World War II Pacific: Battles and Campaigns from Guadalcanal to Okinawa 1942-1945 (WW2 Pacific Military History Series)

by Daniel Wrinn

  4th Marine Division

  This Marine division was born from the shifting and redesignation of several other units. The 23rd Marines began as an infantry detached from the 3rd Division in February 1943. At the same time an artillery battalion became the genesis of the 14th Marines and engineer elements of the 19th Marines formed the start of the 20th Marines. In March ’43, the 24th Marines were organized and then two months later were split to supply men from the 25th Marines.

  The wartime shuffling provided the major building blocks for a new division. The units were separated between artillery, medical, transport, weapons, tanks, etc. Some were in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and had to be moved to Camp Pendleton, San Diego by train and by ship through the Panama Canal in summer of 1943. When all the units were finally together, they formed the 4th Marine Division activated on August 14, 1943.

  After intensive training, they shipped out on January 13, 1944, and in less than thirteen months made four major assault landings: Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. The 4th Marine Division suffered over seventeen thousand casualties. They were awarded two Presidential Unit Citations and a Navy Unit Commendation before their deactivation on November 28, 1945. In February 1966 they were reactivated as the lead division in the Marine Corps reserve. The 4th Marine Division also supplied essential units to Desert Storm in the liberation of Kuwait.

  Fourth Marine Division Patch

  Also worn on Saipan, this patch was designed by Staff Sergeant John Fabiano, a member of the division’s public affairs office. His commanding officer was shocked to find that when the division attacked Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the layout of the Japanese airstrips was an exact replica.

  Army 27th Infantry Division

  Before a national emergency was declared in 1940, the Army’s 27th Infantry Division served as a New York State National Guard. Composed of several famous old regiments, some even dating to the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

  In World War II this division’s 165th Infantry had been the legendary old 69th New York Infantry, the “Fighting Irish” of World War I. The first unit of this regiment was organized in 1775.

  While the war in Europe intensified, the Selective Service Act gave the president the power to federalize the National Guard. FDR activated the 27th Division on September 25, 1940. They were sent first to Fort McClellan, Alabama for rigorous training and then onto California in December 1941.

  On February 28, 1942, the first elements of the 27th Infantry Division sailed from San Francisco and landed in the town of Hilo on Hawaii’s “Big Island.” For the next two months, the units were scattered throughout the islands for local defense and training. This was the start of the longest wartime overseas service of any National Guard Division in the United States Army.

  In the fall of 1942, the division was directed to assemble on the island of Oahu under command of General Ralph Smith. In summer of 1943, orders came in to prepare the 165th Infantry Regiment (reinforced by a battalion of the 105th, and an artillery battalion) to assault and capture the Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Island chain.

  After a four-day battle in November 1943, the division supplied a battalion of the 106th Infantry for an unopposed occupation of Majuro in the Marshall Islands in January 1944.

  The lead up to Saipan for units of the 27th came the following month. Two battalions of the 106th at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshals. After the battle on Saipan, they went on to the fight for Okinawa in April 1945, and ultimately to the occupation of Japan in September 1945.

  In December 1946, the 27th Infantry division was deactivated.

  Heroes of Saipan

  Private First Class Harold Agerholm was born on January 29, 1925, in Racine, Wisconsin. He served in the 4th Battalion, 10th Marines in the 2nd Marine Division against enemy Japanese forces on Tarawa Atoll in ’43 and on Saipan in ’44. It was there that he met his death on July 7, 1944.

  The Japanese enemy launched a fierce counterattack and overran a neighboring artillery battalion. Private First Class Agerholm volunteered to check on the hostile attack and help to evacuate the wounded. He located and seized an abandoned ambulance and repeatedly made extremely dangerous trips under heavy small arms and mortar fire. Private First Class Agerholm single-handedly loaded and evacuated over forty wounded men. He worked tirelessly and with utter disregard for his own safety during a grueling period of three hours.

  Through intense and persistent enemy fire, he ran out to aid a man whom he believed was a wounded Marine, but in the process was mortally wounded by a Japanese sniper. Private First Class Agerholm was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his brilliant initiative, great personal valor, and self-sacrificing efforts in the face of certain death. His gallantry reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States.

  Private First Class Harold Glenn Epperson was born on July 14, 1923 in Akron, Ohio. He joined the Marines in 1942 and served with the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines in the 2nd Marine Division fighting against Japanese forces on Tarawa Atoll and died on the island of Saipan July 25, 1944.

  Private First Class Epperson’s machine gun emplacement bore the full brunt of a fanatic enemy assault under the cover of a predawn darkness. Private First Class Epperson manned his weapon with a determined aggressiveness and fought furiously in defense of his battalion’s position. He maintained a steady stream of devastating fire against rapidly infiltrating Japanese troops. He aided in breaking that attack up.

  A Japanese soldier assumed to be dead sprang up and hurled a hand grenade into the emplacement. Private First Class Epperson, determined to save his comrades, without hesitation sacrificed himself and dove onto the grenade. He absorbed the shattering violence of the exploding charge with his own body. Resolute and stouthearted in the face of certain death, Private First Class Epperson fearlessly yielded his own life to save his comrades. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his superb valor and unfaltering devotion to duty. His actions reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States.

  Sergeant Grant Timmerman was born on February 14, 1919, in Americus, Kansas. During WWII he served with the 2nd Tank Battalion, 6th Marines in the 2nd Marine Division on Tarawa Atoll and on Saipan. He gave his life in order to save his crew on July 8, 1944.

  Sergeant Timmerman advanced with his tank a few yards ahead of the infantry to support a vigorous attack on hostile positions. Sergeant Timmerman maintained a steady fire from his antiaircraft sky mount machine gun until progress was impeded by a series of enemy pillboxes and trenches. He observed a target of opportunity and immediately ordered that the tanks stop.

  Mindful of the danger from the muzzle blast, he prepared to open fire with the 75mm. He fearlessly stood up, exposing himself, and ordered the infantry to hit the deck. A grenade hurled by the Japanese was about to drop into the open turret hatch. Sergeant Timmerman blocked the opening with his body allowing the grenade to detonated against his chest, taking the brunt of the explosion.

  For his exceptional valor and loyalty in saving his men at the cost of his own life. Sergeant Timmerman, too, was awarded the Medal of Honor.

  Invasion of Tinian

  Scouting Tinian’s Beaches

  Once the outcome of Saipan’s battle was clear, the V Amphibious Corps Commanders turned their attention to the next objective: the island of Tinian. Three miles off Saipan’s southwest coast and garrisoned with over nine-thousand Japanese troops. Many of the enemy combatants were veterans of the Manchurian Campaign, pummeled for over seven weeks by US Navy air and sea armadas.

  The 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions, fresh from fighting on Saipan, were selected to assault Tinian. The vital question of where they would land was still undecided. There was firm support among assault planners to land on two narrow sand strips—codenamed White Beach 1 and White Beach 2—on Tinian’s northwest coast. White Beach 1 was sixty yards wide, while White Beach 2 was one hundred and sixty.

  Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, overall commander of the Marianas’ Expeditiona
ry Force, was skeptical and suggested an alternative site codenamed Yellow Beach.

  On July 3, 1944, Captain James Jones was put on alert for future reconnaissance of these potential landing sites. On July 9, the day Saipan was officially declared secured, Captain Jones got his orders from General Holland Smith. His men were to scout out Tinian’s beaches and fortifications to determine the capacity to handle a landing force and keep it supplied.

  Navy UDT (underwater demolition teams) would locate underwater obstacles and do the hydrographic work. Captain Jones chose Company A under the command of Captain Merwin Silverthorn and First Lieutenant Leo Shinn to command Company B. They rehearsed the operation off the beaches of Saipan’s Magicienne Bay. On the evening of July 10, Navy and Marine units boarded the destroyer transports Stringham and Gilmer for the quick trip into the channel that separated the two islands.

  At 2030 on July 10, the teams debarked in zodiac rubber boats and paddled to within five hundred yards of the beach, then swam the rest of the way in. Luckily, it was a black night, and although the moon rose at 2230, it was largely hidden by the clouds.

  Yellow Beach was assigned to Silverthorn’s Company A. He led eight UDT swimmers and twenty Marines ashore. They found a beach near Tinian Town flanked on each side by formidable cliffs. Several floating mines and underwater boulders barred the approach. On the beach, double-apron barbed wire had been strung.

  Captain Silverthorn worked his way thirty yards inland in search of exit routes for the vehicles. Talkative Japanese workers were busy building pillboxes and entrenching blasting charges. Silverthorn spotted three Japanese sentries on the cliff overlooking the beach. Searchlights passed back and forth, scanning the beach approach, but Silverthorn and his men safely made it back to the Stringham. Yellow Beach as a landing site would not work.

  In the northwest, the White Beaches reconnaissance was assigned to Company B. Strong currents push the rubber boats off course. The team heading for White Beach 1 was swept over a thousand yards north off course and never got ashore. The team headed for White Beach 2 wound up on White Beach 1 and reconnoitered the area. The Gilmer eventually picked up both parties. The following night, ten swimmers from Company A went to White Beach 2 and were successful.

  Reports from the White Beaches were encouraging. The LVTs (amphibian tractors) and other vehicles could negotiate the reefs and get ashore. Troops could also clamber over the low cliffs flanking the beaches with little difficulty. Marines disembarking from the boats on the reef could wade ashore through a shallow surf. The Navy’s UDT teams confirmed the Marine intelligence and reported: “no man-made underwater obstructions or mines were found.”

  After the reconnaissance team returned from White Beach 2, Admiral Turner withdrew his objection, and the command decision was made to use the northwestern beaches. The assault was set for July 24 at 0730.

  Planning the Assault

  The 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions on Saipan were tasked with seizing Tinian. The Army’s 27th Infantry Division would remain on Saipan in reserve. All three had been pummeled during the Saipan campaign. Together they’d suffered more than 14,000 casualties, with over 3,200 killed in action.

  This would be the fourth assault in eighteen months for the 2nd Marine Division. The division left Guadalcanal in February 1943, suffering over one thousand casualties. Another 12,000 men had diagnosed malaria cases. Eight months later, on November 20, 1943—the 2nd Marine Division had gone through one of the most intense seventy-two hours of combat in the history of island warfare at Tarawa. They endured 3,368 casualties, with just under a thousand dead.

  Two and a half months before Tarawa, the division was still malaria-ridden, with troops hospitalized at a rate of over forty men a day. Ranks were filled with emaciated Marines, skin yellowed by the daily doses of the Atabrine pills. The Saipan operation took another heavy toll on these Marines seven months later: 1,304 killed and 5,027 wounded.

  The 4th Marine Division had a busy but less demanding year. They went directly into combat after their formation at Camp Pendleton. They landed on January 31, 1944, in the Marshall Islands. They suffered 787 casualties in the capture of Roi-Namur. They endured 6,025 casualties on Saipan, with more than 1,000 Marines killed. The Tinian landing would be the third assault in six months. It would also be the first under a new divisional commander—Major General Clifton Cates: a decorated World War I veteran who would later become the 19th Commandant of the Marine Corps in 1948.

  “Troop morale in the Tinian operation was generally high,” wrote Marine historian Carl Hoffman. “This fact takes on significance only when it’s recalled the Marines had just survived a bitter month-long struggle with only a two-week lapse, and they were again ordered to assault enemy-held shores. Their spirit was more of a philosophical shrug accompanied by a ‘here we go again’ attitude rather than a resentment at being called upon again so soon.”

  The pre-invasion bombardment also helped the morale of the troops. For Jig -1 and Jig Day (Jig was the codename for D-Day on Tinian) Rear Admiral Harry Hill would command the Northern Landing Forces. He divided the island into five support sectors and assigned specific ships to each. He intended to deceive the Japanese about the true intentions of the Marine landing.

