US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Tongb Toenails Paring 585
but “over 1,000 men were out of action” due to these medical problems.
According to the Army’s history:
An especially large number of casualties was caused not by wounds or infectious
disease but by mental disturbance. Between fifty and a hundred men
were leaving the line every day with troubles which were diagnosed as “war
neuroses.’ . . .59
Major General Oscar W. Griswold was the Commanding General of the
XIV Corps and Major General Hester’s immediate superior since the 43rd
Division was a major part of that Corps. Lieutenant General Millard F.
Harmon was the Commanding General U. S. Army Forces in SOPAC,
mustering altogether about 275,000 men.eo
When the troop offensive ashore on New Georgia gave its first evidence
of slowing down, calls were made by Major General Hester for additional
troops. As early as 5 July, Rear Admiral Turner was in conference on
Guadalcanal with Major General Griswold and Lieutenant General Harmon
in connection with moving forward part of the 37th Division, which was
sailed for Rendova on the 7th and 9th of July.
Each of these four officers was directly involved in the current phase of
TOENAILS as well as in planning and preparation for the assault landing
on Kolombangara, and the capture of the Vila airfield which were planned
to follow soon after the capture of Munda.
On this same day, 5 July, Lieutenant General Harmon recommended to
Commander Third Fleet that as soon as Munda airfield was captured, the
XIV Corps Commander, Major General Griswold, should take over command
of the New Georgia Occupation Force, and that Major General
Hester continue in command of the 43rd Division and conduct the attack
on Vila.
Rear Admiral Turner immediately put in his oar backing up Major
General Hester, saying that superseding Hester would be undesirable and
“a severe blow to morale.” He expressed his regret at having to disagree
with Lieutenant General Harmon. At the same time he sent Colonel Linscott,
who in the forward operational area and in the absence of Captain Anderson,
was an “acting Chief of Staff ,“ to Rendova and New Georgia to look into
what the amphibians could do to ease the difficulties the +my troops were
encountering in taking Munda airfield, as well as to move forward with
the planning for taking Vila airfield.
* Miller, Reduction of Rabard (Army), p. 120.
mIbid., p. 69.