_One of the very few Japanese finally persuaded to surrender in the
Roi-Namur operation, this stripped-down soldier is well covered by
suspicious Marine riflemen as he leaves his hiding place in a massive
but shell-shattered blockhouse._]
Many Japanese had to be flushed out of or blown up in the airfield’s
drainage ditches and culverts, but by 1800 that day, D plus 1, Roi had
been secured. (“Secured” seemed a somewhat flexible term when the first
service of Mass, held the next day, was interrupted by Japanese shots.)
By 6 February, however, the ground elements of a Marine aircraft wing
were ensconced at the airfield, preparing for the arrival of their
planes in five more days. For the entire remainder of the war these
planes pounded the by-passed atolls with such power that the Japanese
on them were eliminated from any further role in the war. (There was
one surprise Japanese air raid on Roi, staged from the Mariana Islands,
on 12 February. This caused a number of casualties and major damage to
material.)
[Illustration: _Marine tanks and infantry worked effectively together
when the terrain permitted._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 70203
]
The repair of the airfield and its quick return to action was a tribute
to the skills of both the 20th Marines, an engineer regiment, and the
109th Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees). This achievement was one
more illustration of the vital role played by a dizzying list of units
that supported the assault rifle battalions. Besides the vast armada of
naval planes, ships, and landing craft, there were Navy chaplains and
corpsmen (two specialties which are always Navy). In addition to the
Marine air, artillery, and engineer units, there were the tanks, heavy
weapons, motor transport, quartermaster, signals, and headquarters
supporting units. An amphibious operation, to be successful, must be a
finely tuned, highly trained juggernaut that depends on all its parts
working smoothly together and this was clearly demonstrated in the
Marshalls.
[Illustration: _This watercolor by LtCol Donald L. Dickson, USMCR,
portrays Marines reviving themselves and taking it easy after the
fighting near blockhouse skeleton._]
The conquest of Roi-Namur had been a relatively easy operation when
compared to some of the other Marine campaigns in the Pacific. (At
Tarawa, for example, more than 3,300 men had been killed or wounded in
76 hours.) The 4th Division’s victory came at a cost of 313 Marines and
corpsmen killed and 502 wounded. By contrast, the defeated Japanese
garrison numbered an estimated 3,563--with all but a handful of them
now dead.
[Illustration: _The once heavily overgrown terrain of Namur was almost
completely denuded at the end of the battle by the combination of naval
gunfire and bombing._
National Archives Photo 127-N-72407
]
Two more tasks remained for the 4th Division; the first was mopping up
the rest of the islets in the northern two-thirds of the atoll. The
25th Marines, which had supported the attacks of the 23d and 24th,
took off on a series of island-hopping trips on board their LVTs.
The regiment checked out more of the exotically named islets such as
Boggerlapp, Marsugalt, Gegibu, Oniotto, and Eru. The 25th found no
resistance and by D plus 7 it had covered all 50 of the islets that
were its objectives. This assignment was a total change from what the
regiment had experienced around Roi-Namur. One writer, Carl W. Proehl,
described the expedition this way:
It was on this junket that the men of the 25th got to know the
Marshall Island natives, for it was these Marines who freed
them from Japanese domination. On many islets, bivouacking
overnight, the natives and Marines got together and sang hymns;
the Marshall Islanders had been Christianized many years before,
and missionaries had taught them such songs as “Onward Christian
Soldiers.” K rations and cigarettes also made a big hit with
them. And more than one Marine sentry, walking post in front of
a native camp, took up the islander’s dress and wore only a loin
cloth--usually a towel from a Los Angeles hotel.
The final task that remained for the division was a miserable one. Roi
and Namur were littered with dead Japanese; the stench was overpowering
as their bodies putrefied in the blazing tropical sun. All hands,
officers and enlisted, were put to work day and night on burial
details. “Hey, I just finished two days of brutal combat! We don’t
have any gloves or equipment for this!”--“Too bad, just start doing it
anyway!” Health conditions were so bad that 1,500 men in the division
were suffering from dysentery when the troops finally reboarded
transports for the journey back to their rear base at Maui in the
Hawaiian Islands.
[Sidebar (page 7): Naval Support
The infantry assault units in the Marshalls operations were carried
by an incredible array of ships designed to perform very specialized
functions. Also included were converted destroyers. The amphibian
tractors carried the invading Marines in to the beaches, supplemented
by the older ramped landing craft. Added to these were a jumble of
acronyms: LCI, LST, LSM, etc., for infantry, rockets, tanks, and trucks.
No landings would have been successful, however, without the crucial
support of naval gunfire and aerial bombardment. The fast task force
that roamed the Pacific and the support groups which stood off the
island objectives were visual proof of the deadly striking power that
had been reborn in the U.S. Navy in the two years since the debacle
at Pearl Harbor. Nearly all the old, slow battleships which had lain
shattered in the mud were back in action, and now were joined by
brand new, fast counterparts, and the familiar old peacetime carriers
were now supplemented by a steady flow of new fleet carriers and the
innovation of smaller escort carriers.
This is the roll call of the ships which poured in their fire before
and during the landings:
Battleships: _Tennessee_ (BB 13), _Colorado_ (BB 45), _Maryland_ (BB
46), _Pennsylvania_ (BB 38), _Idaho_ (BB 42), _New Mexico_ (BB 40), and
_Mississippi_ (BB 41).
Heavy Cruisers: _Louisville_ (CA 28), _Indianapolis_ (CA 35),
_Portland_ (CA 33), _Minneapolis_ (CA 36), _San Francisco_ (CA 38), and
_New Orleans_ (CA 32).
Light Cruisers: _Santa Fe_ (CL 60), _Mobile_ (CL 63), and _Biloxi_ (CL
80).
Carriers: _Saratoga_ (CV 3), _Princeton_ (CVL 23), _Langley_ (CVL 28),
_Enterprise_ (CV 6), _Yorktown_ (CV 10), _Belleau Wood_ (CVL 24),
_Intrepid_ (CV 11), _Essex_ (CV 9), _Cabot_ (CVL 27), _Cowpens_ (CVL
25), _Monterey_ (CVL 26), and _Bunker Hill_ (CV 17), plus six escort
carriers.
Destroyers: The Kwajalein Atoll landings had 40 in direct support.
]
_The Army Attack: Kwajalein_
In accordance with the overall campaign plan for the seizure of the
Marshall Islands, the Army’s attack on Kwajalein Island at the south
end of the atoll began in exact synchronization with the Marine assault
in the north. The same softening-up process was used on D-day, 31
January, with a large force of warships and planes pouring on a
blanket of high explosive. The Navy, for instance, fired 7,000 shells.
Because of the location of the islets immediately surrounding its
main objective, the 7th Infantry Division was able to follow a plan
identical to the Marines, with the 17th Infantry Regiment clearing the
way for placement of close-by supporting artillery. The 145th Field
Artillery Battalion then proceeded to inundate the target with 28,000
rounds.
[Illustration: