_Resolute and fanatic Japanese defenders who were not previously killed
by the Marines very often committed hara-kiri, as did the two soldiers
in the foreground._]
_The Final Attack: Eniwetok_
With Kwajalein Atoll now in American hands, a review of the next
operation immediately took place. Admiral Nimitz flew there from
Pearl Harbor and met with his top commanders. The 2d Marine Division,
tempered in the fires of Tarawa, had earlier been alerted to prepare
for a May attack on Eniwetok Atoll, 330 miles northwest of Kwajalein.
The planners decided to use instead the 22d Marines (under the command
of Colonel John T. Walker) and two battalions of the Army’s 106th
Infantry Regiment, since they had not been needed in the quick conquest
of Roi-Namur and Kwajalein. In addition, the date for the attack was
jumped forward to mid-February.
The softening-up process had begun at the end of January, and the
carrier air strikes increased the following month. Japanese soldiers
caught in this deluge were dismayed. One wrote in his diary, “The
American attacks are becoming more furious. Planes come over day after
day. Can we stand up under the strain?” Another noted that “some
soldiers have gone out of their minds.”
On D-Day, 17 February, the Navy’s heavy guns joined in with a
thunderous shelling. Then, using secret Japanese navigation charts
captured at Kwajalein, the task force moved into the huge lagoon, 17
by 21 miles in size. Brigadier General Thomas E. Watson, the Marine in
overall command of some 10,000 assault troops, had the responsibility
for conducting a complex series of successive maneuvers. As at
Kwajalein Atoll, the artillery was sent ashore on D-Day on two tiny
islets adjacent to the first key target, Engebi Island. The Marines’
2d Separate [75mm] Pack Howitzer Battalion went to one islet, and the
Army’s 104th Field Artillery Battalion went to the other. There they
set up to provide supporting fire for the forthcoming infantry assault.
[Illustration: _Men of the 17th Infantry Regiment go in by amtrac to
occupy one of the islets adjacent to Kwajalein itself in preparation
for the main landing the next day._
Department of Defense Photo (Army) 187435
]
The landing on Engebi came the next morning, D plus 1, 18 February,
as the 1st and 2d Battalions of the 22d Marines headed for the beach
in their amtracs. At this time there occurred “one of those pathetic
episodes incident to the horrible waste of war.” As one Marine report
described it:
One tank was lost in the landings. It was boated in an LCM [Landing
Craft, Medium] on which, unfortunately, only one engine was
functioning. By some mischance the lever depressing the ramp was
operated with the result that the craft began to flood rapidly
while still 500 yards offshore. The tank crew had “buttoned up” and
could gain but [a] small idea of the accident. Despite the frantic
efforts of the LCM’s crew to warn the occupants, the desperate
urgency of the situation was not appreciated. The LCM gradually
filled, listed, and finally spilled her load into the lagoon,
turning completely over. At the last possible moment, one of the
crew of the tank managed to escape as the tank actually hit bottom
forty feet down.
[Illustration: