In response to the state of emergency declared by President
Roosevelt, the 7th Marine Regiment was once again activated on
January 1, 1941 in Guantanamo Bay Cuba and assigned to the 1st
Marine Brigade. Later the Regiment moved to the Marine base in
North Carolina for training. In early 1942, the 7th Marines
boarded trains for the West coast, arriving in Southern
California. Once all of their equipment had arrived, the Marines
boarded troop transports and on the April 2, 1942 they set sail
for Australia. Upon arrival the Regiment was ordered to the
island of Samoa for jungle warfare and amphibious warfare
training. Their training complete, the 7th Marines was ordered
into Division reserve for the upcoming invasion of Guadalcanal.
Guadalcanal
The 1st Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942.
The first few weeks were very tenuous as the Navy had a
difficult time getting supplies and reinforcements to the beach.
Finally, on September 18, 1942, the 7th Marines landed on
Guadalcanal to reinforce the Marines already fully engaged. The
fighting on Guadalcanal was fierce and the Japanese defenders
resorted to wave after wave of banzai suicide charges. The 7th
Marines fought on Guadalcanal for 4 months until finally, they
were relieved by elements of the US Army's Americal Division.
With over 80% of the Regiment suffering from wounds, malaria and
fatigue, the 7th Marines returned to Australia for rest and
refit. Once they were brought up to strength, the Regiment once
again began training for another invasion.
For their daring heroism on Guadalcanal, Sgt John Basilone of
the 1st Battalion of the 7th Marines, and Plt. Sgt Mitchell
Paige were awarded the Medal of Honor.
New Britain
The 7th Marines went into action again on December 26, 1943 when
they stormed ashore at Cape Gloucester New Britain. After
meeting little resistance, the 7th Marines secured an airfield
and established a defensive perimeter. That night, a Battalion
of Japanese Marines launched a counter-attack against the 7th
Marines lines. 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines took the brunt of the
assault and the fighting continued throughout the night. By the
time the sun began to rise, the entire Japanese force had been
wiped out. The Japanese dead were stacked in front of the Marine
lines like cordwood. By early January, the Marines had secured
most of the island. The Japanese defenders had retreated into
the mountains. Slowly the 7th Marines began to sweep the heights
clear. Finally on January 14, the 7th Marines assaulted the last
Japanese stronghold on the island, Hill 660. After a daring
rush, the hill was secure and the Marines dug in. Two days
later, the expected counter-attack came. The fighting was brutal
and often hand-to-hand but the Marines held the hilltop. When it
was over, 200 Japanese soldiers lay dead around the Marine
positions at a cost of only 50 Marine dead.
The 7th Marines were ordered into Division Reserve while the 5th
Marines took over the offensive operations. The 7th Marines
continued to run patrols around the island to protect against
guerrilla attacks from hold-out Japanese soldiers. In March of
1943, the Islands of New Britain were declared secure and in
April the 1st Marine Division was relived by the US Army 40th
Infantry Division who took over defensive operations on the
island. The 7th Marines, and the rest of the 1st Marine Division
returned to Australia. Once there, the Regiment brought in
replacements and began preparing for the next island in the
battle for the PAcific.
Peleliu
The island of Peleliu was dominated by a long ridge called the "Umurbrogol,"
honeycombed with caves and masked by dense jungle growth. A
coral reef, intermittently backed by mangrove swamps, ringed the
entire island. These features were very effectively utilized by
the Japanese in constructing exits, fire ports, and artillery
positions through a network of caves and tunnels. It was to be
one of the most difficult invasions of the war. For the first
time, all three Regiments of the 1st Marine Division were to
land at once; 1st Marines to the north, 5th Marines in the
center, and the 7th Marines to the south. On September 15, 1944,
the Marines landed. In the south, the 7th Marines were met by
intense artillery and mortar fire from Japanese positions that
had not been touched by the pre-invasion bombardment. The 7th
Marines managed to scratch out a beachhead and slowly begin to
work their way inland. Advances were measured in feet and every
inch was fought for ferociously. On September 20, the 7th
Marines broke out of their beachhead and linked up with the 1st
Marines. After taking the lead, the 7th Marines, joined by a
fresh Regiment, the 321st Infantry of the Army 81st Infantry
Division began their assault on the Umurbrogol pocket, the main
line of resistance for the Japanese defenders.
The fighting lasted for eight weeks and the Japanese fought with
everything they had. Each and every cave seemed to be filled
with Japanese and each one had to be fought for. Using a
combination of explosives and flamethrower teams, the Marines
began the systematic destruction of the defender's positions.
Once the Japanese forces had been eliminated, the 1st Marine
Division was officially relieved by the 81st Infantry Division.
