by Daniel Wrinn
World War II Pacific
Battles and Campaigns from Guadalcanal to Okinawa 1942-1945
Daniel Wrinn
Contents
Get your FREE copy of WW2: Spies, Snipers and the World at War
Preface
Introduction
August 1, 1942
Guadalcanal and Florida Islands
Battle of the Eastern Solomons
Col. Edson’s Bloody Ridge
7th Marines Reinforce the Battalion
Japanese Offensive on Maruyama Trail
Fighting Withdrawal Along the Beach
Defeat of Japanese Forces on Guadalcanal
1. General Alexander A. Vandegrift
The Coastwatchers
Sergeant Major Sir Jacob Charles Vouza
The Amtrac LVT 1 (Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Mark 1)
Reising Gun
The Japanese 50mm Heavy Grenade Discharger
1st Marine Utility Uniform Issued in World War II
The 1st Marine Division Patch
The George Medal
Operation Galvanic
Introduction
The Yogaki Plan
Task Force 53
D-Day at Betio
Maelstrom on Betio
Red Beach Two
Fog of War
D +1 at Betio
Scout Sniper Platoon
Tide of Battle
D +2 at Betio
Strong Resistance
Completing the Task
Significance of Tarawa
Tarawa Today
Major General Julian C. Smith
Colonel David M. Shoup
Incident on D +3
Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces
The Singapore Guns
LVT-2 Amphibian Tractors
Sherman Medium Tanks
Operation Backhander
Introduction
Establishing the Beachhead
Defense of Hell’s Point
Crossing Suicide Creek
Mopping up in the West
Landings at Volupai
Final Combat and Relief
MacArthur’s Marines
General William Rupertus
Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Walt
Garand M-1 Rifle
Piper L-4 Grasshopper
Fortress of Rabaul
The Jungle Battlefield
Rain and Biting Insects
1944 Battle for Saipan
Breaching the Marianas
Assault on Saipan
Great Mariana’s Turkey Shoot
Marines Storm Garapan
Tenno Haika! Banzai
Unbelievable Self Destruction
Legacy of Saipan
General Holland M. Smith
General Harry Schmidt
General Thomas Watson
Navy Lieutenant John Craven
2nd Marine Division
4th Marine Division
Army 27th Infantry Division
Heroes of Saipan
Invasion of Tinian
Scouting Tinian’s Beaches
Planning the Assault
Jig Day Landing
Japanese Counterattack
People Shooting Grouse
End of Resistance
Aftermath of Tinian
Japanese Defense Force
White Beach Selection
General Clifton B. Cates
Napalm: A New Weapon
Preparatory Strikes
Aerial Reconnaissance
Heroes of Tinian
Recapture of Guam
Back to Guam
Operation Forager Planning
W-Day in the North
W-Day in the South
The Japanese Counterattack
Battle of Fonte Ridge
Capture of Orote Peninsula
Turning Point on Guam
The Northern Assault
Liberation of Guam
Marine Presence on Guam
Guam War Dogs
3rd Marine Division Insignia
Colt M1911A1 Pistol
Joe Blow Stories
General Roy Geiger
General Allen Turnage
General Andrew Bruce
General Lemuel Shepherd
General Robert Cushman
Heroes on Guam
Operation Stalemate
Seizing “The Point”
The Japanese Defenders
D-Day Center Assault
The Umurbrogol Pocket
Peleliu’s Eastern Peninsula
7th Marines in the South
Northern Peleliu Seizure
5th Marines Northern Attack
Seizure of Ngesebus
Fight for the Pocket
Subduing the Pocket
Securing the Eastern Ridges
Mopping up Peleliu
Conditions on Peleliu
III Amphibious Corps
General William Rupertus
General Paul Mueller
Army’s 81st Infantry Division
Japanese Fighting Tactics
Naval Gunfire Support
Reef-crossing Tactics
Conquest of Peleliu
Price of Peleliu
Operation Detachment
The Pacific Offensive
Operation Detachment
Kuribayashi's Big Mistake
D-Day on Iwo Jima
Getting the Guns Ashore
Prowling Wolves
Suribachi-yama
The Meatgrinder
Northern Allied Drive
Defiant to the End
Legacy of Iwo Jima
Iconic Flag Raising
General Harry Schmidt
General Graves B. Erskine
General Clifton B. Cates
General Keller E. Rockey
General Kuribayashi
Japanese Spigot Mortar
Iwo’s Air Support
Sherman Zippo Tanks
Buck Rogers Men
Logistical Support
Operation Iceberg
Seizing Shuri Castle
Operation Iceberg
Japanese Defenses
Land the Landing Force
Battle of Yae Take
Typhoon of Steel
Situation at Sea
Blowtorch and Corkscrew
Sugar Loaf Hill
Day and Bertoli
Screaming Mimi
Wrapping up the Fight
General Roy Geiger
General Pedro del Valle
General Lemuel Shepherd Jr.
General Francis Mulcahy
Blood and Iron
US Army Troops
Marines Aviation Units
Artillery on Okinawa
Sherman M-4 Tanks
Amphibious Reconnaissance
Legacy of Okinawa
Operation Watchtower
Also By Daniel Wrinn
References
About the Author
Get your FREE copy of WW2: Spies, Snipers and the World at War
Never miss a new release by signing up for my free readers group. You’ll also get WW2: Spies, Snipers and Tales of the World at War delivered to your inbox. (You can unsubscribe at any time.) Tap here to sign up
In the first six months of a war with the United States, I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues af
ter that, I make no such guarantees.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Preface
The first months of World War II were a disaster for the United States. The Japanese caught the Pacific Fleet flat-footed in Pearl Harbor at anchor. Their attack dealt a massive blow to American naval power.
The Imperial Japanese forces took full advantage of the initiative. They made a lightning assault to take the Philippines, Thailand, Guam, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, New Britain, Rabaul, and Hong Kong. They moved deeper into China and took Burma and New Guinea. It was an unstoppable victory after victory, and the Japanese Empire seemed invincible.
Introduction
In early summer 1942, intelligence reported that a Japanese airfield was being constructed in the Solomon Islands near Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. This triggered a demand for immediate offensive action in the South Pacific.
Admiral Ernest King was the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pacific. He was the leading advocate in Washington for starting an offensive. His views were shared by Admiral Chester Nimitz, the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz had already proposed sending the 1st Marine Raider Battalion to destroy a Japanese seaplane base on Tulagi. An island twenty miles north of Guadalcanal, across the Sealark Channel.
The Battle of the Coral Sea had interrupted a Japanese amphibious assault on Port Moresby, at the time the Allied base of supply in eastern New Guinea. The completion of the Guadalcanal airfield would signal the beginning of the renewed enemy advance to the south. This increased the threat to the lifeline of American aid to Australia and New Zealand. On July 23,1942, the Joint Chiefs in Washington agreed to seize the line of communications in the South Pacific. The Japanese advance had to be stopped at any cost. The Joint Chiefs created Operation Watchtower and the plan to invade and seize the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi.
The Solomon Islands are nestled in the backwaters of the South Pacific. Spanish fortune hunters discovered these islands in the sixteenth century. No European powers saw any value in these islands until Germany expanded its colonial empire two hundred years later. In 1884, Germany decreed a protectorate over the Bismarck Archipelago, in northern New Guinea, and the northern Solomons. Great Britain jumped into action and established a protectorate over the southern Solomon Islands and annexed the remainder of New Guinea. By 1905, the British crown passed administrative control over its territories in the region to Australia and the domain of Papua. Its capital was at Port Moresby.
After World War I, Germany’s holdings in the region fell under the administrative control of the League of Nations. The seat of the colonial government was at Rabaul on New Britain. The Solomons are 10° below the equator. Hot, humid, and plagued by torrential rains.
By late January 1942, Japanese forces had seized Rabaul and fortified it. The site was an excellent harbor and had several airfield positions. The Japanese carrier and aircraft losses at the Battle of Midway had caused the Imperial Japanese Headquarters to cancel their plan of invading Midway, Fiji, New Caledonia, and Samoa. But the plans to construct a significant seaplane base at Tulagi went forward. The new location offered one of the best anchorages in the South Pacific. Strategically located over five hundred miles from the New Hebrides and just short of eight hundred miles from New Caledonia, and only one thousand miles from Fiji. It was the perfect location.
The Tulagi outpost on Guadalcanal was evidence of a sizable Japanese force in the region. Starting with the 17th Army, headquartered at Rabaul, and enemy 8th Fleet, the 11th Air Fleet and the 1st, 7th, 8th, and 14th Naval Base Forces, were also on New Britain. In early August 1942, Japanese intelligence units picked up transmissions between Noumea and Melbourne. Enemy analysts decided that Admiral Ghormley had ordered an offensive force to assault the Solomon Islands or at New Guinea. The warnings were passed to the Imperial Japanese Headquarters in Truk but were ignored.
August 1, 1942
The invasion force was on its way to targets in Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and the tiny islands of Tanambogo and Gavutu close to Tulagi’s shore. The landing force would be composed of Marines. The covering and transport forces were supplied by the US Navy with the reinforcement of Australian warships. The 1st Marine Division was slated to make the landings. Five US Army divisions were located in the Southwest Pacific. Three in Australia, the 37th and 5th Infantry were in Fiji and an Americal Division on New Caledonia.
None of these divisions were trained for amphibious warfare, and all were vital parts of defensive garrisons in the Pacific. The 1st Marine Division began arriving in New Zealand in mid-June after the 5th Marines had reached Wellington. The rest of the unit’s reinforced divisions were still preparing to embark. The 1st Raider Battalion was on New Caledonia, 1st Marines were at San Francisco, and the 3rd Defense Battalion was at Pearl Harbor. The 2nd Marine Division, who would eventually replace the 1st Division, 7th Marines, was stationed in British Samoa, while the rest loaded out from San Diego. The landing force infantry regiments all had battalions of artillery attached from the 11th Marines.
The news that this division would be the landing force for Operation Watchtower came as a shock to Major General Alexander Vandegrift. He had expected that the 1st Division would have at least six months of training in the South Pacific before seeing any kind of action. Combat loading took precedence over any administrative loading of supplies. Equipment, weapons, ammunition, and rations were positioned to come off the ship with the assault troops. The combat troops replaced the civilian longshoremen. They unloaded and reloaded the cargo and passenger vessels often during rainstorms, which hampered the task, but the job got done.
All division forces got their share of labor on the docks as the various shipping groups arrived. Time was running out. General Vandegrift convinced Admiral Ghormley and the Joint Chiefs that he would not meet the proposed D-Day of August 1, and only possibly meet the extended landing date of August 7.
An amphibious operation is a complicated affair when the forces involved are assembled on brief notice from all over the Pacific. The pressure placed on Vandegrift was intense. The US Navy ships were the key to success, and they were scarce. The previous battles of the Coral Sea and Midway had damaged the Imperial Japanese fleet’s offensive capabilities and crippled its carrier forces. But their enemy naval aircraft could fight as well ashore as afloat, and enemy warships were still numerous and lethal.
American losses at Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, and Midway were considerable. The Navy knew their ships were in short supply. The day was coming when America’s shipyards and factories would fill the seas with warships of all types, but they had not arrived in 1942. The name of the game for the US Navy was calculated risk. And now the risk seemed too great. The Operation Watchtower landing force might need to be a casualty. The US Navy never ceased to risk its ships in the waters of the Solomon Islands. This meant the naval lifeline to the troops ashore was stretched thin.
The tactical command of the invasion forces approaching Guadalcanal in early August was vested in Vice Admiral Frank Fletcher as the expeditionary force commander (Task Force 61). His forces consisted of the amphibious shipping carrying the 1st Marine Division, under Admiral Richmond Turner. Admiral Leigh Noyes contributed the land-based air forces that were commanded by Admiral John McCain. Fletcher’s support forces comprised three fleet carriers, the Wasp, the Saratoga, the Enterprise, and the battleship North Carolina, six cruisers, sixteen destroyers, and three oilers. Admiral Turner’s covering force included five cruisers and nine destroyers.