History Pgs.67-101
10/9/06
6:04 PM
Page 90
“Grasshoppers” of his VMO-1 and quickly commenced aerial spotting missions for both artillery and naval gunfire. The morale of the embattled infantrymen took another boost on September 26 when the gull-winged Corsairs of Major Robert (“Cowboy”) Stout’s VMF-114 swooped out of the sky to land on the airfield. Cowboy Stout and his Corsair pilots brought three welcome elements to the battle: rockets, napalm, and ferocious bravado. The rockets proved better than dive-bombing against the steep cave fronts. Napalm, first used experimentally at Tinian, served better at Peleliu, first to burn away the vegetation hiding cave entrances and spider holes, then to roast the occupants. Delivering all of this close support required the pilots to risk everything on low-level attacks subject to heavy ground fire. The 1st Marine Division, despite its dreadful losses, was learning valuable lessons about coordinating supporting fires to pulverize enemy strong points. But Nakagawa continued to rule the high country, and the meat-grinding assaults continued to exact a heavy toll. By October 15 the Old Breed had been shot up to the point that Geiger replaced them with the 81st Division. The Army resorted to siege tactics against the Umurbrogol, but the costly battle raged on another six weeks. The long-drawn-out victory at Peleliu cost 9,600 American casualties – 6,500 Marines, 3,100 soldiers. For all their bravery and sacrifice, the spoils of victory proved sparse. None of the airfields in and around Peleliu provided any significant support for MacArthur’s return to the Philippines. Nor was Peleliu ever useful as a major staging base for further campaigns in the Pacific.
grief in the highlands the Marines quickly dubbed “Bloody Nose Ridge.” Nothing came easy on Peleliu, but no sector was rougher than the Umurbrogol. Here Chesty Puller led his 1st Marines in a gallant but fruitless series of frontal assaults. Even as proven a tactician as Puller could not prevail in the absence of maneuver room and in the teeth of Nakagawa’s artfully concealed, mutually supporting cross fires. The 1st Marines clawed forward, ridge by ridge, cave by cave, but sustained terrible casualties every day. General Geiger endeavored to let Rupertus fight his own battle, but after six days he ordered in the first regiment of the Army’s 81st Division and directed Rupertus to relieve Puller’s 1st Marines. Puller raged to stay and fight, but by now Bloody Nose Ridge had cost his regiment nearly 60 percent of its landing strength. In small groups, carrying their wounded, the survivors came down from the Umurbrogol’s bloodsoaked ridges. “Hey, you guys the First Marines?” a correspondent shouted. “Mister, there ain’t no more First Marines,” one answered. The 7th and 5th Marines, as well as the Army regiments, would have their own crack at the Umurbrogol, and in time they would encircle and overwhelm Nakagawa’s disciplined cave dwellers one by one. One benefit of Nakagawa’s “honeycomb” defense in the highlands: It left the beaches and airfield relatively clear for U.S. operations. Logistic support for the Marines flowed smoothly ashore, despite the need for transfer line operations along the reef. Meanwhile, the industrious Seabees had the airstrip ready for advance operations as early as D+3. Captain Wallace Slappey promptly flew in with the tiny
Sulfur Island (Iwo Jima, 1945) Iwo Jima was the largest Marine amphibious
The volcanic island reeked of sulfur, leaked steam, and looked evil – “like hell with the fire out, but still smoking,” said one unimpressed Marine. The Japanese spared no expense in fortifying the island, using the Empire’s most gifted mining engineers. They had plenty of big guns, heavy mortars, enormous rockets – and scores of the wickedly effective 25mm automatic machine cannons, emplaced to fire horizontally at troops and landing craft. Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi commanded the Iwo garrison with an iron will and was well served by a brilliant artillery chief and several veteran infantry officers. For the Marines, Iwo Jima would be the last battle for the old amphibious warhorse, Lieutenant General Howlin’ Mad Smith. One final time he would rage against the Navy’s parsimonious allocation of preliminary naval
battle of all time. It was also the costliest. The allLeatherneck landing force sustained more than 26,000 casualties – the equivalent of losing a division and a half of Marines. More than 6,000 died. So did 21,000 Japanese. Seventy-two thousand U.S. Marines assaulted heavily fortified Iwo Jima island in February 1945 as the spearhead of a veteran amphibious force at the peak of its lethality. The Marines expected a tough fight. Tokyo was 650 miles to the north, less than three hours flight time. The island itself was a defender’s dream – few beaches; broken, convoluted ground; a lunar landscape of cliffs, crags, and caves. With its pork chop-shaped area less than seven square miles, Iwo was bigger than Tarawa and Peleliu, but much smaller than the Marianas.
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Collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps
THE MARINES
