Training for Saipan

With the big fight for Saipan looming in the next weeks, this is probably a good time to go into a little background on the training that the 24th Marines underwent to prepare for the battle.

(R&R at Camp Maui will be another topic for another time).

The 24th sailed from Namur on February 23, 1944, exactly a month after they departed from San Diego en route to Operation Flintlock. Their experiences in combat weighed heavily on many of the men, as Phil Wood describes:

Well, we left San Diego just a month ago today – and we have now started back - not all the way, but to a rest camp. Rest Camp isn’t exactly and accurate term – more like a prizefighter’s training camp, where you go to put on weight, get back in trim. We need some of that – a lot of new equipment to replace all that was lost or damaged, and a chance to relax the boys’ minds – they’ve been under a tension for a long time now. All they – we - want to do is get back to some safe spot and eat and sleep and loaf in the sun – and see some green hills and foamy cold beer, and see a buxom open-faced country lass.

Phil Wood letter, February 23 1944

The 24th returned to a newly established rest camp on Maui (appropriately, if not imaginatively, named "Camp Maui"). The tired Marines were given a chance to rest, recuperate from their experiences, and in some cases, recover in the hospital. The camp itself was scarcely an ideal living place; the official USMC Monograph for Saipan notes that "...the 4th Division's camp on Maui were incomplete in many respects. Considerable time was necessarily spent making these camps liveable. At Camp Maui, the ubiquitous red clay caused much annoyance. In dry weather, everything was covered with red dust, in wet weather, with red mud." However, from a training standpoint, the conditions were excellent. Camp Maui possessed the only 100-target rifle range in the entire PTO, and artillery crews enjoyed huge amounts of space to practice dropping high explosive rounds on target.

The 4th Marine Division website has an excellent summary of the facilities available for the Marines:

The terrain and beaches of Maui provided excellent and rugged training ground. All the Division's amphibious maneuvers for the Marianas and Iwo Jima operations were held off Maalaea Bay. Haleakala became a super obstacle course and 13-mile hikes through its crater, a challenge to those who thought they had tough leg muscles. A total of 47 training areas, many of them belonging to the Army, were available to the Division. Six areas, consisting of gulches and rough terrain, near the camp, were used for non-tactical maneuvering. On the outskirts of camp, a demolitions area, a live-grenade course, a pistol range, and 1000-inch machine-gun range were set up. Five miles east of camp, in a gulch opening into the sea, was the Division's bazooka area, and along the coast, east of camp for about ten miles, were combat firing ranges which permitted the maneuvering and firing of tanks and halftracks in coordination with the infantry. The Division's 100-target rifle range at Opana Point was also located in this area. Another area in the vicinity was used to train motor transport drivers in the movement of troops and supplies under both day and night conditions of combat.

Army facilities on Maui available to the Division, according to Fourth Division records, "consisted of a jungle training center, a village fighting course, a cave fighting course, and an infiltration course. The fortified jungle position consisted of 22 pillboxes and emplacements well concealed in bamboo groves, under the roots of banyan trees, and in thick undergrowth."

In addition to all this, there was a mortar and artillery impact area, a seacoast artillery range and an antiaircraft firing area. The Maalaea Bay area furnished an antitank moving-target range, a close-combat range, and a 20-point rifle range. The beach at Maalaea Bay was fortified with pillboxes and emplacements modeled after the Tarawa Beach. Inland were two artillery positions and maneuver areas. In the center of the island, near the Puunene Air Station, were, the Division's tank maneuver areas.

Preparations for Operation Forager began shortly after the Division arrived on Maui.

Life here is not bad at all – they call it a rest camp, and strangely enough they almost mean it. We didn’t do anything the first week except get squared away, and now we have a light training schedule – with the emphasis on athletics and recreation.

Phil Wood letter, February 27, 1944

As mentioned before, the Division underwent a reorganization at this time. John C. Chapin, then a Lieutenant leading a rifle platoon in 3/24 and now the historian for the 4th Marine Division, summarized the reorganization in his pamphlet "Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan."

The training before Saipan was based on a new Table of Reorganization for the Marine divisions. Their sized was reduced by 2,500 men to 17,465. The artillery regiments each lost one of its 75mm pack howitzer battalions, but the infantry retained its previous units. Rifle squads, however, were reorganized to total 13, using three "fire teams" of four men with each team built around a Browning automatic rifle (BAR), a 50 percent increase in the division of this valuable weapon. The number of 60mm mortars in the division table of equipment was similarly expanded, while the number of flamethrowers grew ten-fold. In addition, the tank battalions were able to replace their antiquated light tanks with mediums.

Lt. Chapin also remembered his personal experience:

(These) months were busy, hard-working ones. The replacements that arrived to fill the gaps left by Namur's casualties (in the Kwajalein battle) had to be trained in all the complexities of field work. Most of these replacements were boys fresh from boot camp, and they were ignorant of everything but the barest essentials. Week after week was filled with long marches, field combat problems, live firing, obstacle courses, street fighting, judo, calisthenics, night and day attacks and defenses, etc. There were also lectures on the errors we'd made at Namur. Added emphasis was placed on attacking fortified positions. We worked with demolition charges of dynamite, TNT, and C-2, and with flame throwers till everyone knew them forward and backward.

John C. Chapin, "Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan."

In addition to the full schedule that Lt. Chapin mentioned, the Marines were also taught a selection of phrases in Japanese - namely, "Hands Up," "Hurry Up," "Come out and we will give you food," and the like. Generally, these lessons were given immediately before the evening movie, which was always well attended.

By March, rules and restrictions were beginning to tighten up.

We missed our liberty, because we failed to pass Col. Hart’s inspection – things are very G.I. around here – I expected a relaxation on that stuff on the theory that all hands are tired, to some extent at least. But Hell no – it’s worse than it ever was. And it’s the petty stuff that I can’t stand. The one thing that makes it positive that I won’t stay in the Corps in peacetime.

That is pretty harsh punishment – it makes it 19 days with no liberty – not that 9 AM to 10 PM is much liberty time anyway, but the boys cry for all they can get, naturally.

Phil Wood letter, March 16, 1944

It’s raining again. It rains fully half the time. I fully expect Jeanne Eagles [sic] to come swinging into the tent – and it rains with a painful regularity every time we go out into the field. And that is no fun, let me tell you – hiking in wet feet – crawling on your belly in ankle deep mud – sleeping in two inches of water, and the mosquitoes.

And when we are not out on maneuvers we are being inspected by Colonels and Generals – and they are never satisfied – we had one liberty day taken away for it. And washing gear and clothes – then trying to get them dry. In fact, the maneuvers are designed to get our gear dirty so that we’ll have something to clean for the next inspection.

Phil Wood letter, March 31, 1944.

Training intensified as March became April.

We were in the field for a long time – we covered many a mile on these dogs of mine – a lot of firing. We’ve been able to get more ammo on here than we ever got back in the States. It’s been a long, tiring session, but nobody minded it too much. We knew we had to get back into condition, and there were a lot of things we had to learn – mistakes we made last time and how to correct them – new angles to suit the different types of fighting we’re going to do next time. The Marine Corps is really damned good on that angle – preparation and careful planning. We rehearsed our methods and attack formula months before we left Pendleton, though we didn’t know it at that time. It’s the kind of foresight that pays dividends.

Phil Wood letter, April 28, 1944

The 24th Marines, in their designation as a diversionary force, skipped some of the assault landing practice required of the 23rd and 25th Marines, and instead participated in boat exercises at the Maui Amphibious Training Center.

As May commenced, individual practice gave way to large unit maneuvers, practice landings, and dress rehearsals for the event itself, and everyone knew that another move was pending.

No sensational news, except that we’ve been doing a lot of work lately. Except for those pretty grim inspections, we had little to do for the first six weeks after we got here, but the last six weeks have been spent getting us back into shape – and we are in good shape now. “Don’t send any more V-Mail, only Air Mail” is all that I’m allowed to say.

Phil Wood letter, May 6, 1944

On May 17, both the 2nd and 4th Divisions launched a full-scale mock assault, replicating the tactics and objectives they would face on Saipan. This was followed on May 19 by a second assault practice which took place under a live Navy bombardment. The general staff felt that the exercises had proceeded wonderfully; however, the junior grade officers were less impressed.

To us in the lower echelons it was just the same old stuff that we'd been doing for a solid year: filing up from compartments below decks to your assigned boat station, going over the side, hurrying down the net to beat the stopwatch, into the heaving LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel), and away. Then the interminable hours of circling, meanwhile getting wet, hungry and bored. The K rations (in a waxed box) tasted like sawdust; the weather got rougher and rougher. Some of the men got seasick, and all of us were soaking wet and cold.

Finally we headed back to our transport and clambered up the cargo net with a sigh of relief. The next day it was the same thing all over again, except that this time we went ashore. This, too, had an awfully familiar feeling: wading through the surf, getting your only pair of shoes and socks wringing wet, and then onto the beach where all the sand migrated inside your shoes. A series of conflicting and confusing orders flowed down through the chain of command: halt and move on, halt and move on, go here, go there.

John C. Chapin, "Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan."

The 4th Division set sail at the end of May, crowded onto their LST transports. The Marines were not informed of their target until the ships were safely away; once the name Saipan was mentioned, many must have wondered if they would ever return to the dusty red ground of Camp Maui.



Alva Perry, Robert Fleischauer, Robert Tierney, and "Tojo" - a souvenir of Namur - at Camp Maui.

Fleischauer and Tierney were both wounded on Saipan; the former passed away a few years ago while the latter is one of the surviving members of A Company.

Tojo's ultimate fate is unknown, though one hopes it was better than that of his namesake.










"3rd Squad" on Maui shortly before shipping out to Saipan.

Standing, from left:
Mike Freihauf (KIA Tinian)
Andy Loban (KIA Iwo Jima)
Robert Wynne
Robert McGinnai
Paul Scanlon
Herbert Maurite
Robert Tierney (WIA Saipan)


Seated, from left:
Joseph Wendt
George Marion
Kenneth Grey (KIA Iwo Jima)
Lee Anderson

(The previous pictures are from Al Perry's website.)