Tokyo Rose said they expected us. On board ship, the Americans heard
her and her pleasant beguiling voice on the radio. While she made
threats of dire things to happen to invasion troops, she was never
taken seriously by any of her American “fans.”
[Illustration: _LtGen Hideyoshi Obata_, Thirty-first Army _commander,
who took command of the defense of Guam after Gen Takashina’s death,
was himself killed by soldiers of the 306th Infantry, when they overran
the Mataguac command post._]
Major General Kiyoshi Shigematsu, shoring up the morale of his _48th
Independent Mixed Brigade_, told his men: “The enemy, overconfident
because of his successful landing on Saipan, is planning a reckless
and insufficiently prepared landing on Guam. We have an excellent
opportunity to annihilate him on the beaches.”
Premier Hideki Tojo, supreme commander of the war effort for Japan,
also had spirited words for his embattled commanders: “Because the fate
of the Japanese empire depends on the result of your operation, inspire
the spirit of officers and men and to the very end continue to destroy
the enemy gallantly and persistently; thus alleviate the anxiety of the
Emperor.”
Back to visit Guam a half century later, a former Japanese lieutenant
said the tremendous American invasion fleet offshore had “paved the
sea” and recalled what he thought on 21 July: “This is the day I will
die.”
“Conditions,” said Admiral Conolly, “are most favorable for a
successful landing.”
[Sidebar (page 4): General Allan H. Turnage
[Illustration]
Allan H. Turnage was commissioned in 1913, and went to France as
commanding officer of the 5th Machine Gun Battalion, 5th Brigade
of Marines. In the interwar period, Turnage had an assortment of
assignments to sea duty and to duty overseas, and in 1935 he reported
as director of The Basic School, then at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. At
the outset of World War II, he commanded Camp Lejeune and its training
center, which was responsible for the organization and training of two
regimental combat teams slated for duty with the 3d Marine Division. In
October 1942 he became assistant division commander of the 3d Marine
Division and its commander the next September. General Turnage led the
division in the landing on Bougainville and the liberation of Guam.
Following the end of the war, he became Assistant Commandant of the
Marine Corps. Lieutenant General Turnage’s final assignment was command
of Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, at Pearl Harbor. Upon his retirement in
1948, because he was decorated in combat, he received a fourth star. He
died in October 1971.
]
[Sidebar (page 4): General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr.
[Illustration]
Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., was in his senior year at the Virginia
Military Institute and had not yet graduated when he was commissioned
in the Marine Corps. He sailed to France as a member of the 5th
Regiment of Marines, part of the 4th Brigade of Marines. He saw
considerable action in the war--he was wounded twice at Belleau Wood
and after recovering from his wounds and rejoining his regiment for
the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives, he was wounded for a
third time in the latter. Shepherd served in the Army of Occupation in
Germany, and on his return home, became aide to the Commandant and at
the White House. During the interwar period, he had a mix of school,
staff, and command assignments. In March 1942, he assumed command
of the 9th Marines and took it overseas as part of the 3d Marine
Division. Upon promotion to flag rank in July 1943, he was assigned to
the 1st Marine Division as assistant division commander and, as such,
participated in the Cape Gloucester operation. He assumed command of
the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade in May 1944, and led it in the
landing on Guam. Following this operation, he received his second star
and took command of the 6th Marine Division, which was formed from the
brigade and participated in the landings on Okinawa. General Shepherd
commanded Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, in the first two years of the
Korean War, and then was chosen as the 20th Commandant of the Marine
Corps. General Shepherd died at the age of 94 in 1990.
]
[Sidebar (page 5): Major General Andrew D. Bruce
Andrew D. Bruce, a native of Missouri and a graduate of Texas A&M in
1916, was commissioned an Army second lieutenant in June 1917. His
association with the Marine Corps goes back to World War I, when as
a member of the 2d Infantry Division’s 5th Machine Gun Battalion,
he participated in actions in France in the Troyon Sector near
Verdun, in the Aisne Defensive operation near Chateau Thierry, the
Aisne-Marne offensive at Soissons, the fighting at St. Mihiel, and
the Meuse-Argonne offensive at Blanc Mont. With the rest of the 2d
Division, he hiked into Germany to become part of the occupation force.
In the interwar period, he had a mix of staff, command, and school
assignments. At the outbreak of World War II, then-Lieutenant Colonel
Bruce headed the Army’s Tank Destroyer School, which was first at Camp
Meade, Maryland, then at Camp Hood near Kileen, Texas. He assumed
command of the 77th Infantry Division in May 1943. The division first
saw combat at Guam with the 3d Marine Division and the 1st Provisional
Marine Brigade, and then landed at Leyte for the Philippines operation.
General Bruce’s 77th once again fought with Marines in the landing on
1 April 1945 on Okinawa. When the XXIV Corps attacked to the south,
General Bruce’s soldiers and the 1st Marine Division were neighbors in
the frontlines.
General Bruce retired with three stars as a lieutenant general and died
in 1969.
[Illustration]
]
_Ashore in the North_
Troops of the 3d Marine Division landed virtually in the lap of
the Japanese island commander, General Takashina, whose U-shaped
cave command post, carved out of a sandstone cliff, overlooked the
Asan-Adelup beachhead. The looming heights dominated the beaches,
particularly on the left and center, where the 3d and 21st Marines were
headed for the shore.
W-Day, 21 July 1944, opened as a beautiful day, but it soon turned hazy
as the violent clouds of smoke, dust, and fire spiraled skyward. At
0808 an air observer shouted into his microphone: “First wave on the
beach.” At 0833, the same airborne announcer confirmed the battle was
on, with: “Troops ashore on all beaches.”
The 3d Marines under Colonel W. Carvel Hall struck on the far left of
the 2,500-yard beachhead, the left flank of the division near Adelup
Point. Ahead was Chonito Cliff, a ridge later named Bundschu Ridge,
and high, difficult ground in back of which was the final beachhead
line (FBHL), or first goal of the landing. The center, straight up the
middle, belonged to the 21st Marines, under Colonel Arthur H. “Tex”
Butler. The regiment would drive inland, secure a line of cliffs, and
defend them until the division caught up and was ready to expand the
beachhead outward. Under Colonel Edward A. Craig, the 9th Marines
landed on the right flank near Asan Point, ready to strike inland over
paddies to and across lower and more hospitable hills, but all part of
the same formidable enemy-held ridgeline.
[Illustration: W-DAY ON GUAM