by Hugh Ambrose
The skipper of Bombing Two gave Lieutenant Micheel command of Hornet's new fighter-bomber wing, which was something of an experiment.192 Lieutenant Commander Campbell might have handed the plum assignment to his executive officer, but for some time now Campbell had acknowledged that Lieutenant Micheel would make a superior squadron leader. Command of Fighter-Bomber Two represented a big step toward that. The former dairy farmer from Iowa had earned the respect of the Annapolis man after all.
On August 26, 1944, Lieutenant Micheel finally escaped the Beast. Mike selected nineteen pilots from Bombing Two to join him as he began operational training in the F6F Hellcat, the navy's fighter. From the airstrip on Eniwetok, they tested the F6F's capabilities as a dive-bomber. Test "hops" acquainted them with their new aircraft. At idle, the aircraft had a distinctive, unbalanced sound because its Pratt & Whitney R2800 engine had eighteen cylinders and ten exhaust outlets.193 Mike immediately loved it. The Hellcat throbbed with power, raced across the sky with tremendous speed, and turned with agility and grace. It flew smoothly, allowing its pilots to trust it. "It's like a Cadillac and a Ford," Mike said, trying to compare the F6F with the SB2C, "or maybe I ought to say a Cadillac and a Mack truck!"
The task group had a schedule to keep, as usual, so Micheel's training period was abbreviated. They flew formation, made a few gunnery passes; the next day they tried six to eight practice landings on the atoll's airfield. Training ended on the twenty-eighth when the word came from on high, probably from Jocko, "Now get aboard!" On the twenty-ninth, he and his men took off from the flattop to practice runs on a sled towed behind the ship. Mike made his first carrier landing in the F6F Hellcat, the 103rd carrier landing of his lifetime, that day. It was his fighter-bomber group's one and only practice landing.
Armed with four air groups, Hornet and her task group steamed for Peleliu. During the trip, Mike was asked to cut his team from twenty to thirteen pilots as the experiment evolved. The task group steamed nearly directly west, no longer circling south to avoid the enemy bases on Truk or Yap. On September 7, the air group commander decided a fighter sweep was unnecessary. At 0531 with the island bearing 331 degrees, at a distance of eighty miles, Hornet set up a huge strike of fighters, then fighter-bombers, then torpedo planes and a deckload of SB2Cs. The eight Hellcats of Lieutenant Micheel's strike carried the same load as SB2Cs carried, only they leapt off the flight deck and charged into the sky. Strike groups from two other carrier squadrons rendezvoused with them. The big formation made visual contact at 7:05 a.m. Aircraft from Wasp went first while Air Group Two circled east of the island. From his vantage point, Micheel could see that the enemy AA flak had dropped off considerably since the last time he had sortied for Peleliu.
The strictures about radio silence had long since lapsed. Micheel got a call when the other squadron completed its mission and his wing was on deck. He brought his Hellcats around from the north, increasing speed as he nosed down to nine thousand feet before breaking into a seventy- degree dive. He and the two planes on his wing pointed their bombs at an AA battery on the tip of the small island a stone's throw from Peleliu called Ngesebus. As he fell below three thousand feet at 430 knots indicated airspeed, Mike would have noticed the small bridge that connected the two islands as he released the bomb. He pulled out at two thousand feet and felt the F6F roar back skyward. The new antiblackout suits made it a lot easier to withstand the terrific g-force experienced in a pullout. In front of him the SB2Cs of Bombing Two were hitting the main island of Peleliu. Behind him and his wingmen the other fighter-bombers aimed for revetments and bunkers around the airfield on Ngesebus. Micheel's team rendezvoused with the others two miles east of the target and all returned. In the reports on their missions all of the air group pilots admitted they could not discern the amount of damage they had inflicted on their targets. Peleliu and Ngesebus "appeared to be badly damaged by previous attacks."
The afternoon strikes took off to hit Angaur, the most southern of the Palau chain, which also had an airfield. The pilots of Bombing Two reported that their new SB2Cs, the dash threes, performed better than the SB2C-2s. The task group retired to the east that night, the standard procedure to make a night attack difficult for enemy aircraft. The only bogeys, though, turned out to be friendlies. The next day, September 8, while the squadrons made a few more strikes just for good measure, Admiral Clark's task group continued west, bound for the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines. The destroyers and battlewagons, which had been escorting the flattops for months, took the opportunity to surround Peleliu and shell every target on their maps.
THE 1ST MARINE DIVISION AND THE REGIMENTAL COMBAT TEAM (RCT) OF the 81st Infantry Division--together the Third Amphibious Corps--conducted its practice landings on Guadalcanal on August 27 through 29. Carrier air support, naval gunfire (NGF), and all the amphibious craft delivered the punch that General Rupertus intended on the western end of the famous island. The exercises went well. Afterward, the marines were allowed to visit the big military base and its PX, which offered all sorts of delights.194 Few of them had ever been to Guadalcanal before, but by 1944 the women of the Red Cross had been stationed there for almost a year.195 Most marine units passed through the Canal on their way somewhere else. Burgin got to the PX and managed to eat a handful of ice-cream bars.
The fun ended on September 4, when the 3/5 boarded their LSTs and steamed northeast toward Peleliu through several days of rain. The LSTs, called Large Slow Targets for a reason, departed first; the other ships would catch them easily en route. Sledge's LST 661 had a Landing Craft Tank lashed on the weather deck, as well as two large pontoons used for making a floating dock after the assault. The 661 would become the LVT repair ship after discharging its cargo, so a large crane and piles of maintenance equipment left little free space. Below the main deck, on either side of the big hold filled with the amtracs, were two long aisles filled with metal bunks where King Company slept. An LST had the flat bottom of an amphibious craft, giving it the seagoing stability of a cork. Luckily the rain and heavy seas cleared on September 7. The men at the point of the Third Amphibious Corps sailed through twenty-one hundred miles of calm ocean ahead of schedule. Every day on the aft deck, Sergeant Pop Haney conducted his one-man bayonet drill.196
LIEUTENANT COLONEL SHOFNER LOOKED FORWARD TO COMBAT. HE WOULD LEAD a massive offensive. Its destructive power exceeded what he had endured on Corregidor. Although his troops were not landing on Mindanao, Shifty could take comfort that this assault marked the opening salvo of the invasion of Mindanao, scheduled for mid-October. The POWs at the Davao Penal Colony would soon be free. Shofner's state of mind did not come across as ferociousness to his regimental CO, Bucky Harris, though. Harris could see his 3/5 commander making every effort to succeed, but a high level of irritability seemed to be affecting his leadership.
THE FINAL DAY OF SID PHILLIPS'S ONE- MONTH LEAVE IN MOBILE HAD COME quickly. He had spent a lot of time with his friends, enjoying every moment, every glass of clean water, every moment in a dry bed with clean sheets. Dr. and Mrs. Sledge had loaned him Gene's car. Dr. Sledge used it for bird hunting, so it smelled like wet dog. Sid had driven it down to the courthouse, "took the drivers test, told the policeman a bunch of war stories, and drove away with a driver's license." The good doctor had kindly left it with a full tank, which meant a lot since gasoline was still rationed.
The last day of his leave found him and his friend George strolling through the Merchant's Bank. George stopped to say hello to one of the tellers. Sid recognized her immediately. Her name was Mary Houston. "I nearly collapsed right on the floor." It had been years since he had seen her in Murphy High School and he had just assumed she had married. "She was even prettier than I remembered." Sid walked out of the bank kicking himself for drinking beer with the boys on the Gulf while he could have been trying to make time with Mary Houston. He boarded a bus the next day, bound for his next duty station: the Naval Air Station at Boca Chica, Florida. All the seats were filled. Private First Class
Phillips stood in the bus's center aisle for twenty-four hours.
BY TRUCK AND BY TRAIN, SERGEANT BASILONE'S 1/27 DEPARTED HILO FOR THEIR camp. The old salts knew they were approaching their new base when their vehicles exited the lush rain forest and entered a high desert. Of course Camp Tarawa, named by the 2nd Marine Division, had been built in the desert, a dozen miles from the sea. The wind blew reddish volcanic ash against a few buildings, a few Quonset huts, and a great sea of eight-man tents.197 Leave it to the Marine Corps to find the ugliest part of Hawaii. "No wonder," said one wag, "the 2nd Division was so happy to invade Saipan. . . ."198 The Twenty-sixth Regiment had arrived first and taken the best part of the camp. The Twenty-seventh Regiment at least got the second choice and left the hindquarter to the Twenty-eighth.
John wrote his family, who must have been astonished to see that he was keeping his promise to write often. "Dearest Mother and Dad and all," he told them, "I'm back in the South West Pacific." After inquiring after everyone's health, he asked, "Have you heard from my wife, I sure wish she can get time off and come to see you all. For she sure [would] love to go to Raritan and see you all. How do you like our wedding picture." He hoped to get to see his brother George, whose 4th Division was also stationed in the Hawaiian Islands. "Mom you should see me now I got all my hair cut off and am getting black as a negro." The gunny, his buddies Clint, Ed, and Rinaldo, and the machine gunners in his section had also shaved their heads bald, on a lark.199 John wasn't sure what he could write that would get past the censor. "It is a beautiful place its hot in the days and cold in the nights." He sent them all hugs and kisses and "Don't forget," he signed off, to write him soon and to send one "also to my wife."200
TASK FORCE 38 HAD ROAMED AT WILL ALONG THE PHILIPPINE COAST. ITS ATTACKS on Mindanao, which began September 9, had met little resistance, much to everyone's surprise.201 Air Group Two shot up the small ships they found in Davao Harbor and ignited the planes they found parked on the airfields near the city. Although six days had been scheduled, Mindanao took only two. Up the island chain the fleet steamed, hitting Leyte and waiting for the Japanese to respond. Micheel led his fighter-bombers across Leyte to the island of Negros, on the western side of the Philippines. While his group strafed a sampan, Micheel spotted two enemy fighters and went after them. He made several gunnery passes, but they escaped. The squadrons of Air Group Two saw more planes lining the runways than they encountered in the sky. On September 12, one of the fighter pilots went down near the island of Leyte. He arrived back aboard Hornet the same day; having made it to shore in his rubber boat, he had been picked up by guerrillas. The guerrillas had contacted the fleet and had him home by lunchtime.
The returned pilot, Ensign Thomas Tillar, brought with him news from the locals that the Japanese airfields of Leyte had been emptied. His report confirmed the experience of the pilots thus far. The war was not here. Admiral Clark sent Tillar's report on to the new carrier commander, Admiral Bill Halsey.ab The wolves kept up the chase. Lieutenant Micheel made a run in an SB2C that same day, diving through some "meager" AA fire to destroy four planes he spotted on Saravia Airfield on Negros Island. Upon his return, Mike brought his plane around the end of Hornet, took the cut, and caught a wire. The wire pulled the tail hook off, sending the SB2C into the crash barrier. The spinning prop tore itself into pieces as deckhands dove for cover. It was the last time Mike flew the Beast.
The odd enemy plane came within the ship's radar as Hornet steamed south. On September 14, Micheel's fighter-bomber group met in the ready room before five thirty a.m. to get their assignment. "With Davao bearing 284deg, 112 miles," Strike 1 would launch at six a.m. A solid wall of clouds blocked the sky at thirteen thousand feet. At five thousand feet they could get good visibility. The leader of the fighter sweep, a few minutes ahead of Micheel's group and Buell's SB2Cs, radioed that he had spotted an enemy destroyer in the gulf outside the harbor of Davao. Micheel, behind Buell, watched him break his eleven Helldivers to port. As he approached Davao, he saw Buell's wing coming north, toward them. While Mike's team circled, Buell scored a direct hit on the destroyer. Others followed. The destroyer threw up a fair amount of AA fire, but to no effect. The Beasts blew the aft portion of the ship off, and then it "settled rapidly by the stern, disappearing under the water, bow last, inside of two to three minutes. . . ."202 Mike and his comrades worked over the airfield, looking for revetments hiding aircraft or storage tanks. He took them out over the gulf, where Buell's team were circling over the oil slick--all that was left of the IJN destroyer--and they turned toward Hornet. Later, the skipper would lead in another strike, just to make sure the enemy knew: the port of Davao was now closed. Mindanao had been cut off from the Empire of Japan.
SOMEWHERE OUT OF SIGHT BUT CLOSE BY, SIX ESCORT CARRIERS STEAMED, providing security to the Shofner Group. Lieutenant Colonel Shofner's marines would have lots of close air support. Another four of the navy's smaller carriers waited for them off Peleliu. These carriers, operating with five battleships, four cruisers, and fourteen destroyers, had begun plastering Peleliu on September 12. On D-day minus 1, or September 14, the LSTs neared the target. The troop transports, which had left the Canal well after them, caught up. Shofner and the other officers opened a sealed letter from the commanding officer of the 1st Marine Division. In it, General Rupertus informed his troops that the battle for Peleliu would be "extremely tough but short, not more than four days." While this message was delivered to all of the marines, men at Shofner's level would have heard another bit of good news. The big navy guns providing the preinvasion bombardment (NGF) had begun to run out of targets. It was a welcome change from the last report received before departing Pavuvu: aerial photographic reconnaissance had spotted tank tracks up near the airport. The division's tanks had been shifted north, out of Shofner's immediate zone of operations.
ON AND OFF DURING THE TRIP, EUGENE SLEDGE HAD TRIED TO READ HIS NEW book, River Out of Eden, about a boy's adventure traveling up the Mississippi River on a flatboat. On D-day minus 1, though, he wrote some V-mails. He wrote Sid, thanking him for the photos of Spanish Fort and continuing to make plans for their trip after the war to visit Civil War battlefields. Gene also described the scene around him on the weather deck: groups of card players crowded every corner. The sergeants of King Company stepped over and around the bodies, bellowing orders that seemed to always begin with "You people!"203 Gene's description made it by the censor easily, even though it informed Private First Class Phillips that his friend Ugin would soon be in harm's way.
Eugene also wrote his parents a letter, one much shorter than his usual. He never once betrayed any hint of where he was or what the next day held. Most of it consisted of a continuation of his Christmas wish list, since his parents would purchase his gifts early in an attempt to mail them in time. He reminded his mother of their trip to New Orleans, the memory of it a treasure to him. As dusk gave way to darkness, few men moved below to sleep. The cool breeze on deck provided some relief from the heat. Those who could not sleep could pace. The low baritone hum of the engines had been forgotten about until they switched off. The quiet felt sudden and ominous.204
ON SEPTEMBER 14, JOHN BASILONE "PULLED RANK." WHEN HE FOUND OUT THAT there was a fair amount of air traffic between his base on Hawaii and his brother's base on Maui, he requested a ride.205 John flew over to see George, who was training with the 4th Division. They had last seen one another in August 1943. George had participated in the invasion of Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands, and in the invasion of Saipan, in the Marianas. Unlike John, though, George did not serve in a rifle company.206 He handled supplies. John sent both his mother and his wife a photo of him and George. Dora Basilone allowed the newspaper to use her copy of the photo in a small news item entitled "Basilones Meet in the Pacific."
AFTER BREAKFAST, MORE THAN A FEW K/3/5 MEN CLIMBED A LADDER TOPSIDE. They watched the sun rise behind Peleliu, framing the dark little island, and shining into their eyes. With each passing moment the volume of t
he bombardment grew. The great thundering cannons of the battleships punctuated the faster, point-blank shooting of the destroyers and the angry buzz of the navy planes on their bombing runs. The staccato blended into a vast storm. Each marine told himself that this violence was a good thing. No enemy could survive such fury. The island disappeared inside a dark pall of smoke and debris, lit by fires churning underneath. Apprehension grew inside them. It was all so big, so far beyond the power of the individual. "Everybody belowdeck." 207 Noticing that some of the new men in his squad seemed nervous, Burgin told them, "Just keep your calm and everything will turn out all right. Just do your job."
Down the ladder and into the metal cavern of the LST, the men of King Company found their thirteen amtracs.208 The engines' exhaust fouled the air. The three nearest the bow door had a cannon mounted on them. The next four LVTs were newer models with rear ramps; these also carried King's 37mm antitank guns. The marines in the six remaining amtracs had to climb up the sides to get in. Sledge's #2 gun squad was assigned LVT 13. It would be in the second wave of amtracs carrying troops. A light opened at the far end of the chamber. The engines gunned, and one by one they drove out toward daylight.
After their craft splashed into the ocean, the heads of the mortarmen were about the height of sea level. Everything loomed above them. Swabbies in T-shirts took in the scene with keen interest, a cup of coffee in one hand.209 A few waved cheerfully at the helmeted figures below. The other three LSTs of the 3rd Battalion lay at anchor nearby, disgorging assault craft as well. The amtracs churned slowly toward their positions. Inside the assault craft, the noise of bombardment began to separate the men. Only by yelling in a man's ear could Sledge communicate. Snafu offered Sledge a cigarette. Sledge said he did not smoke. To which Snafu replied, "You will."210 Burgin laughed.