The 3d Battalion, 9th Marines, under Lieutenant Colonel Walter Asmuth,
Jr., caught intense fire from the front and right flank near Asan
Point, and he had to call on tanks for assistance, but one company
got to the ridge ahead quite rapidly and threw the defenders at Asan
Point off balance, making the regiment’s advance easier. (It would also
be up to the 9th Marines to take Cabras, a little island offshore and
hard against Apra Harbor. This would be accomplished with a separate
amphibious landing.) With its 2d and 3d Battalions in the lead, the 9th
Marines drove through its initial objectives quickly and had to slacken
its advance in order not to thin out the division’s lines.
Colonel Butler’s 21st Marines, in a stroke of luck which would later
be called unbelievable, found two unguarded defiles on either side
of the regiment’s zone of action. His troops climbed straight to the
clifftops. No attempt was made to keep contact going up, but, on top,
the 2d and 3d Battalions formed a bridge covering both defiles. The 1st
Battalion swept the area below the cliffs.
The 12th Marines (Colonel John B. Wilson) was quickly on the beach,
with its burdensome guns and equipment, and the 3d Battalion of
Lieutenant Colonel Alpha L. Bowser, Jr., was registered and firing
by 1215. By 1640 every battery was in position and in support of the
advance. Captain Austin P. Gattis of the 12th Marines attributed the
success of his regiment in setting up quickly to “training, because we
had done it over, and over, and over. It was efficiency learned and
practiced and it always gave the 12th a leg up.”
On the far left, the 3d Marines was getting the worst of the enemy’s
increasing resistance. The regiment received intense mortar and
artillery fire coming in and on the beaches, and faced the toughest
terrain--steep cliffs whose approaches were laced with interlocking
bands of Japanese machine gun fire. The cliffs were defended by foes
who knew and used their weapons well. The Japanese, that close, would
roll grenades right down the escarpment onto the Marines. Snipers could
find protection and cover in the countless folds and ridges of the
irregular terrain, and the ridgetops were arrayed like the breastworks
of some nightmarish castle. It appeared that ten on top could hold off
hundreds below.
[Illustration: _Laden amphibious tractors carry troops of the 22d
Marines in the assault wave to Yellow Beaches 1 and 2 south of Agat in
the Southern Sector. Here, they would face murderous fire from Japanese
guns at Gaan Point and from positions overlooking the beaches on Mount
Alifan and Maanot Ridge. Gaan Point was not fully neutralized until
1330, W-Day._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 88093
]
One of the defenders, Lieutenant Kenichi Itoh, recalled that despite
the terrible bombardment, he felt secure, that his countrymen could
hold out for a long time, even win. After the war, recalling his
feelings that eventful day in July 1944, the lieutenant considered it
all a bad dream, “even absurd” to think that his forces could ever
withstand the onslaught.
[Illustration: