_Waves of amtracs, each one crammed with Marines uncertain of what they
will find when they hit the beach, churn in for the assault of Engebi
on 18 February 1944. They are hoping to find an enemy dazed by the
preparatory artillery fire._]
The exact timing of an amphibious assault is a crucial decision based
on a delicate balancing of a host of factors, such as the condition of
the troops and their equipment, provision of fire support, etc. General
Watson decided to hold off the landing on Parry until D plus 5 (22
February). An official report explained the reasons for the delay:
(a) To rehabilitate and reorganize [the battalion of the 22d
Marines] which had been in action for three successive days.
(b) To reembark, repair, and service medium tanks and rest their
crews.
(c) To make light tanks, which were still engaged on Eniwetok,
available for the assault on Parry Island if required.
(d) To provide one [battalion] of the 106th Infantry as support
reserve in the event it was required.
(e) To allow additional time for the air and surface bombardment of
Parry.
Awaiting the amtracs of the 22d Marines, the Japanese commander on the
island issued a very succinct order to his troops:
At the edge of the water scatter and divide the enemy infantry
in their boats--attack and annihilate each one. Launch cleverly
prepared powerful quick thrusts and vivid sudden attacks, and after
having attacked and having destroyed the enemy landing forces,
first of all, then scatter and break up their groups of boats and
ships. In the event that the enemy succeeds in making a landing
annihilate him by means of night attacks.
The enemy plans to “annihilate” failed. For two days before the Marine
assault, the Navy had moved its big guns in as close as 850 yards
offshore and pounded the defenders with 944 tons of shells. This was
supplemented by artillery fire from the neighboring islands and rocket
fire from the gunboats as the Marines went in. This rain of shells
crept ahead of the tanks and infantrymen as they tenaciously slogged
their way across the island.
[Illustration:
ENIWETOK
(DOWNSIDE)
ATOLL
_The capture of this atoll followed a carefully planned sequence,
using a variety of geographic points: (1) entrance of U.S. ships into
the lagoon through Wide Passage in the south and Deep Entrance in
the southeast; (2) artillery set up on “Camellia” and “Canna” in the
northeast; (3) landing on Engebi in the north; (4) landing on Eniwetok
in the south; and, finally (5) landing on Parry in the southeast._]
As always, there was the unexpected. When a shell from a U.S. warship
hit directly on top of an underground bunker, all the Japanese inside
poured out and ran--of all places--into the sea. Another shell hurled a
coconut tree aloft and catapulted the body of an enemy sniper from its
branches through the air to his death.
[Illustration: _Cpl Anthony P. Damato, V Amphibious Corps, was
posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for having saved the lives of
his fellow Marines by throwing himself on a Japanese hand grenade._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 303037
]
For the assault troops, it was a continuing story of “spider holes,”
tunnels, underground strong points, and enemy resistance to the death.
Another young Marine, Second Lieutenant Cord Meyer, Jr., in his first
combat fought on both Eniwetok and Parry. The grueling experiences
he had were typical of everyone who took part in these battles. He
was landed with his machine gun platoon in the second wave of assault
troops, three minutes after the first men to hit the beach on Eniwetok.
Moving quickly inland, the platoon came to the edge of a blasted
coconut grove. Then, as the lieutenant later wrote home:
We were hard hit there, and with terrible clarity the reality of
the event came home to me. I had crawled forward to ask a Marine
where the Japs were--pretty excited really and enjoying it almost
like a game. I crawled up beside him but he wouldn’t answer. Then I
saw the ever widening pool of dark blood by his head and knew that
he was dying or dead. So it came over me what this war was, and
after that it wasn’t fun or exciting, but something that had to be
done.
Fortune smiled on me that day, or the hand of a Divine Providence
was over me, or I was just plain lucky. We killed many of them in
fighting that lasted to nightfall. We cornered fifty or so Imperial
[Japanese] Marines on the end of the island, where they attempted
a banzai charge, but we cut them down like overripe wheat, and they
lay like tired children with their faces in the sand.
That night was unbelievably terrible. There were many of them left
and they all had one fanatical notion, and that was to take one of
us with them. We dug in with orders to kill anything that moved. I
kept watch in a foxhole with my sergeant, and we both stayed awake
all night with a knife in one hand and a grenade in the other.
They crept in among us, and every bush or rock took on sinister
proportions. They got some of us, but in the morning they all lay
about, some with their riddled bodies actually inside our foxholes.
With daylight it was easy for us and we finished them off. Never
have I been so glad to see the blessed sun.
With that battle over, the lieutenant and his men were hustled back on
ship. For a day and a night they were “desperately trying” to get their
gear into proper shape to go right back into combat. The following
morning, they went in on the attack on Parry.
[Illustration: