Storm Landings

by Joseph H. Alexander

  Chapter 5

  Epigraph from Vandegrift, “Amphibious Miracle of Our Time,” New York Times, 6 August 1944, magazine sect., p. 38. Allan R. Millett’s calculations concerning the number of amphibious assaults executed by Army and Marine divisions from Millet, Semper Fidelis, 439. Admiral Barbey’s efforts with the Seventh Amphibious Force from Barbey, MacArthur’s Amphibious Navy, 44-46, 66. Details on Operation Reckless (Hollandia) from Barbey, MacArthur’s Amphibious Navy, 168-79, and Hoffman, “Legacy and Lessons of the New Guinea Campaign,” 76. Regarding the differing tactical styles of the Army and Marines in beach assault, Admiral Spruance observed during the height of Okinawa’s kamikaze attacks, “I doubt if the Army’s slow, methodical method of fighting really saves any lives in the long run. It merely spreads the casualties over a longer period. The longer period greatly increases the naval casualties when Jap air attacks on ships is a continuing factor” (Buell, The Quiet Warrior, 387). Vandegrift’s “Out here too many commanders have been far too leery about risking their ships” cited in Potter, Nimitz, 193. Turner’s “close the range or cease firing” cited in Dyer, Amphibians, 584. “Rock-throwing range” and Major Metzger’s “beautiful seamanship” reported in USMC Operations, 3:463-65 and 3:461, respectively. Julian C. Smith’s “crossing that beach with no more armored protection” (with the usually omitted profane adjective) appears in interview with Jeter A. Isely, 28-29 October 1948, contained in the “Princeton Papers,” Personal Papers Section, MCHC.

  Continuing problems with close air support to amphibious operations from USMC Operations, 3:573-74, 584. Growth of Marine Corps aviation units from Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation. Details on DUKW performance from Baker, Allied Landing Craft, and comparing performance between LVTs and DUKWs from GHQ, Southwest Pacific Area, “Report of Landing Problem Using LSTs, DUKWs, Buffaloes, and Alligators, Carried out near Puni Puni on 16-17 November 1943,” Navy Archives, Suitland.

  Hill’s “The reef marks the limit of Navy responsibility” cited in Dyer, Amphibians, 905. Details on LVT-As from Croizat, Across the Reef, and especially the series of letters from then Maj. Louis Metzger, USMC, who commanded the 1st Armored Amphibian Battalion in the Marshalls and Guam, as cited in USMC Operations, 3:441, 459, 543. Details on portable and mechanized flamethrower development from Meyer, “Tactical Use of Flame,” 19-22; Unmacht, “Flame Throwing SeaBees,” 425-26; Hunnicutt, Sherman, 402-7; and McKinney, Mechanized Flame Thrower Operations, 4-6, 83-90, 130, 151-55, 263-65, 288. Japanese antitank tactics from CINCPAC-CINCPOA Bulletin No. 144-45, “Japanese Antitank Warfare,” 11 June 1945, Operational Archives, NHC. Japanese fear of white phosphorous munitions expressed in Yoshida Interrogation, Colley Papers.

  Details of the F-Series Marine Division contained in USMC Operations, 3:618-19; 3:576 describes evolution of the Marine fire team. “Oh the BAR, now there was a weapon” from Shepherd, oral memoir, 1967, MCOHC, 232. Technical details of the Browning Automatic Rifle, as well as the Marines’ preference for the older, lighter version, from Canfield, U.S. Infantry Weapons, 162-68. Losses of surgeons and corpsmen from USMC Operations, 3:636. “Only eleven divisions of troops” from Sherrod, On to Westward, 5-6. Details on Japanese antiboat mines from U.S. Department of War, Handbook on Japanese Military Forces, Technical Manual TM-E30-480, 373-74. Edson’s “They’ve taken Indian warfare” cited in Hersey, Into the Valley, 11.

  Chapter 6

  Epigraph from Morison, Leyte, 4 (vol. 10 in USN Operations). Insights on Nimitz’s way of dealing with stress from interviews with H. Arthur “Hal” Lamar, flag lieutenant, and Loren F. Paulus, bodyguard to CINCPAC, February 1996. Halsey’s “I feared another Tarawa” and “the vulnerable underbelly of the Imperial Dragon” from Halsey and Bryan, Admiral Halsey’s Story, 194-95 and 199, respectively. Geiger’s initiative in going ashore at Peleliu on D-Day from Willock, Unaccustomed to Fear, 274-75. “Everything about Peleliu left a bad taste” from Silverthorn, oral memoir, 1969, MCOHC, 317. “Spigot of the Oil Barrel” from “Battlefronts,” Time, 25 September 1944. “Breakwater of the Pacific” and “a picked Manchukuoan regiment” are the words of the commanding officer of the 15th Infantry Regiment, 14th Division, Imperial Japanese Army, cited in CINCPAC-CINCPOA, Item No. 9764, “Report on the 15th Infantry Regiment,” 16 May 1944, Operational Archives, NHC. The role of Major General Murai and the Japanese account of the development of Peleliu’s fortifications and defensive plans is well covered in SS No. 13, 102, 135, 142, 146-47,151-53,172, and 208-10. An outstanding summary of Japanese anti-amphibious research into lessons learned in the Gilberts, Marshalls, and Marianas, including the conversion from water’s edge tactics to “endurance engagements” featuring Fukkaku honeycombed underground defenses, is contained in Kuzuhara, “Operations on Iwo Jima.”

  Details on the battle for Biak from Smith, Approach to the Philippines, 282-300. “Momoji” from Funasaka, Falling Blossoms, 174. “Worn out more seabags” from McMillan, The Old Breed, 257. Personal insights regarding Major General Rupertus’s family losses and operational injury from interview with Benis M. Frank, February 1995. Geiger’s perception of 1st Marine Division shortcomings in preparations and lack of an assigned naval gunfire officer for Peleliu from Willock, Unaccustomed to Fear, 268-69 and 270-71, respectively. The division’s lack of experience in conducting opposed amphibious assaults from USMC Operations, 4:78. Rupertus’s reluctance to convert LVTs from logistics to tactical role cited in Isely and Crowl, Amphibious War, 188-89. Intelligence and shipping shortfalls from Isely and Crowl, Amphibious War, 395-96 and 398, respectively. Lt. Col. Kimber H. Boyer’s armored amphibian battalion having to train with blueprints pending the last-minute arrival of their new vehicles from USMC Operations, 4:93. Lt. Col. Leonard F. Chapman Jr.’s “Pitiful expedient” from same source, 4:91-92. Ship collisions, other accidents from Isely and Crowl, Amphibious War, 398. Oldendorf’s “run out of profitable targets” cited in Isely and Crowl, Amphibious War, 403.

  Japanese mines reported in Underwater Demolition Team No. 6, “Anti-Invasion Mines on Peleliu,” 1 October 1944, Archives Section, Marine Corps University, Quantico. Colonel Nakagawa’s final defensive plans, including the possibility of “starting fires in fuel oil cans near reefs to make up fires on the seawater” from SS No. 13, 147. “Moments are getting tense now” from Kennard, Combat Letters Home (12 September 1944), 4. “Rough but fast” and “In again, out again Finnegan” from McMillan, The Old Breed, 269-70.

  “The beach was a sheet of flame” from Sledge, “Peleliu 1944: Why Did We Go There?” 72-73. Tank action on D-Day from USMC Operations, 4:110. Saga of King Company, 3d Battalion, 1st Marines, at “the Point” from same source, 4:110-13, plus Hunt, Coral Comes High, and interview with Fred K. Fox of K/3/1, February 1996. “Can you observe?” from Platt, oral memoir, 1980, MCOHC, 72-73. Tom Lea quoted in McMillan, The Old Breed, 293. Smith accounts at Peleliu from Smith, oral memoir, 1969, MCOHC, 132-40. MacArthur’s “They are waiting for me there” from “Battlefronts,” Time, 25 September 1944. “As steep as the roof of a house” from Silverthorn, oral memoir, 1969, MCOHC, 318, 329. “I was always convinced that Lewie Puller would not have survived” from Davis, oral memoir, 1977, MCOHC, 132. Arrival of air units from Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation, 256-59. Japanese officer captured on Ngesebus from Hough, The Assault on Peleliu, 125, and Walt, “The Closer the Better,” 37.