During the fighting on Pelelieu, 4 Marines were awarded the
Medal of Honor from the 7th Marines.
Source
Invasion of Guadalcanal
"I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front,
and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world!"
General Douglas MacArthur, US Army
During the months following Pearl Harbor, the Japanese realized
that the Allies did not have enough forces to protect the many
islands stretching southeast from Rabaul, the main Japanese
naval and air base on New Britain. Because of this, they were in
no big hurry to occupy any of these islands. The Japanese
commanders sent small detachments to Tulagi Harbor on 26 Apr
1942 and within weeks they had a radio station built.
Less than a month later patrols were sent out to Guadalcanal to
look for food as well as native laborers for the Tulagi
garrison. It was at this time that they realized that an
airfield could be built. The second week of July saw 3000
Japanese from different construction battalions at work on the
airfield.
Because the Japanese were busily building an airfield on
Guadalcanal, the Americans launched the first phase of
"Operation Watchtower", to occupy the Santa Cruz Islands and
recapture Tulagi and Guadalcanal. The 1st Marine Division, under
the command of MajorGeneral Alexander A. Vandegrift, was given
the task to carry out the invasion.
D-day was set for 7 Aug 1942 despite the lack of training for
this mission. General Vandegrift was not pleased that the
Marines did not have enough information about the coral reef
around the landing area, or the little knowledge of the interior
jungle of the island. Vandegrift also felt that the Marines
needed more training at amphibious landings.
However, the landing was achieved on 7 Aug, as planned. The
landing force involved 24 transports and cargo ships carrying
19000 Marines, screened by 54 warships, including three
carriers. Marines pushed ashore, unopposed, as the landing
caught the Japanese completely by surprise. Marines pressed on
to achieve their first day objectives, mainly reaching the
airfield. Back at the beach the main problem was the small
number of men in the shore parties unloading the transports.
Chaos was abound as naval personnel just dumped supplies all
over the beach in no particular order.
The 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, landed on Florida Island and met
with little resistance. The 1st Raider Battalion assaulting
Tulagi didn't have such an easy time. Nor did the 1st Parachute
Battalion at Gavutu. The Raiders ran into a heavy barrage of
mortar and machine gun fire. During the 7-8 of August they beat
back several major frontal attacks before the Raiders were able
to clear out the caves of surviving Japanese and secure the
island by dusk.
When the Japanese at Rabaul learned of the landing on
Guadalcanal they sent several sorties of enemy bombers to attack
the transports. However, none did any damage and several planes
were shot down.
Despite the easy landing on the 'canal it wasn't to be so easy
the rest of the operation. Especially for the US Navy. In
preparation for the battle of Salvo Island on 9 Aug Vadm
Gun'ichi Mikawa, commander of the 8th Fleet sent five heavy
cruisers, two light cruisers, and a destroyer down the 'slot'
during a daylight run. Poor communication misidentified the Jap
force as two seaplane tenders.
Because of this, the Allies were caught by surprise in the early
morning of 9 Aug and the end result saw the Allies lose 3
American and one Australian cruisers. Other US ships were
damaged or disabled, and the US carrier force was withdrawn for
fear of further Japanese attacks leaving the Marines and Sailors
ashore on their own. The Japanese ships suffered minor damage
and withdrew before attacking the vulnerable troopships standing
off Guadalcanal.
On 17 Aug US Marine Raiders, led by Lt. Colonel Evans Carlson
were landed on Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands by two navy
subs. The 221 man force destroyed all installations, including a
newly completed seaplane base, on the Japanese held island and
killed all 90 gooks. Carlson's Raiders lost 30 men and 14 were
wounded.
The Japanese made several attempts to reinforce their own troops
on Guadalcanal. The early attempts failed, however Admiral
Tanaka realizing he owned the waters from dusk to dawn began
sending troops via the "Tokyo Express" after dark.
On 21 Aug the Japanese launched a counterattack on Marine
positions along the Tenaru River. They sent 900 Japanese
Infantry against Lt Col Al Pollock's 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines.
The Marines had a platoon of machine guns and a 37mm gun crew.
The Japs kept attempting to cross the river but were driven
back. When they did get across the river and set up a machine
gun it was silenced by grenades. Flanking the Japs from the Ilu
was the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines commanded by Lt. Col Lenard
Cresswell. Wildcats and M-3 light tanks strafed and fired on the
retreating enemy. When the battle was over the Japs suffered 800
casualties. The disgraced Jap Commander Col Ichiki went off and
committed suicide. Marines lost 34 dead, 75 wounded.
Even though the Japanese were able to get soldiers ashore and
muster an attack they were not prepared for the terrain and
climate. Japanese commanders planned a very complex attack on
Henderson Field. The main thrust was from the south by a force
of 3000 men. The route led the soldiers thru the putrid jungle
where heat and humidity slowed their advance as well as malaria,
malnutrition, and dysentery. It took six days to march to their
destination. It gave Colonel Merritt Edson's Raiders plenty of
time to dig in, coordinate artillery support, and wait for the
battle on "Edson's Ridge". The first Japanese thrust came at
2100hrs against Edsons left flank. Two Japanese cruisers and a
destroyer opened fire on the ridge. Boiling out of the jungle,
the enemy soldiers attacked fearlessly into the face of rifle
and machine gun fire, closing to bayonet range. They were thrown
back. The Japanese came again, this time against the right
flank, penetrating the Marines' positions. Again the Marines
held the enemy back. They attacked one more time, only to be
thrown back once again. After the third attack ended at 0230
Edson radioed Vandegrift that his Marines could hold. And they
did.
The enemy attacks the next night were as fierce as any man had
seen. The Japanese were everywhere, fighting hand-to-hand in the
Marines foxholes and gunpits and filtering past forward
positions to attack from the rear. Colonel Edson appeared
wherever the fighting was toughest, encouraging his men to their
utmost efforts. Artillerymen from the 5th Battalion, 11th
Marines, as they had done the previous night, fired their 105mm
howitzers at any called target. The range grew as short as 1600
yards from tube to impact. The Japanese finally could take no
more. They pulled back as dawn approached. Each of the attacks
by Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi's 35th Brigade failed with
the loss of more than 600 killed. Another 600 were wounded.
Edson's force lost 59 dead, 194 wounded. Another 10 were
missing. Both Colonel Edson and Captain Kenneth Bailey,
commanding the raiders Company C, were awarded the Medal of
Honor for their heroic and inspirational actions. With
Kawaguchi's failure brought crisis at Rabaul as the Japanese
high command made Guadalcanal their number one priority in the
South Pacific.
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"Chesty"
Puller |
In the meantime, on 18 Sept, General Vandegrift was finally able
to secure the necessary supplies of tanks, rations, ammunition,aviation fuel, and reinforcements in the form of the 7th Marine Regiment.Vandegrift was also presented 3000 men of the 164th RCT.
Also included in the new arrivals was the commander of 1st
Battalion, 7th Marines, one Lt. Colonel Lewis "Chesty" Puller.
On 7 Oct, Vandegrift launched a five-battalion attack against
the Japanese positions along the matanikau river. Lt. Colonel
"Chesty" Puller's 1st battalion, 7th Marines, surprised a large
Japanese force in bivouac. He set up a defense line along a
ridge, called in artillery and mortar fire down on the enemy,
who were caught in a ravine. When the mortar fire drove the
Japanese up the slopes of the crater, they emerged into the
fields of fire from his machine guns, which cut down scores of
the enemy. When the Japanese retreated back inside the crater
Puller called in his deadly mortar fire which ended the Japanese
threat quickly. In all, more than seven hundred Japanese were
killed. General Maruyama was forced to pull back his line two
miles.
Enemy documents found on dead nips revealed how the Japanese
felt about US Marines "The Americans on this Island are not
ordinary troops, but Marines, a special force recruited from
jails and insane asylums for blood lust. There is no honorable
death to prisoners, their arms are cut off, they are staked on
this airfield, and run over by steamrollers." Ooh-rah!!!!
Admiral Yamamoto who was in charge of the main Japanese fleet
north of the Solomons, sent a major strike force built around
the battleships Kongo and Haruna whose task was the destruction
of planes and equipment at Henderson field. With the addition of
cruisers and destroyers, they bombarded the airstrip for two
hours. They damaged or completely destroyed all of the fighters
and most of the torpedo bombers. In addition, the shelling
killed 60 Marines.
The bombardment by Japanese artillery preceded a large troop
buildup along the Matanikau river of about 20,000 Japanese.
Another attack force of 7000 Japanese was marching toward the
airfield from the South. This was the main force led by General
Maruyama. However, the march was through very rough jungle
terrain, and the heat and humidity slowed the Japanese and they
were forced to leave a large number of their weapons in the
jungle and the attack was postponed for two days. The Japanese
Reports of the delayed assault did not reach the Japanese
attacking across the Matanikau. General Sumiyoshi sent his tanks
across the river ahead of the infantry. They were all destroyed
by antitank guns and the infantry was once again dispersed by
artillery fire. Meanwhile, Gen Maruyama had rescheduled his
assault for 1700 on 24 Oct, however heavy rain turned the jungle
into a swamp, broke down communications, and prevented the right
flank from being in the correct position to attack. Instead of
waiting, Gen. Maruyama attacked with just the left flank up
Edson's Ridge. Once again "Chesty" Puller and his 1st Battalion,
7th Marines, were waiting. When the Japanese began to cut
through the barbed wire on the outer perimeter the order was
given to 'open fire'. The front erupted with blazing tracer fire
and over their heads the artillery shells sliced through the
rainstorm. Explosions in the jungle halted Japanese columns
before they could get moving, However, the enemy at the front
continued to cut through the wire using grenades and getting
fired upon by Marine machine guns.
