type the lesson name here (heading 1 elegant) … · web view05/12/2009 · iwo jima and okinawa...

U . S . M a r i n e C o r p s . J R O T CCategory 5 – General Military Subjects

Skill 7 – Military History

World War II and the Korean War

PURPOSE The United States and the Marine Corps would be tested in the 1940s and ‘50s as they had never been tested before. The attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, put America on alert that the world had begun to shrink and that our shores were no longer so far away as to be safe from foreign attack. The effort to recapture the Pacific from the Japanese would require a multitude of amphibious landings on heavily defended islands.

IntroductionDuring the 1920s and 30s, the

Marine Corps managed to stay fairly active traveling the world to protect American lives and property. Most of the activity seemed to be in Latin America where Marines continued to serve U.S. interests in the Sugar Intervention in Cuba (1917-19); fighting the Cacos again in Haiti (1919-20); rebel groups in the Dominican Republic (1920-24); and Sandanistas in Nicaragua (1926-1933).

The Nicaraguan effort is worth noting. The Marines left the country in 1925 when the legation guard was removed, only to return in 1926 to establish neutral zones in response to fighting between the government and the rebels. By 1928, things had

settled down enough to hold an election. In 1931, rebel leader Agustino Sandino returned and political unrest began to rise. To combat these bandits, a two-part plan was developed. This plan provided for guarding the vital points with part of the available forces, while conducting offensive operations with the remainder. One of the most effective units to combat the bandits was led by Captain Lewis “Chesty” Puller. This unit became famous for its ability to find and engage the rebel groups while scouring the jungles in a wide area. For his exploits and successes against the bandits, Puller became known as the “Tiger of the Mountains.” It was for his exploits in Nicaragua that Puller won the first of his five Navy Crosses.

349



World War II Begins (1941)

As early as the 1920s, it became clear that a war against Japan would require amphibious assaults against advanced bases across the Pacific. Marine Corps schools attacked the problem and produced comprehensive manuals dealing with amphibious doctrines. Materials were developed designed to enhance landing operations in the face of an enemy onslaught. Before the end of World War II, the Marine Corps trained seven U.S. Army divisions in landing operations.

The December 7 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed or disabled virtually all of the battleships docked there. Forty-seven of the 48 Marine aircraft were effectively eliminated from further action. Fortunately, four American aircraft carriers were at sea on maneuvers.

Unlike the attack on Hawaii, the Japanese bombarded Guam for two days and then sent in an invasion force of 6,000 troops. The 153 Marines were no match for those numbers. On December 10, the Commander of the island was forced to surrender, the first loss of an American outpost.

The attack on Wake Island also began with heavy bombing. The Battalion Commander, Major James P.S. Devereux, believing that the Marines at Wake would be reinforced, had his men “dig-in.” Even though they were able to sink two Japanese destroyers and shoot down seven

planes, heavy bombardment took its toll. An invasion force of about 1,500 Japanese finally forced surrender on December 23. Nevertheless, the fighting at Wake displayed the power that Marines have when they are determined and willing to overcome odds, no matter how great.

In the Philippines, the Japanese launched a powerful invasion. General Douglas MacArthur was given the task of defending the beaches of Corregidor. After the combined American and Filipino forces were defeated at the Bataan Peninsula in April of 1942, it was only a matter of a month, before the Japanese were victorious at Corregidor.

Midway (1942)

350



Midway Island was the turning point in the war in the Pacific because it stopped the Japanese offensive. When American Intelligence discovered that the Japanese were planning to attack Midway, Marines prepared to defend the island. When the attack came, American aircraft from the island and from the carriers in the area met the Japanese in the air. When the battle, which occurred June 4-6, was over, the Japanese lost hundreds of aircraft, their best pilots, and four aircraft carriers. Marine pilots fought courageously, but only 10 of the 25 fighter planes survived and 11 of the 27 dive-bombers were lost. Marine Captain Richard Fleming was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for diving his flaming bomber into the Japanese cruiser Mikuma crippling her badly.Guadalcanal (1943)

Even though the Allies were primarily made up of the United States, Great Britain, and France, the war in the Pacific was mostly an American led effort. The first Pacific offensive was at Guadalcanal, a small island in the Solomon chain. There was no resistance on the beach, but Japanese air raids caused confusion in the handling of supplies. Then the Japanese attacked, forcing the Navy to go to waters where they had a better capacity to maneuver. The Japanese also planned to reinforce the island with 50,000 men. The battles continued in the jungles for months on end. Finally, on February 9, 1943, seven months after the campaign

began, the island was firmly in American hands. The cost was high. More than 1,100 Marines were killed compared with 25,000 Japanese.

The islands of New Georgia and Bougainville were also secured in 1943. The campaign to secure the Solomons was successful to a large degree because of the superiority of the U.S. air attack. Whether fighting the Japanese in the air, attacking Japanese planes, or supporting land forces through bombing attacks, air superiority was a major factor in the war in the Pacific. Two heroes of the aerial wars of the Pacific were Major Gregory (Pappy) Boyington commander of the Black Sheep, and Captain Joseph Foss, a Medal of Honor winner. Foss was the second ranking Marine ace with 26 victories to Boyington’s 28.The Gilbert Islands (1943-44)

In August 1943, the Allies concluded that by taking the Gilbert Islands, they could reach the Marshalls and move on to the Marianas. From the Marianas, they could attack Iwo Jima and Guam. From Guam, they could attack the Japanese home islands directly. This campaign came to be known as “island hopping campaigns.”

Tarawa, Betio, and Makin were the islands of the Gilberts that the Marines had to take. The approach was the same -- bombard the island prior to the landing the troops on-shore. One difficulty faced by the Marines was the problem of landing

351



craft getting stuck on the reefs. The Marines were forced to wade hundreds of yards to the beach giving the Japanese easy targets. The Marines succeeded with “will, courage, and esprit de corps.” The Marines learned that more accurate bombardment of Japanese defenses would be required in the future.The Marshalls (1944)

The Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands was the next objective in the Central Pacific. The landing force was a combination of Army and Marines. While the Army was responsible for Kwajalein Island, the Marines were to take the islands of Roi and Namur. After setting up artillery pieces on neighboring islands, the Marines landed on Roi and Namur on February 1. The bombardment of Roi was effective, and the Japanese provided little resistance. On Namur, the resistance was tougher, but the result was the same. The Marines then moved on to take Eniwetok, Engebi, and Parry Island. By securing the Eniwetok Atoll, the Japanese in the rest of the Marshalls were cut off from their supplies and reinforcements. The Marines left them there for the remainder of the war, where many were killed in bombing raids or died of starvation or disease.The Marianas (1944)

The Marianas Islands were important not only because they could serve as a departure point for American B-29 bombers to reach the

Japanese home islands, but they could be used to lure the Japanese fleet out of hiding. For the Marianas invasion, General Holland Smith led combined invasion forces that totaled more than 136,000 troops, the largest number up to that time to operate in the field under Marine command.Saipan

Saipan was the most heavily defended island in the Marianas. There were nearly 30,000 Japanese on Saipan.

The Marines hit the beaches on June 15 and received a bloody reception. More than 2,000 Marine casualties were reported on the first day. However, the invasion had the desired effect of drawing out the Japanese navy. At the battle of Coral Sea, the entire Japanese fleet was soundly defeated. This battle had the effect of stopping the Japanese expansion to the south. For that reason, it is considered one of the turning points of the war.

The most important area on the island was the airfield. It took ten days to capture, and the fighting was terrible. It took another fifteen days to control the island. The tally in dead and wounded was enormous. The Americans lost more than 3,000 and another 11,000 were wounded. The Japanese lost more than 25,000 of their soldiers and another 1,800 were taken prisoner.Guam

352



Guam was the next island in the Marianas that the U.S. attacked. The island is 225 square miles of rugged, volcanic terrain fringed with coral. As in other amphibious landings, Guam was pounded regularly from the air by carrier-based aircraft and from the sea by battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. After 13 days, the enemy’s defenses were weakened, but their resistance was still strong. It took five days before the Marines were able to gain control of the high ground. The Japanese then began a series of counter-attacks that at times seemed suicidal in nature. Ultimately, the fighting ended in August and the conquest of the Marianas was complete. However, some of the Japanese were so entrenched in the caves that dot the island that it was not until 1972 that the last Japanese soldier surrendered. Japanese losses were put at nearly 18,000 dead while the number of Marines killed reached nearly 2,000.Iwo Jima and Okinawa (1945)

Before the United States could think about invading Japan, there were two more islands that needed to be taken. These two islands were Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Iwo Jima was needed to provide a fighter base so that they could protect the B-29 bombers taking off from the Gilbert Islands. Okinawa would provide a staging point for the invasion of Japan.

When the Marines landed on the beaches of Iwo Jima on February

19, they encountered little opposition. The Japanese could have caused tremendous damage to the landing party from their lofty defensive positions at the top of Mt. Suribachi. However, the Japanese decided to wait until all of the assault battalions had hit the beach. At this point, they hit the Marines with machine guns, mortars, and light and heavy artillery.

It required several days of hard fighting for the Marines to take Mt. Suribachi. When they reached the summit, the Marines raised a small American flag. Later, a much larger flag was raised and a photographer snapped a picture of the five Marines and a hospital corpsman as they raised the Stars and Stripes over the Japanese fortress. Three of those men were later killed in action and a fourth was wounded. That photograph became famous and today is represented by the inspirational sculpture of the flag raising in Arlington, Va.

One of the most difficult aspects of taking the island was the use by the Japanese of tunnels and caves. The Japanese fought fiercely, but 71,000 Marines, 5,000 of whom died, would not be turned away. On March 16, the island was under American control. Admiral Nimitz said of the battle for Iwo Jima, “Uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

The last great battle of the war for the Marines was at Okinawa. The Marines were under the command of Major General Roy Geiger. Of the

353



combined Army and Marine troops involved in the invasion, 81,165 were Marines.

The campaign for Okinawa lasted from April 1 to June 21. Between 55,000 and 65,000 determined Japanese were making their last stand. As in the case of Iwo Jima, the Japanese waited until the Marines had moved onto the island before firing. The Marines were faced with three lines of defense set up by the Japanese as well as fighting through hills, ridges, rain, and fatigue. By the end of May, the Japanese were pushed back to their last line of defense.

As it was throughout the “island hopping campaign,” the use of Marine Corps aviation was extremely important. Marines shot down 82 enemy planes at Okinawa and destroyed another 149 on the ground. The coordination of the sea, land, and air effort was critical to the success of the Pacific campaign. By the end of the Okinawa effort, General Geiger was in command. When General Buckner was killed, Geiger became the only Marine officer to ever command a field army.

The End of World War II

It was estimated that the invasion of Japan could cost as many as 100,000 American lives. To ensure that did not happen, President Harry Truman ordered the B-29 “Enola Gay” to drop the atomic bomb on

Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The devastation was so horrible that the Japanese asked for peace on August 14.

While the war with Japan was over, the U.S. still had to deal with the after effects. China was being fought for by Nationalists and Communist Chinese. The U.S. provided some support for Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalists, but by 1949 his army was relegated to the small island of Formosa (Taiwan). While the Marine effort in China came to an end, they were destined to meet Chinese soldiers again before long.

Korea (1950-1952)At the end of World War II, the

38th parallel was established as the military boundary between the American and Soviet troops. It also served as a “bamboo curtain” separating the democratic government of South Korea from the communists to the north. When the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea in June of 1950, the Marine Corps was called back into action. While the NKPA rolled southward toward Seoul, the capital, the South Korean armies were only able to provide token resistance. In response to these acts of aggression, the United Nations Security Council called on nations of the world to help move the North Koreans back to their side of the 38th parallel. The United States and 20 other nations announced that

354



they would support the UN resolutions. Marine Commandant General Clifton Cates suggested to General MacArthur that the Marines participate because they were a “force in readiness.”

According to MacArthur’s plan, the 1st Division would land at Inchon and fight its way to Seoul. Then the 8th

Army would fight its way out of the Pusan perimeter and pound the NKPA against the Marine defensive front using a “hammer and anvil” strategy. Pusan, however, would prove to be a difficult place to hold. Pusan

By early August, South Korean forces were confined in the southeastern corner of the peninsula to a territory 140 kilometers long and 90 kilometers wide. Apart from this “Pusan Perimeter” around the port of Pusan, the rest of the territory was completely in the hands of the North Korean army. When the Marines arrived at Pusan, Brigadier General Edward Craig described the situation in this way:

The Pusan perimeter is like a weakened dike, and we will be used to plug holes in it as they open. It will be costly fighting against a numerically superior enemy. Marines have never lost a battle. This 1st

Brigade will not be the first to establish such a precedent.The Pusan perimeter was

important to the strategy for defeating the North Koreans because

it served as a base for the counter-offensive that would retake South Korea. In the “hammer and anvil” strategy, Pusan was the anvil.

With the support of fighter-bomber squadrons, a position was secured near Sanchon by August 13. The Marines were then called to an area near the Naktong River called “No Name Ridge.” Against heavy odds, the Marines pushed forward again receiving strong air support. By nightfall on August 17, the northern part of the ridge had been secured. During the night, the Marines fended off one counterattack after another. The Marines renewed their own attack the next day, and by late afternoon the ridge was secured. No

355



longer holding the higher ground, the NKPA were forced to retreat across the Naktong River. The Marines, using fighter-bomber squadron close air and artillery support, were able to virtually eliminate the 4th North Korean Division. The Pusan perimeter was now secure.Inchon

Now that the “anvil” was in place, it was time to secure the “hammer.” Inchon would be the site for the invasion of South Korea from the north. For several days prior to the September 15 invasion date, carrier based planes and warships bombarded Inchon harbor and the Inchon waterfront. This preparatory fire was so effective that Lt. Colonel R.D. Taplett’s 3rd Battalion, 5th

Marines, took only 25 minutes to secure the island of Wolmi-do and open the causeway to Inchon. The most difficult aspect of taking Inchon was negotiating the high tides and seawall. Using scaling ladders to get over the seawall, Marines were able to secure a beachhead by the afternoon of the second day. The resistance became stiffer as the Marines advanced toward Seoul. After two days of bitter fighting, the NKPA collapsed, and Seoul was back in the hands of the South Koreans. The North Korean invasion had lasted three months and four days.

