by Daniel Wrinn
The Army Air Force bombing, Marine artillery, and naval shelling had been going on in enemy areas for days. Night fighters also supported the advance. Even in darkness, the enemy defenders had no protection or reprieve. By August 6, General Obata’s defensive line across Guam was shattered and overrun. Only isolated pockets of enemy troops were left on the island.
American commanders still could not say when the fight for Guam would be over. The assault on Mount Santa Rosa began at noon on August 7. In the rumble of artillery and rattle of tanks, the 77th took Yigo, the gateway to Santa Rosa, and continued its wheeling maneuver. Tanks and infantry overran machine gun positions while bulldozers blazed trails. By the night of August 7, the 77th was dug into positions and ready for the final attack on the mountain. The Japanese counterattacks still did not come. The rapid American advance accompanied by heavy artillery likely stalled any enemy counterattack.
On August 8, the northern half of Mount Santa Rosa was in American hands, and troops moved to secure the rest of the mountain. By early afternoon, the Army reached the cliffs of the sea and looked right down into the ocean. The infantry had also completed an enveloping move by taking the northern slopes of Mount Santa Rosa.
Over 650 enemy bodies were found after the two-day battle. Estimates of enemy troops at Santa Rosa had been as high as 5,000. This meant enemy troops in significant numbers still infested the jungle terrain everywhere on Guam. Worse, several enemy tanks were unaccounted for. Japanese survivors from the battle drifted into the 9th Marines’ lines on the Army flank and slowed the regiment’s advance. Sharp-eyed Marines noted significant enemy movement at a hill in the Army’s zone—General Obata’s command post.
The 3rd Marines on the left advanced through light enemy opposition. A twenty-man roadblock held up the Marines but was quickly destroyed. After searching through a corridor, Marines found the bodies of thirty dead Guamanians. They were beheaded.
The brigade had it easier on the far west flank. They encountered light resistance and advanced along a fairly good trail. On August 8, the 22nd Marines finally reached Ritidian Point at the islands’ northernmost tip. Moving along a twisted cliff trail to the beach, Marines encountered less than aggressive Japanese defenses, which they quickly overran. The 1st Marine Brigade had the honor of being first to reach both the southernmost point of the island and Guam’s northernmost tip at Ritidian Point.
Marines patrolled the area they occupied but found few Japanese. General Geiger ordered the naval gunfire to be reduced, while the Saipan-based P-47s made their last bombing and strafing runs at Ritidian Point. The 22nd Marines scoured the cliffs below and along the beaches searching for enemy caves. On August 9, at 1800, General Shepherd declared all organized resistance had ceased in his zone.
But it wasn’t that easy for the 3rd Marines. On August 9, near Tarague, the regiment was hit by an enemy tank and mortar attack. Marine antitank grenades and bazooka rockets were wet and ineffective against the enemy assault. The Japanese soldiers blazed away with impunity before ducking back into the woods. When Major Bill Culpepper, commanding the 2nd Battalion, counted heads, he noted his Marines hadn’t suffered one-single-casualty.
The 9th Marines had advanced to Pati Point on the northeastern tip of the island. Intelligence reported that 2,000 Japanese troops were held up at Savana Grand in a wild tract of jungle and coconut trees and high grass near the coast. Command did not want to risk any casualties so close to the campaign’s end and called in artillery—2,275 rounds. Japanese survivors were routed, and either killed or taken prisoner.
The final American positions were formed along the coast, and by nightfall on August 8, the 9th Marines waved to the soldiers of the 77th patrolling to their south.
General Geiger wanted the pocket of enemy tanks destroyed before he would declare Guam secure. This had to be completed by the 10th, because Admiral Nimitz was scheduled to arrive on a visit. Major Culpepper’s 2/3 Marines were tasked with finding and eliminating the remaining enemy tanks. At 0730, Culpepper’s battalion and a platoon of American Sherman tanks found two enemy medium tanks firing 400 yards up the trail from the Marines. The Shermans left their counterparts hunks of burning metal when they were finished. Seven more enemy medium tanks were abandoned. The remaining Japanese troops withdrew to the cliffs and were destroyed.
On August 10 at 1130, after hearing the remaining Japanese tanks were destroyed, General Geiger declared all organized resistance on Guam over. A great day for the Guamanians—their island was theirs again.
This was also the end for General Obata. On the morning of August 11, when the general knew his headquarters had been discovered, and the enemy was coming for him, he signaled a message to the Emperor: “We continue this desperate battle. We now have only our bare hands to fight with. The holding of Guam is now hopeless. Our souls will defend the island to the very end. I am overwhelmed with sorrow for the families of the many slain officers and men. I pray for the prosperity of the Empire.”
The 77th made its assault on Obata’s headquarters, supported by demolition squads and tanks. Enemy defenders killed seven Americans and wounded fifteen others before they were destroyed and buried in the rubble of blown caves and emplacements. It is still unclear if General Obata committed suicide or was killed in those last hours of the battle for Guam.
General Henry Larsen assumed command of Guam on August 15. Under him were the forces of the 3rd Marine Division to continue the mopping up.
A terrible cost for the Japanese on Guam was the already counted 10,970 bodies. And there were still supposedly 10,000 more Japanese on the island. At first, some of the enemy defenders fought in staged ambushes, and some sniped at Americans, but soon the remaining Japanese sought only one thing—food. Most others fled when encountered. The Japanese had no central command. They died of dysentery, starved, became too weak to run, and finally blew themselves up with the one precious grenade they saved to take their own lives. American patrols were aggressive in killing and capturing near eighty Japanese sailors and soldiers a day. A few daring Japanese snuck into Marine food storage areas at night.
In addition to the battlefield casualties, over 8,800 Japanese were captured or killed on Guam between August 1944 and the end of the war on August 1945.
The twenty-one-day Guam campaign ended on August 10. Marine units of the III Amphibious Corps reported 5,308 wounded and 1,567 men killed in action. The 77th Division’s casualties were 843, with 177 soldiers killed.
The Marines and Army ran a closely-knit team in the liberation of Guam. General Holland Smith referred to General Bruce’s troops as “the 77th Marines.”
According to Major Aplington, a battalion commander in the 3rd Marines: “The fatigues are so different from our herringbone utilities and their olive drab ponchos so different from us. But there is no doubt the 77th were good men to have alongside us in a fight, and as a result, we refer to them as the 77th Marine Division.”
On August 10, on the same busy day, only hours after Major Culpepper’s battalion knocked out the last of the Japanese tanks. The Indianapolis steamed into Apra Harbor with Marine Commandant Alexander Vandergrift on board accompanying Admiral Nimitz. On August 15, Nimitz directed his forward headquarters be established on Guam, and from there he directed the rest of the Pacific War.
Soon after, from airfields on Guam and Tinian, B-29s blasted the Japanese home islands. While there was still more hard fighting to come, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, the end of the war was less than one year away.
Marine Presence on Guam
The signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1899, after the Spanish-American war, made Guam and the Philippines territorial possession of the United States.
On June 21, 1898, First Lieutenant John “Handsome Jack” Myers led a party of Marines ashore from the cruiser Charleston to accept the surrender of the Spanish forces. The Spanish authorities at the time didn’t even know a state of war existed between Spain and the US.
This began a long Marine p
resence on Guam. Ferdinand Magellan discovered this southernmost island in the Mariana’s chain in 1521, but it was not occupied until 1688 when Spanish soldiers and priests established a small mission.
When control of the other Mariana Islands, including Tinian and Saipan, were given to Japan in 1919, Guam became an isolated and highly valuable American outpost in a sea of Japanese.
Guam is thirty-five miles long, nine miles wide at its widest, and four at its narrowest. It’s shaped like a peanut and has a year-long temperature of 79 degrees Fahrenheit. In the early morning of December 10, 1941, Guam was captured by a fierce Japanese attack from her sister island of Saipan.
Once Captain George McMillan, Governor of Guam, realized he would not receive reinforcements or relief, he surrendered to the Japanese naval forces. One of his biggest concerns was the fate of the 25,000 Guamanians who would suffer if a strong defense was mounted. McMillan believed the situation was hopeless. He ordered the 223 Marines at Sumay on Orote Peninsula to lie down their arms. Even after giving orders to surrender, Marines suffered sixty-one casualties in two days of fighting and bombing.
Guam War Dogs
Toward the end of summer 1942, the Marine Corps experimented with the use of dogs in war. While new to the Corps, dogs in war were not a new idea in warfare. Since ancient times, dogs have served fighting men. Romans used heavy mastiffs with armored collars to attack their enemies’ legs, forcing them to lower their shields.
On Guam, Lieutenant Bill Putney commanded the 1st Dog Platoon and was the veterinarian for all war dogs on Guam. Along with Lieutenant Bill Taylor in charge of the 2nd Dog Platoon, they had sixty war dogs, ninety handlers, two war dog corpsmen, three kennelmen, and ten NCOs. In total, about three hundred and fifty war dogs served in the Guam operation.
Handlers were trained scouts and skilled dog specialists. Dog and man searched out the enemy, awaited his arrival, and caught him by surprise around the Marine perimeter while on patrol. Dogs were used to find snipers, rout stragglers, and search out pillboxes and caves. They also ran messages and protected Marine’s foxholes just like they would at private homes. The dogs walked, slept, ate, and lived with their handlers. The presence of dogs on the line promised Marines a decent night’s sleep. War dogs were quick to alert their handlers when enemy troops came close.
Early in the Guam operation, several dogs were injured or killed by machine-gun fire and incoming mortars. This loss devastated the Marines. When dogs were wounded, Marines made a point of getting them to the rear as fast as possible. In the recapture of Guam, war dogs suffered forty-five casualties, with twenty-five dogs killed.
Guam served as a staging area for war dogs. Eighty-five percent of the Marine Corps’ war dogs were Doberman Pinschers, and the rest were German Shepherds.
At the end of the Pacific War, the Marine Corps had over 500 war dogs. Four hundred and ninety dogs were deprogrammed, a process that could take a year. Then they were returned to their owners or given to their handlers. Only four dogs could not be returned to their masters because they remained “incorrigible” and considered too unsafe for living a civilian life, even after extensive retraining.
3rd Marine Division Insignia
The 3rd Marine Division insignia was adopted on August 25, 1943, while the division trained on Guadalcanal for the upcoming invasion of Bougainville. The insignia comprised a caltrop on a triangular, gold-bordered, scarlet shield. Historically, the caltrop was a medieval defensive weapon used against both infantry and cavalry.
In Middle-Age warfare, large numbers of caltrops were scattered by defenders on the ground in front of an approaching enemy. The four-prong forged iron caltrop was designed so that no matter which way it landed when thrown on the ground—one point would be up with the other three points supporting it.
When used on the insignia, the caltrop represented the 3rd Marine Division and the motto painted on the drums carried by the Continental Marines in the American Revolution: Don’t Tread on Me.
Colt M1911A1 Pistol
Standard issue to many Marine officers, noncommissioned officers, and specialists not armed with an M1 carbine or a rifle during World War II. Since 1911, this pistol had served its Marine owners and other service members armed with it well.
The first M1911 pistols were issued to the Marine Corps in 1912. Shortly afterward, the Marine Corps fielded this pistol exclusively. Colt had manufactured over 55,000 pistols by the time the US entered World War I, but there was still not enough, and some units of the American Expeditionary Force were armed with revolvers. This caused more than half a million M1911s to be produced before 1926, when the M1911 was modified and improved into the new pistol—M1911A1.
The new modifications gave the pistol a contoured handgrip, longer grip safety, and a shorter and serrated trigger with wider sites. Around 1.8 million of the newer M1911A1s were produced and others upgraded to meet the new specs during World War II.
The Pacific War also meant further changes for the pistol. Among these was altering the finish from the common shiny blue-black to a dull gray known as “Parkerization,” designed to give the pistol a more non-reflective and matte surface. The wartime M1911A1 also had checkered plastic grips instead of a molded rubber.
Colt couldn’t keep up with the demand. And so, the following firms were licensed to produce the M1911A1—Singer Sewing Machine Company, Remington Arms Company, and the Union Switch and Signal Company, among others. Remington out produced Colt during wartime years by over half a million pistols.
Joe Blow Stories
Marine Combat Correspondent Cyril O’Brien wrote this account of Chonito Ridge after being in the field and witnessing the battle. It was published in the United States not long after the event “and always after families were notified of the death or wounding of any Marines mentioned.”
July 24 on Guam: The first frontal attack on the steep Chonito Ridge was made one hour after the Marine landing.
Lieutenant Jim Gallo led an infantry squad and was within ten yards of the ridge’s tip when the crest exploded with machine-gun fire. In the face of it, the Marine company tried its first assault. The company was thrown back before they made forty yards.
For fifty hours, the company remained on the naked slope. They tried to storm the Jap entrenchments less than 100 yards away. After almost being battered to destruction, the resilient Marines saw another company take the ridge from the rear.
Failing the first rush, they formed a flimsy defense line less than fifty yards from the enemy. Cover was scarce. Marines had only tufts of grass to shield them. Japs rolled grenades down the crest and blasted Marines with knee mortars from over the summit.
The company commander led a second attack under cover of dusk. As Marines rose, machine-gun fire swept into them. The commander and three Marines reached the crest. The last fifty feet were nearly vertical. Marines grasped roots and dug their feet into the soft earth to keep from falling down the incline.
The commander went over the ridge—but never came back. The remaining three Marines were ripped apart by crossfire. One saved himself by jumping into an enemy foxhole.
Beaten again, the company withdrew to a small ravine and stayed all night. One of the wounded Marines, shot through both legs, begged for morphine. Another Marine’s thigh was ripped open by shell fragments. One Private First Class, with a dry, swollen tongue, tried to whisper the range of an enemy sniper.
On the morning of the 22nd, with just a third of their original number remaining, the company rushed the hillside again.
Lieutenant Gallo led the assault on the left flank of the hill but was thrown back. Sergeant Charles Bomar, 33 years old from Houston Texas, and nine Marines tried to take the slope’s right ground. Five were killed instantly as they left the ravine. Bomar and three Marines finally reached the top of the slope.
Japs again rolled grenades down the incline. One exploded under the chest of a nearby Marine, taking his head clean off. Another grenade bounced off the helmet of the sergean
t—lucky for him it was a dud.
Marines charged into the Jap entrenchment. Sergeant Bomar killed an enemy machine gunner with the butt of his carbine. The assistant gunner exploded a grenade against his body. The blast knocked the Marines out of the hole, and they fell back into vacated enemy foxholes. A lieutenant who had just come to join them was shot right between the eyes by a sniper. Bomar turned and killed the sniper with his M1 carbine.
Unable to hold their positions, Sergeant Bomar and his Marines returned to the shelter of the ravine. They were all that remained of their shattered company. They waited for nearly twenty-four hours until darting Marines on top of the ridge showed Chonito had been taken from the rear.
Stories like these were known as “Joe blow” stories. Written to improve the morale of the men. Many stories like this were printed in hometown newspapers and then clipped and sent to troops in the Pacific, who could then see their efforts were appreciated at home.
General Roy Geiger
Roy Geiger and several other general officers in the Guam invasion force were World War I veterans. Geiger was an early Marine Corps aviator. He was the fifth Marine to become a naval aviator in 1917 and forty-ninth in the naval service to get his wings.