After initially being diverted towards Arawe in the morning, Japanese aircraft, after refueling and rearming at Rabaul began attacking the Allied ships around the landing beaches around 14:30, resulting in the loss of the destroyer with over a hundred of her crew and casualties aboard the destroyers and . Nevertheless, around 13,000 troops and about 7,600 tons of equipment were pushed ashore during the first day of the operation on either side of the cape, and the attacking Japanese aircraft suffered losses to US fighters and ship-borne anti-aircraft fire. Opposition in the main landing area was limited initially to rear-area troops that had been overrun but a hasty counterattack by the 2nd Battalion, 53rd Infantry Regiment (Major Shinichi Takabe), which had marched from Nakarop, lasted through the afternoon and evening of the first day, falling mainly against the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines under Lieutenant Colonel Odell M. Conoley. By the end of the day, the 7th Marines held the beachhead, while the 11th Marines had brought their artillery pieces ashore and the 1st Marines had begun a slow advance north, forced into a long column along the narrow trail.