Crossing the 38th Parallel -- the Chosin Reservoir (1950)

The North Koreans fled to the 38th parallel. The military plan now called for an advance to the Yalu River that forms the border between North Korea and Manchuria. The first step was to take the hydroelectric plant at the Chosin Reservoir. It was in this effort that the Marines made their first contact with the forces from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) at the battle of Sudong. After four days the Marines were able to severely cripple elements of the Chinese Communist forces. The Marines reached the Chosin Reservoir by November 13. At this point, there was concern about the on-coming winter weather and the Division being overextended.

The Marines were now ordered to move along the road to Yudam-ni through the Toktong Pass. Colonel Lewis “Chesty” Puller’s 1st Marines were strung out along the Main Supply Route. The 5th Marines moved to the west on November 27. That night it snowed, and the temperature dropped to 20 degrees below zero. Suddenly eight divisions of Chinese came pouring out of the mountains intent on destroying the 1st Marine Division. The Marines were surrounded. There was concern that the Marines’ equipment would have to be abandoned and that the Marines would have to work their way back to Hungnam. When asked if the Marines were retreating, Major General Oliver P. Smith responded, “Retreat! We are coming out as a Marine division. We are bringing out our equipment, our wounded, and our dead. Retreat Hell!

356



We’re just fighting in the other direction.”

The going was difficult. The Marines were forced to leapfrog rifle companies along the high ground on the side of the MSR so that the convoy would be safe. The convoy itself was an inviting target. Trucks, jeeps, tanks, and Marines were jammed together on the narrow mountain road. The dead and many of the wounded were lashed onto the vehicles. The weather was brutally cold and in many places there was only a steep cliff on one side and a solid wall of mountain on the other. There was little margin for error.

On the final march to the sea, the Marines would be forced to fight the Chinese every step of the way. Finally, on December 12, the Marines reached Hungman. Out of a total of 4,400 casualties, 730 were killed. The Chinese had lost 25,000. The division that had been given up for dead was safe, and they had brought out their equipment and wounded. The spirit of the Marines was aptly expressed by Colonel Puller when he said, “They have us surrounded. They won’t get away this time.”

The fighting in Korea now centered around the 38th parallel. It resembled the trench warfare of World War I. The fighting was confined mostly to small unit attacks and skirmishes. Truce

The truce negotiations with the Chinese and the North Koreans began

in July 1951. It was not until two years later that a ceasefire took effect on July 27, 1953. In between these times, the war became increasingly unpopular and played an important role in the Presidential election of 1952. In that campaign, former General Eisenhower pledged to Korea to end the war. After he was elected, Eisenhower threatened to use nuclear weapons. When the truce was signed, the U.S. had lost 54,000 killed and 103,000 wounded. Casualties for the Chinese were estimated at ten times that number. After all was said and done, the 38th parallel was again the border between the Republic of Korea to the south and the People’s Republic of Korea to the north.

357

At the beginning of the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur was appointed commander of U.N. military forces in South Korea. After driving the North Korean forces back over the 38th parallel, MacArthur received President Truman’s permission to press into North Korea and advance all the way to the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and Manchuria, despite warnings that this might provoke Chinese intervention. When China did intervene, causing the U.N. forces to fall back in disarray, MacArthur pressed for permission to bomb Chinese bases in Manchuria. Truman



ConclusionWorld War II and the Korean

War were instrumental in demonstrating an ongoing need for the Marine Corps as a force in readiness. President Truman signed the Douglas-Mansfield Bill that provided that the Marines were a separate branch of the military and should be treated as such. The law put the size of the Marine Corps at three active divisions and three air wings. It also gave the Commandant of the Marine Corps equal footing with the Joint Chiefs of Staff when matters concerning the Marine Corps were being discussed. The Korean War also initiated the use of helicopters in battle, as well as developments in the use of flak jackets, and new types of boots.

358

type the lesson name here (heading 1 elegant) … · web view05/12/2009 · iwo jima and okinawa...

Documents