_In one of the classic photographs of the Pacific War, dog-tired and
battle-grime-coated Marines, thankful to be off the island and still
alive, relax with a hot cup of coffee on board ship after victoriously
ending the bruising fight for Eniwetok._]
Now the lieutenant continued his story:
But we got some tanks and reinforcements some half hour later and
moved through them in skirmish line, which brings this tale to the
most extraordinary incident of all. I was following some ten yards
behind the tanks, when a Jap officer came out of a hole pointing
his pistol at me; so instinctively I shot my carbine from the hip
and hit him full in the face. I walked forward and looked into the
trench and saw another with his arm cocked to throw a grenade. He
didn’t see me. I was only six feet away. I pulled the trigger but
the weapon was jammed with sand. I had to do something, so I took
my carbine by the barrel and hit him with all my might at the base
of the neck. It broke his neck and my carbine.
Finally we killed them all. They never surrender. Again the night
was a bad one, but with the dawn came complete victory, and those
of us who still walked without a wound looked in amazement at our
whole bodies. There was not much jubilation. We just sat and stared
at the sand, and most of us thought of those who were gone--those
whom I shall remember as always young, smiling, and graceful,
and I shall try to forget how they looked at the end, beyond all
recognition....
The lieutenant’s letter went on to praise his men:
They obeyed with an unquestioning courage. One of my section
leaders was hit by a bullet in his arm. It spun him clear around
and set him down on his behind. A little dazed, he sat there for
a second and then jumped up with the remark, “The little bastards
will have to hit me with more than that.” I had to order him back
to the dressing station an hour later. He was weak with loss of
blood but actually pleaded to stay.
My runner was knocked down right beside me with three bullet holes
in him and blood all over his face. Stupidly I said, “Are you hit,
boy?” He was crying a little, being just a kid of eighteen, and
said, “I’m sorry, sir. I guess I’m just a sissy.” I damn near cried
myself at that.
And so it went all through the day, but by evening it was nearly
all over. Early the next morning (D plus 6, 23 February) Parry was
completely in American hands, and the conquest of Eniwetok Atoll’s
vital objectives was complete. Some 3,400 Japanese had been eliminated
there at a cost of 348 American dead and 866 wounded.
Mopping up operations on many of the tiny islets in the Marshalls
continued until 24 April. The troops encountered a few scattered
Japanese soldiers--quickly dispatched--and an oddity. On one atoll they
found a German who had married a native woman and had lived there since
he had originally been shipwrecked in 1891. One of the obscure atolls
was later to become famous as a U.S. nuclear testing ground, and as a
name given to a sensational new woman’s bathing suit: Bikini.
The 22d Marines had performed superbly. Recognition of their
achievements came in the form of a Navy Unit Commendation, which
praised its “sustained endurance, fortitude, and fighting spirit
throughout this operation.”
Thus the Marshall Islands operations were successfully concluded. With
relatively light American casualties, a big step had been taken in
the Central Pacific campaign. U.S. forces were now within 1,100 miles
of their next objective, the Mariana Islands. The timetable for that
leap was moved up by at least 20 weeks. The 2d Marine Division and the
remainder of the Army’s 27th Division were now free for that operation,
since they were not needed in the Marshalls. The basic techniques for
victorious amphibious assaults were now clearly proven. Another large
contingent of American troops had received its baptism of fire, and the
Americans had broken the outer ring of Japan’s Central Pacific defenses
with impressive skill and courage.
[Sidebar (page 22): Brigadier General Thomas E. Watson
[Illustration: _BGen Thomas E. Watson, USMC, commanded Tactical
Group-1, built around the 22d Marines, as he led his Marines in the
capture of Eniwetok. He later commanded the 2d Marine Division in the
ensuing Saipan-Tinian operation._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 11986
]
Commander of Tactical Group-1 built on the 22d Marines, he led the
conquest of Eniwetok. For this he was awarded a Distinguished Service
Medal. Promoted to major general, he received a second DSM for his
service while commanding the 2d Marine Division at Saipan and Tinian.
He retired in 1950.
With a birth date of 1892, and an enlistment date of 1912, he fully
qualified as a member of “the Old Corps.” After being commissioned in
1916, he served in a variety of Marine assignments in the Caribbean,
China, and the United States.
Given the nickname “Terrible Tommy,” Watson’s proverbial impatience was
later characterized by General Wallace M. Greene, Jr., as follows: “He
would not tolerate for one minute stupidity, laziness, professional
incompetence, or failure in leadership.... His temper in correcting
these failings could be fiery and monumental.” And so, both Marine and
Army officers found out at Eniwetok and later Saipan!
]
[Sidebar (page 26): The Deadly Spider Holes
Later accounts explained what the Marines ran into at Engebi--and what
they did to keep their advance moving forward.
Those defenses were of the “spider web” type to which there were many
entrances. They were constructed by knocking out the heads of empty
gasoline drums and making an impromptu pipeline of them, sunk into
the ground and covered with earth and palm fronds. The tunnels thus
constructed branched off in several directions from a central pit
and the whole emplacement was usually concealed with great skill and
ingenuity. If the main position was spotted and attacked the riflemen
within could crawl off fifty feet or so down one of the corridors
and emerge at an entirely different and unexpected spot from which
they could get off a shot and dive down to concealment before it was
possible to determine whence the fire proceeded. Every foot of ground
had to be gone over with the greatest precaution and alertness before
these honeycombs of death could be silenced by the literal process of
elimination.
The attacking Marines soon hit upon a method of destroying completely
these underground defenses. When the bunker at the center of the web
had been located, a member of the assault team would hurl a smoke
grenade inside. Although this type of missile did no harm to the
Japanese within, it released a cloud of vapor which rolled through the
tunnels and escaped around the loosefitting covers of the foxholes.
Once the outline of the web was known, the bunker and all its satellite
positions could be shattered with demolitions.
]
[Sidebar (page 28):
The Secretary of the Navy
Washington