0550. Division artillery and Naval batteries begin an "intense preparation" of the ground before the 4th Marine Division. Ten minutes later, the 24th and 25th Marines, augmented by tanks, amphtanks, combat engineers, and rocket-launching trucks start picking their way forward towards the O-4A line, about 2,000 yards to their front.
Before daylight... the first grand scale artillery preparation commenced and converted all the lower slopes with bursting shells and a haze of smoke. It was an impressive demonstration, looked effective, and heightened spirits as we moved out. Scanning with field glasses showed that the defenders, if any, were invisible. Actually, it had been almost four days since we had encountered any sizable organized number of the enemy, and Lt. Tom Kerr, our whimsically scientific communications officer, half-seriously wagered that he could sagely circle the northern part of the island in a jeep and check in with the 2nd Division. There were no volunteer drivers!
But after a 1000 yard advance, entrenched Japs proved again the well-known rule that no matter how devastating artillery and bombs may be in appearance and sound, the foot soldier is always required to complete the task and physically occupy the ground.
- Captain Frederic Stott, 1/24, "Saipan Under Fire"
The 24th was moving along the coast of Magicienne Bay, but had little time to enjoy the view. Rough terrain slowed the advance, and Japanese soldiers were once again demonstrating that there was no natural feature that they couldn't turn into a defensive fortification. The 24th spent a long morning rooting individual Japanese out of their caves - though, in some cases, the enemy almost made it easy:
[I] was bending over one of [my] mortars, checking the lay of it, when [I] felt a tap on my shoulder, and a guy asked [me], "Hey, Mac, are you a Marine?" [I] turned around and there was a Jap officer standing about a foot from [me]. [I] dropped to the ground, speechless with amazement, and [my] men riddled the Jap from head to toe.By 1330, the 24th had reached its objective. They were so weakened, though, that movement against any force had the potential to be fatal.
- 1st Lt. Joseph J. Cushing, 24th Marines, quoted in John C. Chapin's Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan.
This "D-plus-7" was our last disastrous day until the closing days of the campaign. With terrain made increasingly difficult by rising ground and dense patches of woods, and with too wide a frontage for three under strength rifle companies, we were soon compelled to commit all strength on the line. And even then it was an impossibility to maintain good contact. The result was that "A" and "C" Companies became isolated on the slopes of Hill 700, and suffered heavily, yet "B" company was unable to come to the assistance of either. By nightfall supporting troops had moved up, and a partial withdrawal was effected. Consolidation fortunately resulted, for it had been a perilous and strength-sapping day.
- Captain Frederic Stott, 1/24, "Saipan Under Fire"
[For "suffered heavily," see casualty report below.]
Corporal Norman Reber, a machine gunner and veteran of Namur, was the first man to go down. "Reber got hit right off the bat up on that hill," recalled George Smith. "He never had a chance."
George Smith and Charles Stafford were at their machine gun - George as the gunner, Stafford as his assistant. Both were hit.
"Cease" we called him, he was my assistant gunner most of the time. When I got hit, he got hit also, he got hit between the elbow and the shoulder with an explosive bullet, and it literally took bone. The only thing was holding his arm on was some skin on the inner side.
- George Smith, personal recollection
Finally, the Japanese were driven off. The wounded staggered back down the hill to the rear - Smith recalled supporting another gunner, Raymond Jordan, who had been hit in the face and temporarily blinded. He was sobbing, the only Marine that Smith ever saw cry after a wound. The mortar and machine gun teams had been particularly hard hit - eleven of the day's twenty casualties were with the guns or tubes.
As the corpsmen speedily went to work, Smith found himself tended to by Frank Munski. He refused morphine - he didn't care for the styrettes - but remarked that he sure could use another brandy. Munski patched the wounded gunner up, and said, rather tartly, "Serves you right! You drank it all and now I don't have any."
Smith would go to a hospital on Oahu, and then transfer to guard duty in Hawaii - his nerves were judged too fragile to return to active service. Cease went all the way back to the States, where he was the recipient of a revolutionary surgical procedure, where doctors inserted bone matter into his arm and saved it from amputation.
The 25th Marines had their advance broken down into four smaller objectives. They took the first with little opposition by 0630, but were counterattacked as they reorganized. In the ensuing firefight, K/3/25 lost three company commanders in quick succession, and 90 Japanese were dispatched, along with one of their few remaining tanks. The next two objectives provided less resistance, though disconcerting gaps kept appearing between the right flank of the 25th and the left of the 24th. The 25th was finally halted just south of the O-4A line by a machine gun crossfire, and withdrew slightly to a more defensible position.
...we started to move north, past Magicienne Bay toward Mount Tapotchau, the highest point on the island.
When you're moving up like this, you never know when the Japs will open up on you. You are constantly having firefights, some of which develop into real slug fests.
We ran into one of those situations one day when one of our flanks was on the beach. A BAR man named Gapota [PFC Frank Gaboda] was on the beach flank. We heard firing and [Gaboda] went down. I yelled over at him.
"[Gaboda], are you hit?"
"Not really," he answered, "just in the arm."
Then a man named Mike Plasure [Sgt. Mike Plesha] ran out to get [Gaboda]. Just before he reached him, the Japs cut Mike in two with a Nambu machine gun.
At this point we knew we were faced with more than sniper fire so we had to regroup and figure out how to get rid of the machine gun. When we finally did get to [Gaboda], we found him dead from chest wounds. You see, the shock of being wounded had stunned him. He knew he had been hit in the arm, but he didn't realize he had the chest wounds. The poor guy probably didn't even know he was dying.
- Gunnery Sergeant Keith Renstrom, F/3/25, quoted in Henry Berry's Semper Fi, Mac
Although they had not quite made their objective for the day, the 4th Marine Division had advanced nearly 2,400 yards in a single day.
To cover the widening gap between the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions, Howlin' Mad assigned the 27th Infantry to the center of Saipan - a move that was to have consequences in the coming days.
The rest day on D+6 seemed like years ago to the Marines on the line.
I made a final inspection of the platoon position and then sacked in - exhausted. When it came my turn to stand watch, it took every last reserve of willpower and strength to get up and go on duty. Then for hours I alternated between fighting off my sleepiness and sweating out the noises and movements that were all around us.
After a while, I spotted a shape, darker than the rest of the surrounding shadows. It was the size of a man's head. I watched it for a long time, nerves on edge, finger on my carbine trigger. Finally it seemed to move. I fired a shot. Nothing happened. It would've been suicide to go over and investigate. In that darkness and jungle my own men would've shot me in a second. So when it came time for my relief, I pointed out the suspicious object to the next man, told him to watch it closely,and collapsed into a dead-tired sleep.
When dawn came on D+8, I was awakened, and the first thing I did was to look over where I'd shot on the night before. There, lying on top of a rock, was the gas mask of one of my men! The owner had been sleeping right beside it. It was a miracle he hadn't been hit. The tremendous strain of the previous night did funny things to your mind....
- unidentified platoon leader, quoted in John C. Chapin's Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan.
Killed:
Corporal Norman Henry Reber. Pine Grove, PA. Age 21. Multiple wounds, head and neck.
PFC Fred Davis, Jr. Weaverville, NC. Age 24. Gunshot wound, back.
PFC David W. Brunjes. Pilot, MO.
Wounded:
1st Lt. Henry Dare Reynolds
Platoon Sergeant John Yaniga
Sergeant Dallas M. Colburn
Sergeant Kermit Shaw
Sergeant Clifford Devoy
Corporal Vernon D. Rigdon
PFC Printis M. Parsons
PFC Gerald F. Patterson
PFC Gerald D. Miller
PFC William J. Davis
PFC Claude Thomas Henderson Jr.
PFC Raymond J. "Tiny" Jordan
PFC Laurent Rene Palardy
PFC Charles Lee "Cease" Stafford
PFC George A. "Gunga" Smith
Private John C. Adelmann
Private Ernest T. Henderson
Total: 20
No comments:
Post a Comment