US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Tough Toenai[s Paring 581
destroyers. The Woodwortb’ (DD-46o) substituted for the damaged Zmze
(DMS-14). None of the destroyer transports or destroyer minesweepers was
fitted with an SG (surface) radar, but the three destroyers in the formation
would make up for the deficiency.
The radar of the Ralph Talbot identified Rice Point and Wharton Point
and coached the formation to the Transport Area, where they hove-to about
0125.
About 0130 on 5 July, in a driving rainstorm the amphibians immediately
launched all boats and began embarking the Marines and Army troops. The
lights on the beach, as shown on the accompanying chart, were not due to
be turned on until 0200, so the coxswains did not even have these feeble aids
to assist them in the heavy rain when the first boats left for the beach at 0145.
In the hurry to unload the transports, some of the ships overloaded their
landing boats with the result that the landing boats could not clear the reef
blocking the entrance to Wharton River. These boats had to return to their
transports to lighten their loads and make a second try. It was a case of
“haste makes waste.” One amphibian landed its Army company to the north
of Rice Point and failed to correct the error which became known before
departure. Coxswains reported a large group of native New Georgians as
a welcoming party on the beach and much confusion off the beach as boats
maneuvered for the best position to land next.52
As Commander Transports logged the matter:
The entrance to Rice Anchorage unloading beach is over a narrow shallow
bar. Many of the boats touched bottom crossing it. It was therefore found
necessary to decrease the normal carrying load of the boats. The river is only
seventy yards wide. It was thought that the beach was one hundred yards
wide; however, only four boats at a time could land at it. There were twenty-
eight ramp LCP employed in unloading twelve ships.
Soon after arrival in the Transport Area the amphibians were surprised to
be illuminated by star shell and to come under fire from coastal defense
guns in the Enogai Area. While Japanese guns were known to protect Bairoko
Harbor, no such guns had been reported by the natives supposedly familiar
with the Japanese defenses in the Enogai Area. The transports were ordered
not to return this fire but to leave this chore to the two destroyer escorts, and
to concentrate on disembarkation of the troops and their impedimenta.
As ships completed their unloading tasks, they cleared the anchorage area.
mShip’s Logs.