of Mount Martha, Victoria, where he was appointed 5th Marine Regiment Operations officer under Colonel John T. Selden. He was promoted to the rank of major in April 1943. After few months of training in Australia, Gayle sailed with 5th Marines to the staging area at Milne Bay, New Guinea at the end of September 1943, where he took part in advanced combat training, emphasizing shore-to-shore operations and utilizing terrain closely resembling that on New Britain – the future 1st Marine Division objective. Gayle landed on Cape Gloucester, New Britain, on December 29, 1943, and after week of spent in combat area, he succeeded Lieutenant Colonel Lewis W. Walt as commanding officer of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines (shorthand designation: "2/5") on January 5, 1944, during intensive combats in Borgen Bay. Gayle led his battalion during the Battle of Talasea at the beginning of March of that year and helped to capture the area. For his service at New Britain, Gayle received the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V". His battalion was then ordered to Pavuvu, Russell Islands in June 1944 for rest and refit, but the island of Pavuvu, which at that point had not been prepared to receive troops, was anything but a paradise. The island was rain-soaked and rat-infested and instead of participating in a gradual rehabilitation-training program, the 5th Marines had to construct bivouac areas from scratch. Soon morale reached a low point, for with all the work, there was little material for rebuilding the mental and physical strength of Gayle's Marines. The food consisted mostly of rations similar to those consumed in New Britain campaign and visits to sick call became more numerous. In the early morning of September 15, 1944, Gayle and his battalion (2/5) sailed for Peleliu, Palau Islands to capture the large Japanese airfield there, which was seen as a threat to General MacArthur's lines of communication for his upcoming invasion of the Philippines. The 5th Marine Regiment was charged to land, drive across the airfield, cut the island in two, and then re-orient north and drive to secure the eastern half of the island. During the heavy fighting for the airfield, Gayle and his battalion, along with other Marine units, repulsed a strong Japanese counterattack which included light tanks and subsequently led his battalion in the assault across the airfield – over fourteen hundred yards of open ground – in the face