Japs were dying on front of Marine positions so persistently
that the stacks of dead bodies had to be removed to open up the
fields of fire.
 Colonel Puller had all his weapons firing. 37 anti-tank gun
erased columns of Japanese at the edge of the jungle. There was
several 50 & 30 caliber guns, two anti tank guns, 18 bars, and a
60 mortar battery. The mortar fired 600 rounds during the night
until the barrel was red hot. Barrels of 105's were white hot
from intense firing. Colonel Puller's battalion was down to 500
men and reinforcements were on the way in the form of the 3rd
battalion of the Army's 164th Regiment. The soldiers fit in
perfectly with their new M-1 rifles.
The Japanese continued to attack relentlessly and was able to
drive a wedge into the Marine line some 75 yards deep and 50
yards wide. Mortars fired a flurry of fire which closed the
breach.
A party of about 40 Japanese were discovered sleeping near the
80 millimeter mortar position. They were armed with land mines
and dynamite apparently to use on the mortars that had been
terrorizing their positions all night. The Japanese were wiped
out. There were so many dead Japanese that bulldozers were
brought in to bury the corpses in pits.
While turning back every assault by the Japanese that evening
more than 1400 dead Japanese were stacked in front of the
Marines' lines.
On 8 Nov luck ran out for Colonel 'Chesty' Puller. For the first
time in his 23 year military career Puller was hit by enemy
fire. Shell fragments tore into his legs and lower body. After
getting back on his feet Puller was felled once more by a
Japanese sniper as rounds hit him in the arm. Although he had
been hit seven times with bullets and shrapnel, Puller was still
in command and was able to call in an artillery attack that
silenced the Japanese guns. Eventually Puller was removed to the
field hospital for proper medical attention which laid up the
Colonel for 8 days. On January 2, Colonel Puller left
Guadalcanal for Washington DC.
On 12 Nov U.S. Marines closed the Gavaga Creek pocket having
killed 450 nips.
On 15 Nov five Sullivan brothers were killed when the cruiser
Juneau was sunk off of Guadalcanal. They had all enlisted
together in Waterloo, Iowa only eleven months before. The
Sullivans, a destroyer, was named in their honor in April 1943.
Gen. Maruyama attempted one more futile attack against the
marines on Edson's Ridge. However, as the slaughter of his men
continued, even Maruyama realized it was time to retreat.
It was the courage and fighting spirit of both the Marines and
Army soldiers that won the Battle of Guadalcanal. Overconfidence
and rigidity by Japanese commanders were two of the reasons for
the collapse of the Japanese forces on Guadalcanal. The Japanese
set out on a plan of attack, but there was no room for
alterations to the plan. If a Japanese soldier attempted to go
off and try another avenue of attack, he risk the chance of
getting shot in the back by his own commanders. Surely the
Japanese felt contempt for the Allies and believed that the raw
courage of their infantry combined with aerial and naval
superiority would assure an easy victory. However, poor
reconnaissance of the jungle and terrain, launching frontal
attacks with weary and out of position troops contributed to the
destruction of one of the Japanese finest infantry divisions for
absolutely no gain. Also it is this webmasters opinion that the
Japanese hadn't experienced a good butt kicking in a long time.
Thus, they didn't know how to lose.
Carlson's Raiders completed a month long trek from Aola Bay to
lunga Point, losing 17 Marines while killing 400 Japs.
Fighting continued for the Allies on Guadalcanal into 1943
although the weary 1st Marine Division was evacuated at the end
of Dec 1942 and replaced by elements of the 2nd Marine Division.
In all the fighting the 1st Marine Division suffered 774 killed
and 1,962 wounded. Another 5,400 suffered from malaria.
Of the estimated 36,000 Japanese who fought on the 'canal more
than 14,000 were killed and another 9,000 perished from disease.
American infantry causalities were set at 1,600 killed and 4,300
wounded.
The Japanese expended so much energy on Guadalcanal that they
failed to improve their situation on New Guinea. Japanese
expansion in the Pacific stopped at Guadalcanal......
#Excerpts taken from "Marine: The story of Lewis 'Chesty'
Puller" by Burke Davis
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Robert .G. Ahlgren U.S.M.C.