Chapter 9
Epigraph from Twining, No Bended Knee, 195. “The Japanese are defeated” from an unspecified Fifth Fleet intelligence officer, 17 May 1945, in Dyer, Amphibians, 1108. On Japanese war aims in 1945, see Murray, “Armageddon Revisited,” 6-11, and Maslowski, “Truman, the Bomb, and the Numbers Game,” 103-7. Much of the information on casualty estimates, deception operations, Japanese order of battle and troop strength, shortages of mines, weapons, and cement, landing beaches, special weapons, and tactical atomic weapons from Skates, The Invasion of Japan. Details on Japanese deployments and net assessment from Drea, “Previews of Hell,” 74-81; Drea, “Japanese Preparations for the Defense of the Homeland,” (from whence “human breakwaters”); and Bauer and Coox, “Olympic versus Ketsu-Go,” 32-44. Barlow’s “The Question of Command for Operation Olympic” provides the most concise treatment of that sensitive issue. Figures on cumulative losses of the three Marine divisions and the entire Sixth Army provided by historian Richard B. Frank as a courtesy in advance of publication of his forthcoming book on the fall of the Japanese Empire. Details on Marine Corps aviation roles and missions from Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation, 415-16,420, and Gailey, The War in the Pacific, 474. JCS advisory to avoid bombing Japanese radio towers in COMINCH to CINCPAC, 23 December 1944, copy provided courtesy Dr. Timothy K. Nenninger, National Archives. Military biographies of senior Japanese Army commanders and general order of battle on Kyūshū at war’s end from Hayashi and Coox, Kogun, 157, 165-66, 223-40. Other assessments of Japanese intentions from Paschall, “Olympic Miscalculations,” 62-63, and Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation, 417-19. “Walls 3.5 meters thick” from “Japanese Deliberate Field Fortifications,” Special Translation No. 72, CINCPAC-CINCPOA Bulletin No. 94-45 of 20 May 1945. “Hypothetical Defense of Kyūshū,” Special Translation No. 72, CINCPAC-CINCPOA Bulletin No. 158-45 of 20 July 1945. New U.S. infantry weapons described in Appleman, Okinawa, 58. Losses in Ketcham’s and Caldwell’s rifle companies at Iwo Jima; comments on fear and combat fatigue by Cushman (MCOHC, 1:177) and Keleher based on research and interviews conducted by the author in preparation of Alexander, “Combat Leadership at Iwo Jima,” 70-71. Combat fatigue cases in specified Pacific campaigns from Avery, History of the Medical Department of the U.S. Navy, 1:77-78. Turner “dead tired” from Dyer, Amphibians, 853. Poison gas option at Iwo from Newcomb, Iwo Jima, 207. “Would’ve been tough” from Taxis, oral memoir, 1981, MCOHC, 218-20. “Scared to death” from Brown, oral memoir, 1967, MCOHC, 220. Clement’s combined landing force at Yokosuka from USMC Operations, 5:438, 476-87. “We cried” cited by syndicated columnist Joan Beck, “Vets Defend Atomic Bomb,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 14 January 1995, p. 5B.
Epilogue
Epigraph: Admiral King, War Reports, 1947, cited in Frank and Shaw, USMC Operations, 5:653. Rubber boat landing for SecNav at Parris Island in 1941 from interview with Col. Robert J. Putnam, USMC (Ret.), 16 April 1996, the platoon commander for the occasion. 5th Marine Division landing craft summary from Sect. 4 (Ship-to-Shore Movement), CG, 5th Marine Division Action Report, Iwo Jima, 28 April 1945, Archives Section, MCHC. Tojo’s failure to mention the American landings in the Solomons from Twining, No Bended Knee, 194. “We were unstoppable” from Shapley, oral memoir, 1971, MCOHC, 98. Joint Publication 3-02, Joint Doctrine for Amphibious Operations, was published 8 October 1992. “Chaos reigned” attributed to Brig. Gen. Eli Cole, USMC, in evaluating Fleet Problem Number Four, Culebra Island, 1 February 1924, cited in Isely and Crowl, Amphibious War, 30-31. “Amphibious warfare a l’outrance” from Heinl, “The United States Marine Corps,” 1319. “Helpless victims” from Walt, “Landing Techniques—A Look to the Future,” 20-27. Cumulative Marine Corps and organic Navy casualties for the landings cited extracted from vols. 3, 4, and 5, Marine Corps Operations. “What impels a young guy” from Robertson, oral memoir, 1976, MCOHC, 133. “American steel” from Sherrod, On to Westward, 14.
Appendix
Anderson. Biographic summary, Operational Archives, NHC. Unspecified Royal Navy liaison officer quoted in Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 50 (vol. 14 in USN Operations). Morison states that “Squeaky” came from Anderson’s high-pitched voice, but others attribute the nickname to his use of booming bullhorns and amplifiers along the beaches. Hill, “The Landing at Iwo Jima,” 294-300. Dyer, Amphibians, 745. “I yust pass it on” quoted by Robert Trumbull, New York Times, 25 February 1945, p. 28.
Colley. Interviews with son, Cdr. Douglas J. Colley, USNR (Ret.) 1995-96, and examination of the Colley papers held by his son. Among the more pertinent: “Estimate of Japanese Defenses of Betio,” 25 October 1943; “Estimate of Japanese Situation at Saipan,” 27 May 1944; “POW Interrogation Report c/o Major Kiyoshi Yoshida, Intelligence Officer, 43d Division, Imperial Japanese Army,” 16 July 1944; field notebook for Tarawa, with entries concerning tides, moon, code names, combat correspondents; letters to parents about Tarawa dated 3 December and 25 December 1943; Colley, “The Aerial Photo in Amphibious Intelligence,” 32-35. The collection contains the original “D-2 Situation Map” of Betio.
Galer. Biographic summary, Reference Section, MCHC. Interviews, October 1994, May 1996. Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation. USMC Operations, vols. 4 and 5.
Jones. Biographic summary, Reference Section, MCHC. Interview with his son, Lt. Gen. James L. Jones Jr., USMC, 20 April 1996, which included an examination of his father’s professional papers. Commanding Officer, Reconnaissance Company, VAC, “War Diary, Reconnaissance and Operations on Boxcloth Atoll [Apamama],” signed by James L. Jones, 12 December 1943. USMC Operations, vols. 3 and 5; Alexander, “Okinawa’s Other Beachheads,” 14-17; Alexander, Utmost Savagery, 55, 218-19, 221-23.
Keleher. Interviews February 1994, November 1995, May 1996. Keleher, Dear Progeny, chapter 13. Interview, Col. Robert J. Putnam, USMC (Ret.), February 1994. Chambers, oral memoir, 1978, MCOHC, 675-77. Silver Star citations, case of Lt. Michael F. Keleher, USNR.
Klatt. Interviews 1994, 1995, 1996. Klatt, “Letters,” Smithsonian, January 1994, 11. The Odyssey (cruise book of the 18th Naval Construction Battalion, 1942-45). Commanding Officer, 3d Battalion, 18th Marines, “Combat Report, Tarawa,” 19 December 1943, Archives Section, MCHC. Alexander, Utmost Savagery, 57, 90, 91, 204, 206. Klatt’s distinctive logo appeared on many of the Betio fortifications drawings, including those later held in the files of the Office of Naval Intelligence. The logo also appears frequently in the attachments to Lt. Col. Vincent A. Wilson, USA, report to CG, VAC, “Helen [Betio], Study and Report of Conditions at,” 23 December 1943, Archives Section, MCHC.
Michelony. Interviews 1993, 1994, 1995. Interviews, Lt. Gen. William K. Jones, USMC (Ret.), 1992, 1993. Jones, “Tarawa: That Stinking Little Island,” 37. Alexander, Utmost Savagery, 64, 185, 201. Silver Star citation, case of First Sgt. Lewis J. Michelony Jr., USMC.
Ota. Hata, Nihon Riku-Kaigun Sogo Jiten (Japanese Army and Navy comprehensive dictionary), 175-76. USMC Operations, 2:47-48, 89-90, 5:46, 54-55, 205, 207, 292, 297, 310, 316, 321.
Sledge. Interviews 1994, 1995, 1996. Sledge, With the Old Breed. Alexander, introduction in Sledge, With the Old Breed, xi–xxv. Sledge, “Peleliu 1944,” 72-74.
Weller. Biographic summary, Reference Section, MCHC. Weller, oral memoir, 1982, MCOHC, 90-105. USMC Operations, 5:672-74. Weller, “Firepower and the Amphibious Assault,” 56. Weller, “Salvo—Splash,” (August 1954): 839-49 and (September 1954): 1011-21 (both reprinted as “The Development of Naval Gunfire Support in World War II,” in Assault from the Sea, ed. Bartlett, 261-81). Colonel Weller to Professor Isely, 26 January 1950, the “Princeton Papers,” Personal Papers Section, MCHC.
Notes on Sources
I began with the original operations plans, action reports, “lessons learned,” test reports, doctrinal debates, and battle analyses conducted by the survivors of the storm landings. These are contained principally in the National Archives, the Marine Corps Historical Center (MCHC), the Navy Historical Center, and the Marine C
orps University at Quantico. I also researched private assortments, such as the David M. Shoup Collection at the Hoover Institute Archives, the McLean Collection at the MCHC, and those held by sons of the late James L. Jones and Thomas Jack Colley. I made extensive use of interviews with veterans, oral history collections, unit histories, and postwar battle studies, including the official fiftieth anniversary commemorative monographs published during 1992–96 by the Marine Corps. Of the principal postwar accounts, I referred most often to five reliable “veterans”: the five-volume series History of United States Marine Corps Operations in World War II; Robert Sherrod’s History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II; George C. Dyer’s two-volume The Amphibians Came to Conquer; Thomas B. Buell’s biography on Raymond Spruance, The Quiet Warrior; and Jeter A. Isely and Philip A. Crowl’s U.S. Marines and Amphibious War. Regarding the latter, the crown jewel of archival material on amphibious operations in the Central Pacific remains the assembly of letters between Dr. Isely and hundreds of key survivors immediately after the war, all beautifully preserved and indexed as “the Princeton Papers,” maintained in the Personal Papers Section, Marine Corps Historical Center. Although Daniel E. Barbey’s MacArthur’s Amphibious Navy is not directly germane to storm landings, as defined here, I referred to the book often and profitably. Two recent (Fall 1996) books from the Naval Institute Press shed additional light on this general subject: Theodore L. Gatchel’s At the Water’s Edge: Defending Against the Modern Amphibious Assault, and Merrill A. Bartlett’s biography, coauthored with Dirk A. Ballendorf, titled Pete Ellis: An Amphibious Warfare Prophet, 1880–1923.
Repeating the style of research performed for Utmost Savagery, I dedicated considerable effort to learning the Japanese side of the equation—how they reacted and adapted to the threat of American storm landings, how they passed the word, what changes we would have faced in the invasion of Kyūshū . Translations of the appropriate Senshi Sosho (Japanese war history series) volumes concerning Imperial Army and Navy units in the Central Pacific proved enlightening—and sometimes alarming. I balanced these accounts against U.S. intelligence translations issued during 1943–45, mainly from JICPOA bulletins and POW interrogations, as well as pertinent ULTRA radio intercepts. Edward J. Drea, a renowned authority on ULTRA in the Pacific, also shared several contemporary research papers by officers of the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Other military historians are using the combined Allied-Japanese research approach very effectively. The best of these to date in my view is Thomas M. Huber, Japan’s Battle of Okinawa, April–June 1945.
Finally, I had the good fortune during the past three years to participate in the production of military history television documentaries that commemorated all seven of these storm landings for the Arts and Entertainment Network and the History Channel. This provided a golden opportunity for one-on-one interviews with such luminaries as Robert Sherrod, Hal Lamar, Gen. Ray Davis, USMC, Lt. Gen. Victor H. Krulak, USMC, and Dr. Eugene Sledge, among many others.
Bibliography
This is a simplified bibliography. I have not included the special or private collections, nor the original source documents cited in the notes and held in the service historical centers. What follows is principally a list of books, essays, oral histories, and interviews.
Abbreviations used:
HQMC: Headquarters Marine Corps
MCG: Marine Corps Gazette
MCOHC: Marine Corps Oral History Collection
USNIP: U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings
Alexander, Joseph H. Across the Reef: The Marine Seizure of Tarawa. Washington, D.C.: HQMC, 1993.
——. “The Americans Will Surely Come.” Naval History 9 (January–February 1995): 12–18.
——. “Amphibious Blitzkrieg at Tinian.” Leatherneck 77 (August 1994): 10–17.
——. “Approaching Showdown: The Planned Assault on Japan.” Leatherneck 78 (September 1995): 16–23.
——. “Bloody Tarawa.” Naval History 7 (November–December 1993): 10–16.
——. “Capture of Apamama.” Leatherneck 76 (November 1993): 50–51.
——. Closing In: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima. Washington, D.C.: HQMC, 1994.
——. “Combat Leadership at Iwo Jima.” MCG 79 (February 1995): 66–71.
——. “David Shoup: The Rock of Tarawa.” Naval History 9 (November–December 1995): 19–24.
——. Final Campaign: Marines in the Victory on Okinawa. Washington, D.C.: HQMC, 1996.
——. “Iwo Jima: Amphibious Pinnacle.” USNIP 121 (February 1995): 28–33.
——. “Okinawa: The Final Beachhead.” USNIP 121 (April 1995): 78–81.
——. “Okinawa’s Other Beachheads.” Leatherneck 78 (June 1995): 14–17.
——. “Peleliu, 1944: King Company’s Battle for ‘The Point.’” Leatherneck 79 (November 1996): 18–25.
——. “Red Sky in the Morning.” USNIP 119 (November 1993): 39–45.
——. “Saipan’s Bloody Legacy.” Leatherneck 77 (June 1994): 12–19.
——. “Tarawa: The Ultimate Opposed Landing.” MCG 77 (November 1993): 52–61.
——. “The Turning Points of Tarawa.” MHQ 8 (summer 1996): 42–51.
——. Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
——. “Volcanic Fortress: The Battle of Iwo Jima.” Officer Review 35 (January–February 1995): 1–3.
Andrews, E. F. (Navy UDT). Interview by author. 1994.
Appleman, Roy E., et al. Okinawa, The Last Battle: The U.S. Army in World War II. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1948.
Avery, Bennett F., ed. The History of the Medical Department of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Vols. 1 and 2. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1953.
Baker, A. D. Allied Landing Craft of World War II. Reprint, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1985.
Barbey, Daniel E. MacArthur’s Amphibious Navy. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1969.
Barlow, Jeffrey G. “The Question of Command for Operation Olympic.” Paper presented at the 12th Naval History Symposium, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md., 26–27 October 1995. Copy provided author by Dr. Barlow.
Bartlett, Merrill L. Assault from the Sea. 1983. Reprint, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1985.
Bartley, Whitman S. Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic. Washington, D.C.: HQMC, 1954.
Bauer, K. Jack, and Alan C. Coox. “Olympic versus Ketsu-Go.” MCG 49 (August 1965): 32–44.
Belote, James H., and William M. Belote. Typhoon of Steel: The Battle of Okinawa. New York: Harper and Row, 1970.
Boyd, Carl, and Akihiko Yoshida. The Japanese Submarine Force and World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
Brown, Wilburt S. Oral Memoir, 1967, MCOHC.
Buell, Thomas B. The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Adm. Raymond A. Spruance. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974.
Caldwell, Frank C. (26th Marines). Interviews by author. 1994, 1995.
Canfield, Bruce N. U.S. Infantry Weapons of World War II. Lincoln, Neb.: Andrew Mowbray, 1994.
Cates, Clifford B. Oral Memoir, 1967, MCOHC.
Carrell, Paul. Scorched Earth: Hitler’s War on Russia. London: George Harrap, 1970. Translated from the German by Ewald Osers.
Chambers, Justice M. Oral Memoir, 1978, MCOHC.
Clifford, Kenneth J. Amphibious Warfare Development in Britain and America from 1920–1940. Laurens, N.Y.: Edgewood, 1983.
——. Progress and Purpose: A Developmental History of the U.S. Marine Corps. Washington, D.C.: HQMC, 1973.
Colley, Douglas J. Interviews by author. 1995, 1996.
Colley, Thomas J. “The Aerial Photo in Amphibious Intelligence.” MCG 29 (October 1945): 32, 34–35.
Conroy, David. (USN, TBM Pilot, VC 84). Interview by author. 1994.
Cooper, Norman V. “The Military Career of Gen. Holland M. Smith, USMC.” Ph.D. diss., University of Alabama, 1974.
Croizat, Victor J. Across the Reef: The Amphibious Tracked Vehicle at War. Quantico: Marine Corps
Association, 1992.
Crotts, Hubert D. (2d Tank Battalion, Tarawa, Saipan). Interview by author. 1997.
Crotty, Norma M. (USN Flight Nurse). Interview by author. 1994.
Crowl, Philip A. Campaign in the Marianas: The War in the Pacific. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1960.
Cushman, Robert E., Jr. “Battalion Landing Teams in Amphibious Operations.” MCG 29 (January 1945): 11–20.
——. Oral Memoir, 1977, MCOHC.
Cutler, Thomas J. The Battle of Leyte Gulf. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.
Davis, Raymond G. Interview by author. 1995.
——. Oral Memoir, 1977, MCOHC.
Day, James L. Interview by author. 1996.
——. Oral Memoir, 1988, MCOHC.
del Valle, Pedro A. Oral Memoir, 1966, MCOHC.
——. “Ship to Shore in Amphibious Operations.” MCG 16 (February 1932): 11–16.
Drea, Edward J. “Japanese Preparations for the Defense of the Homeland.” Paper presented at the Admiral Nimitz Seminar, San Antonio, Tex., 18–19 March 1995. Copy provided author by Dr. Drea.
——. MacArthur’s Ultra: Codebreaking and the War Against Japan, 1942–45. Lawrence, Ks.: The University Press of Kansas, 1992.
——. “Previews of Hell.” MHQ 7 (spring 1995): 74–81.
Dull, Paul S. A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1978.
Dyer, George C. The Amphibians Came to Conquer: The Story of Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1969.
Floros, Nick (USN, LSM 120). Interview by author. 1995.
Fox, Fred K. (K/3/1 Peleliu). Interview by author. 1996.
Frank, Benis M. Interview by author. 1995.
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