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.
|
"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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