  Tinian Town got the heaviest pounding the day before the landing: 2,785 rounds of 5- to 16-inch shells from battleships Tennessee, Colorado, California, and the cruiser Cleveland along with seven destroyers. Colorado had the best day with sixty rounds of 16-inch shells smashing the two six-inch coastal defense guns the Japanese had placed on the west near San Hilo Point—guns that could have covered the white beaches.

  Due to lack of suitable targets and deception, White Beach area firing was insignificant. Naval gunfire and artillery barrages were stopped to allow massive airstrikes on railroad junctions, villages, pillboxes, cane fields, gun emplacements, and the beaches at Tinian Town. Over 350 Army and Navy planes took part in dropping over 200 rockets, 500 bombs, and thirty-four napalm bombs.

  That night thirty-seven LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) at anchor off Saipan reloaded with 4th Marine Division troops. Three days of rations, medical supplies, ammunition, water, vehicles, and other equipment were preloaded on July 15. The troops traveled light: a pair of socks, insect repellent, a spoon, emergency supplies in their pockets, and no pack on their back.

  Historian Philip Crowl wrote, “I rode the ships with two transport divisions that would carry two regiments of the 2nd Marine Division on a diversionary feint against Tinian Town and would later disembark them across the Northwestern beaches.” (A similar ruse was made by the 2nd Division Marines a year later off the southeast beach of Okinawa.)

  The 4th Marine Division was selected as the assault division for Tinian. The beaches were not wide enough to accommodate battalions landing abreast, much less divisions. The assault troops landed in columns—companies, platoons, and even squads.

  The 2nd Division would soon follow after taking part in a feint off the beaches of Tinian Town. They hoped to tie down the main Japanese forces while the 4th Division surprised the lightly defended northern beaches.

  To give the 4th Marine Division more punch after the landing, the 2nd Marine Division was stripped of some of its artillery, tank, and firepower units. They would be at the lowest strength on Tinian of any Marine division involved in an amphibious operation in all of World War II.

  Even after cannibalizing from the 2nd Marine Division, the 4th would still be “skinny,” wrote Lieutenant Colonel “Jumping Joe” Chambers, who commanded the 3rd Battalion 25th Regiment (3/25) Marines and later earned a Medal of Honor on Iwo Jima. The division’s infantry battalion only received one replacement after the fighting on Saipan. At full strength, they averaged 880 men—at Tinian, the average strength was down by more than 35% to just over 550 men.

  Due to combat fatigue, heavy losses during previous weeks and months, and under-strength units: The Marines on Tinian played a cautious game. Admiral Turner said he’d give them two weeks to seize
the island. General Harry Schmidt, now in command of V Amphibious Corps, promised to get it done sooner. The island was secured after nine days. A Marine Historian wrote, “the operation could have been finished sooner if they used more aggressive tactics.” But time was no great factor—the relatively slow pace of the operation probably contributed to keeping casualties at a minimum and helped reduce troop fatigue. Tinian may have been easy on the eyes, but the heat and humidity were brutal, the cane fields were hard going, and it was monsoon season.

  Jig Day Landing

  At 0330, July 24, troop ships moved out of Saipan’s Charan Kanoa harbor. They carried the 2nd and 8th Infantry Regiments of the 2nd Marine Division. This deception mission would be far bloodier than the White Beach landings and far more costly than command expected. They had a powerful escort—the battleship Colorado, light cruiser Cleveland, and destroyers Monssen, Wadleigh, Norman Scott and Ramey.

  The convoy moved into Sunharon Harbor across from Tinian Town just before dawn. At 0601, the attack transport Calvert lowered its landing craft, and by 0630, all twenty-two of its boats were in the water. Marines climbed down cargo nets, and within thirty minutes: US planes strafed and bombed the runs, paying particular attention to Tinian Town. Rockets and shells from battleships, light and heavy cruisers, destroyers, and over thirty gunboats saturated the beaches. Massed artillery battalions in southern Saipan thundered in with 155mm rounds.