Britain campaigns with the 1st Marine Division. He was a correspondent for the Auburn, Indiana, Evening Star and briefly the Washington Times-Herald after the war. While covering President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration eve on January 19, 1953, he became ill and died 3 days later. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1555.jpg |
| Image Size | 742.73 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2848 x 2213 |
| Photographer | Robert R. Brenner |
| Photographer Title | United States Marine Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | December 27, 1943 |
| Location | |
| City | Cape Gloucester |
| State or Province | New Britain |
| Country | Solomons |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-127-N-71981 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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