  Hirohito’s nine separate decrees of praise from Funasaka, Falling Blossoms, 231. “It was a young man’s war” from McLaughlin, oral memoir, 1978, MCOHC, 75. Swinging satchel charges into caves and smelling the Japanese cook-fires underground from McMillan, The Old Breed, 323. “Fifteen seconds over target” from Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation, 257, and Hough, The Assault on Peleliu, 134. “The enemy plan seems to be to burn down the central hills” attributed to Col. Tokechi Tada, chief of staff, 14th Division, in Hough, The Assault on Peleliu, 139. Time mentioned the Peleliu campaign in its “Battle-fronts” section during 18 and 25 September, 2 and 9 October,
but only the latter carried any substance (an entire page, plus map). Delays in getting the B-24 bomber squadron operational from Smith, Approach to the Philippines, 573.

  Colonel Nakagawa’s final message from Funasaka, Falling Blossoms, 231. An average of 1,589 rounds of ammunition to kill each enemy soldier from McMillan, The Old Breed, 342-43. Sledge’s “I shall always harbor a deep sense of bitterness” from Sledge, “Peleliu 1944: Why Did We Go There?” 74. “MacArthur’s Marines” from interview with Fred K. Fox, February 1996. “Nimitz’s greatest mistake of the war” from Miller, The War at Sea, 456.

  Chapter 7

  Epigraph from Task Force 56 Action Report, Iwo Jima, Archives Section, MCHC. Spruance’s strategic views from Buell, The Quiet Warrior, 332-35. Nimitz “It is a cardinal principal of amphibious operations” from Isely and Crowl, Amphibious War, 449. General Schmidt’s resentment of Holland Smith’s postwar fame at Iwo Jima is revealed in an 11 December 1949 letter to Professor Isely: “I was the commander of all troops on Iwo Jima at all times. . . . Holland Smith . . . never had a command post ashore, never issued a single order ashore, never spent a single night ashore.” Letter contained in the “Princeton Papers,” Personal Papers Section, MCHC. Smith’s “we welcome a counterattack” and other prelanding statements cited in Newcomb, Iwo Jima, 67. The intelligence report that could have answered many questions about Japanese defensive dispositions, soil trafficability, minefields, and the potential use of gasoline drums for a flame barrier along Iwo’s beaches was CINCPAC-CINCPOA Bulletin No. 9-45, “Iwo Jima: First Supplement to Nanpo Shoto Information Bulletin No. 122-44,” 10 January 1945, Operational Archives, NHC. Smith “toughest fight” from Newcomb, Iwo Jima, 240.

  Biographical details concerning General Kuribayashi, his defensive assessment and preparations at Iwo Jima, and his meetings and correspondence with Major General Sanada are best presented in SS No. 13, 275-98. Kuribayashi’s consideration of blowing the island in half is covered on p. 295. Corroborating details from Yoshitake Horie, “Explanation of Japanese Defense Plan and Battle of Iwo Jima,” 25 January 1946, Reference Section, MCHC; Horie, “The Last Days of General Kuribayashi,” 38-43; and Alexander, “The Americans Will Surely Come,” 12-18. Smith re Kuribayashi: “Of all our adversaries in the Pacific,” from Heinl, Soldiers of the Sea, 481. Technical details of 320-mm spigot mortars from Kenneth L. Smith-Christmas, “The Japanese 320-mm Spigot Mortar,” in Alexander, Closing In, 29. The threat of Japanese fire drums along the beaches and the precautionary wearing of white greasepaint by the assault forces appear in VAC Intelligence Report, 16-17 March 1945, Archives Section, MCHC; Isely and Crowl, Amphibious War, 291; and Adm. Harry W. Hill memoirs in Hill, “The Landing at Iwo Jima,” 291.

  “Our units are taking advantage of the slackening of the bombardment” from Lofgren, “Diary of 1st Lt. Sugihara Kinryu,” 122. Preparing in advance for Iwo’s soft beaches: Dyer, Amphibians, 1027; Hill, “The Landing at Iwo Jima,” 294, 298; Admiral Hill to Professor Isely, 13 January 1950, 2-3, the “Princeton Papers,” Personal Papers Collection, MCHC. “I didn’t like the idea of landing in a bight” from Cates, oral memoir, 1967, MCOHC, 192. Embarkation problems re tanks and LCMs and 105-mm howitzers and DUKWs from Bartley, Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic, 33, and 4th Marine Division Special Action Report, Iwo Jima, Section 1, p. 4, Archives Section, MCHC. Details of UDT mission on D-2 enhanced by interview with participant E. F. “Andy” Andrews, August 1994. “The landing was a magnificent sight” from Williams, oral memoir, 1980, MCOHC, 180. “So the real landing has come at last” from Lofgren, “Diary of 1st Lt. Sugihara Kinryu,” 124.

  “Like an enormous tidal wave,” from Lt. (jg) Satoru Omagari, Imperial Japanese Navy, 16, the John K. McLean Collection, Personal Papers Section, MCHC. “Enemy strength is approximately two thousand men” from Lofgren, “Diary of 1st Lt. Sugihara Kinryu,” 124. “Crossing that second terrace” from Chambers, oral memoir, 1978, MCOHC 2, 638. Infantry regimental reports of the Japanese bombardment extracted from VAC C-3 Journal, D-Day, 19 February 1945, Archives Section, MCHC. Cates’s “Look at that goddamned murderous fire” cited in Sherrod, On to Westward, 172. Sherrod’s “Whether the dead were Japs or Americans” from Sherrod, On to Westward, 180. Lieutenant Colonel Youngdale’s losses among his DUKW-loaded 105-mm howitzers from Newcomb, Iwo Jima, 147. Loss of eighty-eight LVTs at sea, principally because of refusal of LSTs to accommodate them at night reported in VAC LVT Officer Special Action Report, Iwo Jima, 30 April 1945, 9, Archives Section, MCHC, and Croizat, Across the Reef, 160. Newcomb, Iwo Jima, 152, relates the saga of LVT “Mama’s Bathtub,” which, out of gas and refused assistance by LSTs, drifted on the high seas for two days and nights.

  David H. Susskind remarks from journal provided author courtesy Lt. Col. Joseph McNamara, USMCR, 1995. “Hot damn!” by former Lt. David Conroy, USNR, interview, July 1994. Role of Navy flight nurses in medevacs from Iwo Jima to Guam from Avery, History of the Medical Department of the U.S. Navy, 1:205-6, and interview with former flight nurse Norma M. Crotty, September 1994. Stanley Dabrowski “am I doing the right thing?” quoted by Herman, “Corpsman at Iwo,” 11. Details on the eight flame tanks from Hunnicutt, Sherman, 406-7. Kuribayashi’s “We need to reconsider the power of bombardment of ships” from Horie, “Explanation of Japanese Defense Plan,” appendix A, p. 1, and Bartley, Amphibious Epic, 204. Japanese aerial resupply of bamboo spears related by Navy chief petty officer Kei Kanai, interrogation, 12, McLean Collection, Personal Papers Section, MCHC.

  Kuribayashi’s final pronouncements and the end of organized resistance on Iwo Jima are described in SS No. 13, 405-11; and Horie, “Japanese Defense Plan,” 12-14. Horie, out of the line of fire on Chichi Jima, recorded in these pages the final message from the 145th Infantry Regiment (“Here we burnt our brilliant regimental flag completely. Good bye.”) and General Kuribayashi’s last words on 21 March (“We are going to fight bravely till the last”). Total landing force casualties of 24,053 compiled from USMC Operations, 4:797.

  Chapter 8

  Epigraph from Commander Task Force 54, “Okinawa Report, 5 May 1945,” 29, cited in Dyer, Amphibians, 1094. Marine Division Table of Organization and equipment evolutions from appendixes I–J, USMC Operations, 5:843-51. Comments on M-7 105-mm self-propelled “siege gun” from USMC Operations, 5:725. Details on the Japanese 32d Army from Yahara, “The Defeat of the Japanese 32nd Army,” and Huber, Japan’s Battle of Okinawa. IGHQ decision to detach the 9th Division for service in the Philippines from USMC Operations, 5:41. Kamikaze details from Dull, Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Major Jones’s VAC Force Reconn activities from USMC Operations, 5:104-6, and Alexander, “Okinawa’s Other Beachheads,” 14-17. “Through the din and smoke” from Isely and Crowl, Amphibious War, 15-16. L-Day landing and feint operations extracted from Nichols and Shaw, Okinawa: Victory in the Pacific, 63-69. “My amphibian tractor passed” from Kennard, Combat Letters Home (14 April 1945), 79. “But there are many thousands of Japs” from Buell, The Quiet Warrior, 379. TAF operations during April from USMC Operations, 5:176-87. Mount Yae Take insights from interview with Lt. Gen. Victor H. Krulak, USMC (Ret.), February 1995. Battle of Ie Shima from Belote and Belote, Typhoon of Steel, 172ff.

  Kakazu Ridge tank battle losses and request for 1st Tank Battalion from Frank, Okinawa: The Great Island Battle, 86-87; del Valle, oral memoir, 1966, MCOHC, 190; Brig. Gen. Oliver P. Smith, USMC, “Personal Narrative: Tenth Army and Okinawa, 8 November 1944-23 June 1945,” in Personal Papers Collection, MCHC, 88-89, 100. Navy losses to kamikazes from Dyer, Amphibians, 1104, and USMC Operations, 5:369. Details on Baku bomb and last sortie of the Yamato from Dull, Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 126-32, and 19-20, 140-45, respectively. “You take them” from Buell, The Quiet Warrior, 384. Giretsu commando raid on Yontan from USMC Operations, 5:228. “Witches on broomsticks” from Buell, The Quiet Warrior, 392. “Like a giant bat” from interview with Nick Floros (LSM 120), 22 November 1995. Logistic efforts from USMC Operations, 5:162. Im
pact of loss of ammunition ships from Nichols and Shaw, Okinawa: Victory in the Pacific, 85. “Losing a ship and a half a day” from Potter, Nimitz, 375.

  “The amphibious card” debates from Shepherd, oral memoir, 1967, MCOHC, 73-79, 103; Vandegrift’s position from USMC Operations, 5:196; Frank, Okinawa: The Great Island Battle, 88-89, 151-52; Potter, Nimitz, 375-76; “I get impatient for some of Holland Smith’s drive” from Buell, The Quiet Warrior, 387; “The absence of a landing” from Yahara, “The Defeat of the Japanese 32nd Army,” 3; and Taxis, oral memoir, 1981, MCOHC, 187. “Russian front” by Col. Frederick P. Henderson, USMC, cited in USMC Operations, 5:193. Target Information Centers and LFASCUs from USMC Operations, 5:382-83 and 5:181-93, respectively. “The front was too narrow” from Maj. Gen. Melvin H. Silverthorn, USMC, and Brig. Gen. Vernon E. Megee, USMC, letter, 21 November 1947, the “Princeton Papers,” Personal Papers Collection, MCHC, 4-7. “Unsung heroes” by Colonel Henderson cited in USMC Operations, 5:377. “Quick retribution” from Yahara, “The Defeat of the Japanese 32nd Army,” 11. “It was not uncommon” from USMC Operations, 5:278. “Like bones from the spine of a fish” from Snedeker, oral memoir, 1968, MCOHC, 7.

  Oroku Peninsula fight from Shepherd, oral memoir, 1967, MCOHC, 106-8; Smith “Personal Narrative,” 126-28; 6th Marine Division Special Action Report, Unit Journal, Phase III, 9-14 June 1945, Archives Section, MCHC. Admiral Ota’s final message from USMC Operations, 5:321. Casualties provided by Reference Section, MCHC, and from USMC Operations, 5:369. For casualties to Okinawan natives, see Gudmundsson, “Okinawa,” 73. “Bloody hellish prelude to the invasion of Japan,” from Buell, The Quiet Warrior, 396.