The 22d Marines, led by Colonel Merlin F. Schneider, was battered by
a hail of small arms and mortar fire on hitting its assigned beach,
and suffered heavy losses of men and equipment in the first minutes.
Private First Class William L. Dunlap could vouch for the high
casualties. The dead, Dunlap recalled, included the battalion’s beloved
chaplain, who had been entrusted with just about everybody’s gambling
money “to hold for safekeeping,” the Marines never for a minute
considering that he was just as mortal as they. The 1st Battalion, 22d
Marines (Lieutenant Colonel Walfried H. Fromhold), had left its section
of the landing zone and moved to the shattered town of Agat, after
which the battalion would drive north and eventually seal off heavily
defended Orote Peninsula, shortly to be the scene of a major battle.
The 22d Marines’ 2d Battalion, (Lieutenant Colonel Donn C. Hart), in
the center of the beachhead, quickly and easily moved 1,000 yards
directly ahead inland from the beach. The battalion could have gone
on to one of the W-Day goals, the local heights of Mount Alifan, if
American bombs had not fallen short, halting the attack.
[Illustration: _Often, in attacking up the ridges, there was very
little cover and hardly any concealment as the Marines and soldiers
advanced in the face of heavy artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire.
Evacuation was extremely difficult under these conditions._]
[Illustration: _Company A, 3d Marines, is in a perilous position on
W-Day plus 1, 22 July, as it is held up on Bundschu Ridge on its way
to Chonito Ridge at the top. The troops were halted by Japanese fire,
which prevented immediate reinforcement._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 87396
]
The 1st Battalion moved into the ruins of Agat and at 1020 was able to
say, “We have Agat,” although there was still small arms resistance in
the rubble. By 1130 the battalion was also out to Harmon Road, which
led to the northern shoulder of Mount Alifan. Even as Fromhold’s men
made their advances, Japanese shells hit the battalion aid station,
wounding and killing members of the medical team and destroying
supplies. Not until later that afternoon was the 1st Battalion sent
another doctor.
On the right of the landing waves, Major Bernard W. Green’s 1st
Battalion, 4th Marines, ran head-on into a particularly critical hill
mass (Hill 40) near Bangi Point, which had been thoroughly worked over
by the Navy. Hill 40’s unexpectedly heated defense indicated that the
Japanese recognized its importance, commanding the beaches where troops
and supplies were coming ashore. It took tanks and the support of the
3d Battalion to claim the position.
Before dark on W-Day, the 2d Battalion, 22d Marines, could see the
4th Marines across a deep gully. The latter held a thin, twisted line
extending 1,600 yards from the beach to Harmon Road. The 22d Marines
held the rest of a beachhead 4,500 yards long and 2,000 yards deep.
At nightfall of W-Day, General Shepherd summed up to General Geiger:
“Own casualties about 350. Enemy unknown. Critical shortages of fuel
and ammunition all types. Think we can handle it. Will continue as
planned tomorrow.”
Helping to ensure that the Marines would stay on shore once they landed
was a host of unheralded support troops who had been struggling since
daylight to manage the flow of vital supplies to the beaches. Now, as
W-Day’s darkness approached, the 4th Ammunition Company, a black Marine
unit, guarded the brigade’s ammunition depot ashore. During their
sleepless night, these Marines killed 14 demolition-laden infiltrators
approaching the dump.
[Illustration: