_Smoke darkens the sky over the Marine Barracks complex at the Pearl
Harbor Navy Yard; Marine in foreground appears to be holding his
head in disbelief. Marines at far left in background appear to be
unlimbering a 3-inch antiaircraft gun._]
Meanwhile, the comparatively few Marines of Lieutenant Colonel Bert A.
Bone’s 1st Defense Battalion--most of which garrisoned Wake, Johnston,
and Palmyra--made their presence felt. Urged on by Lieutenant Noyes,
one detail of men immediately reported to the battalion gun shed and
storerooms, and issued rifles and ammunition to all comers, while
another detachment worked feverishly assembling machine guns. Navy Yard
workmen--enginemen Lokana Kipihe and Oliver Bright, fireman Gerard
Williams, and rigger Ernest W. Birch--appeared, looking for some way
to help the Marines, who soon put them to work distributing ammunition
to the machine gun crews. Soon, the Marines at the barracks added the
staccato hammering of automatic weapons fire to the general din around
them. Meanwhile, other Marines from the 1st Defense Battalion broke out
firefighting equipment, as shrapnel from exploding antiaircraft shells
began to strike the roof of the barracks and adjacent buildings.
At about 0820, Majors Roberts and Benner reached the Marine Barracks
just in time to observe the beginning of the Japanese second wave
attacks against Pearl. Roberts found that Lieutenant O’Halloran had
gotten the 3d Battalion ready for battle, with seven .50-caliber and
six .30-caliber machine guns set up and with ammunition belted. Under
Captain Harry O. Smith, Jr., commanding officer of Battery H, Machine
Gun Group, 3d Defense Battalion, the 3d’s Marine gunners had already
claimed one Japanese plane shot down. Lieutenant Noyes was, meanwhile,
in the process of deploying seven 3-inch guns--three on the west end of
the parade ground and four on the east.
Sergeant Major Leland H. Alexander, of the Headquarters and Service
Battery of the 3d Defense Battalion, suggested to Lieutenant O’Halloran
that an armed convoy be organized to secure ammunition for the guns,
as none was available in the Navy Yard proper. Roberts gave Alexander
permission to put together the requisite trucks, weapons, and men.
Lieutenant Colonel Bone had the same idea, and, accordingly dispatched
a truck at 0830 to the nearest ammunition dump near Fort Kamehameha.
Bone ordered another group of men from the 5-inch battery to the Naval
Ammunition Depot at Lualualei just in case. He hoped that at least one
truck would get through the maelstrom of traffic. Marines from the 2d
Engineer Battalion made ammunition runs as well as provided men and
motorcycles for messengers.
Meanwhile, Roberts directed Major Benner to have the 3d Battalion’s
guns operational before the ammunition trucks returned, and to set
the fuzes for 1,000 yards, since the guns lacked the necessary
height-finding equipment. The makeshift emplacements, however,
presented less than ideal firing positions since the barracks and
nearby yard buildings restricted the field of fire, and many of the
low-flying planes appeared on the horizon only for an instant.
Necessity often being the mother of invention, Roberts devised an
impromptu fire control system, stationing a warning section of eight
men, equipped with field glasses and led by Lieutenant Swartz, in the
center of the parade ground. The spotters were to pass the word to
a group of field musics who, using their instruments, were to sound
appropriate warnings: one blast meant planes approaching from the
north; two blasts, from the east, and so on.
Taking precautions against fires in the temporary wooden barracks,
Roberts ordered hoses run out and extinguishers placed in front of
them, along with shovels, axes, and buckets of sand (the latter to
deal with incendiary bombs); hose reel and chemical carts placed near
the center hydrant near the mess hall; and all possible containers
filled with water for both fighting fires and drinking. In addition,
he ordered cooks and messmen to prepare coffee and fill every other
container on hand with water, and organized riflemen in groups of about
16 to sit on the ground with an officer or noncommissioned officer
in charge to direct their fire. He also called for runners from all
groups in the battalion and established his command post at the parade
ground’s south corner, and ordered the almost 150 civilians who had
showed up looking for ways to help out to report to the machine gun
storeroom and fill ammunition belts and clean weapons. Among other
actions, he also instructed the battalion sergeant major to be ready to
safeguard important papers from the headquarters barracks.
* * * * *
Prior to Roberts’ arrival, Lieutenant (j.g.) William R. Franklin
(Dental Corps), USN, the dental officer for the 3d Defense Battalion’s
Headquarters and Service Battery, and the only medical officer present,
had organized first aid and stretcher parties in the barracks. As
the other doctors arrived, Roberts directed them to set up dressing
stations at each battalion headquarters and one at sick bay. Elsewhere,
Marines vacated one 100-man temporary barracks, the noncommissioned
officer’s club and the post exchange, to ready them for casualties.
Parties of Marines also reported to the waterfront area to assist in
collecting and transporting casualties from the ships in the harbor to
the Naval Hospital.
By the time the Marines had gotten their new fire precautions in
place, the Japanese second wave attack was in full swing. Although
their pilots selected targets exclusively from among the Pacific Fleet
warships, the Marines at the barracks in the Navy Yard still were able
to take the Japanese planes, most of which seemed to be coming in from
the west and southwest, under fire. While Marines were busily setting
up the 3-inch guns, several civilian yard workmen grabbed up rifles
and “brought their fire to bear upon the enemy,” allowing Swartz’s men
to continue their work.
[Illustration: