_A Japanese cave position on the reverse slope of Chonito Ridge offered
protection for the enemy from the prelanding bombardment and enabled
them to reoccupy prepared positions from which they could oppose the
advance of the 3d Marines._]
Faulty communications delayed the order to land the Army’s 305th
Regimental Combat Team (Colonel Vincent J. Tanzola), elements of
the assault force, for hours. Slated for a morning landing, the 2d
Battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Robert D. Adair did not get ashore
until well after nightfall. As no amtracs were then available, the
soldiers had to walk in from the reef. Some soldiers slipped under
water into shellholes and had to swim for their lives in a full tide.
The rest of the 305th had arrived on the beach, all wet, some seasick,
by 0600 on W plus-1.
[Sidebar (page 15): Medal of Honor Recipients
[Illustration]
Private First Class Luther Skaggs, Jr.’s Medal of Honor citation reads
as follows: “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk
of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as squad
leader with a mortar section of a rifle company in the 3d Battalion,
3d Marines, 3d Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese
forces on the Asan-Adelup beachhead, Guam, Marianas Islands, 21-22 July
1944. When the section leader became a casualty under a heavy mortar
barrage shortly after landing, Private First Class Skaggs promptly
assumed command and led the section through intense fire for a distance
of 200 yards to a position from which to deliver effective coverage
of the assault on a strategic cliff. Valiantly defending this vital
position against strong enemy counterattacks during the night, Private
First Class Skaggs was critically wounded when a Japanese grenade
lodged in his foxhole and exploded, shattering the lower part of one
leg. Quick to act, he applied an improvised tourniquet and, while
propped up in his foxhole, gallantly returned the enemy’s fire with
his rifle and hand grenades for a period of 8 hours, later crawling
unassisted to the rear to continue the fight until the Japanese had
been annihilated. Uncomplaining and calm throughout this critical
period, Private First Class Skaggs served as a heroic example of
courage and fortitude to other wounded men and, by his courageous
leadership and inspiring devotion to duty, upheld the high traditions
of the United States naval service.”
[Illustration]
Private First Class Leonard Foster Mason’s Medal of Honor citation
reads as follows: “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the
risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as an automatic
rifleman serving with the Second Battalion, Third Marines, Third Marine
Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on the Asan-Adelup
Beachhead, Guam, Marianas Islands, on 22 July 1944. Suddenly taken
under fire by two enemy machine guns not more than 15 yards away while
clearing out hostile positions holding up the advance of his platoon
through a narrow gully, Private First Class Mason, alone and entirely
on his own initiative, climbed out of the gully and moved parallel
to it toward the rear of the enemy position. Although fired upon
immediately by hostile riflemen from a higher position and wounded
repeatedly in the arm and shoulder, Private First Class Mason grimly
pressed forward and had just reached his objective when hit again by
a burst of enemy machine-gun fire, causing a critical wound to which
he later succumbed. With valiant disregard for his own peril, he
persevered, clearing out the hostile position, killing five Japanese,
wounding another and then rejoining his platoon to report the results
of his action before consenting to be evacuated. His exceptionally
heroic act in the face of almost certain death enabled his platoon to
accomplish its mission and reflects the highest credit upon Private
First Class Mason and the United States naval service. He gallantly
gave his life for his country.”
]
[Sidebar (page 16): The Taking of Chonito Ridge
_The following is a dispatch written by Marine Combat Correspondent
Private First Class Cyril J. O’Brien in the field after the combat
action he describes in his story. It was released for publication in
the United States sometime after the event (always after families were
notified of the wounding or death of the Marines mentioned.) This story
is reprinted from the carbon copy of the file which he retained of the
stories he filed from the Pacific._
[Illustration]
Guam July 24 (Delayed)--The first frontal attack on steep Chonito Ridge
was made one hour after the Marine landing.
An infantry squad, led by Second Lieutenant James A. Gallo, 24, 172
Broadway, Haverstraw, N.Y., approached to within ten yards of the tip.
The crest bloomed with machine gun fire. In the face of it the Marine
company tried its first assault. The company was thrown back before it
had advanced forty yards.
For fifty hours the company remained on the naked slope, trying again
and again to storm the Jap entrenchments hardly one hundred yards away.
Battered almost to annihilation, the tenacious Marines finally saw
another company take the ridge from the rear.
Failing in the first rush the company had formed a flimsy defense line
not fifty yards from the enemy. Cover was scant. Some Marines had only
tufts of grass to shield them. The Japs were rolling grenades down the
crest, and blasting the Marines with knee mortars from over the summit.
Under the cover of dusk the company commander led a second attack.
As the Marines rose machine gun fire swept into them. The commander,
and three Marines reached the crest. The last fifty feet were almost
vertical. The attackers grasped roots and dug their feet into the soft
earth to keep from falling down the incline.
The commander went over the ridge. He never came back. The remaining
three Marines were ripped by cross fire. One saved himself by jumping
into an enemy fox hole.
Beaten again, the company retired to a small ravine, and remained there
all night. One Marine, shot through both legs, was asking for morphine.
Another’s thigh was ripped by shell fragments. A PFC, his dry tongue
swollen, tried to whisper the range of an enemy sniper.
At eleven in the morning of the 22d, with little more than a third of
their original number, the company rushed the hillside again.
Lieutenant Gallo led an assault on the left flank of the hill, but he
was thrown back. Sergeant Charles V. Bomar, 33, 4002 Gulf St., Houston,
Tex., with nine Marines attempted to take the right ground of the
slope. Five were killed as they left the ravine. The sergeant and three
others reached the top of the slope.
The Japs again rolled grenades down the incline. One exploded under the
chest of a Marine nearby, blowing off his head. Another grenade bounced
off the helmet of the sergeant. It was a dud.
The Marines charged into the Jap entrenchment. The sergeant killed a
Jap machine gunner with the butt of his carbine. The assistant gunner
exploded a grenade against his body. The blast threw the Marines out of
the hole. They jumped into vacated enemy foxholes. A lieutenant who had
come to join them was shot between the eyes by a sniper. The sergeant
killed the sniper with his carbine.
Unable to hold their positions, the sergeant and his companies returned
to the shelter of the ravine. With the shattered remnants of the
company they waited for nearly another 24 hours, until darting Marines
on the top of the ridge showed Chonito had been taken from the rear.
_Field commanders soon came to appreciate the effect
these so-called “Joe Blow” stories had on the morale of their men. The
stories were printed in hometown newspapers and were clipped and sent
to the troops in the Pacific, who could then see that their efforts
were being publicized and appreciated at home._
]
_Colonel Suenaga Attacks_
Colonel Tsunetaro Suenaga, commanding officer of the _38th Regiment_,
from his command post on Mount Alifan, had seen the Americans overwhelm
his forces below. Desperate to strike back, he telephoned General
Takashina at 1730 to get permission for an all-out assault to drive
the Marines into the sea. He had already ordered his remaining units
to assemble for the counterattack. The _29th Division_ commander
was not at first receptive. Losses would be too high and the _38th
Regiment_ would serve better defending the high ground and thereby
threatening the American advance. Reluctantly however, Takashina gave
his permission, and ordered the survivors to fall back on Mount Alifan
if the attack failed, which he was certain it would. Eventually Colonel
Suenaga was forced to share the general’s pessimism, for he burned his
regiment’s colors to prevent their capture.
At the focal point of the enemy’s attack from the south, Hill 40, the
brunt of the fighting fell upon First Lieutenant Martin J. “Stormy”
Sexton’s Company K, 3d Battalion, 4th Marines. The enemy’s _3d
Battalion, 38th Regiment_ coming north from reserve positions was still
relatively intact. In the face of Japanese assaults, the company held,
but just barely. Sexton recalls Lieutenant Colonel Shapley’s assessment
of the night’s fighting: “If the Japanese had been able to recapture
Hill 40, they could have kicked our asses off the Agat beaches.”
Major Anthony N. “Cold Steel” Walker, S-3 (operations officer) of the
3d Battalion, recalled that the Japanese, an estimated 750 men, hit
the company at about 2130, with the main effort coming to the left or
east of the hill. He remembered:
Finding a gap in our lines and overrunning the machine gun which
covered the gap the enemy broke through and advanced toward the
beaches. Some elements turned to their left and struck Hill 40 from
the rear. K Company with about 200 men fought them all night long
from Hill 40 and a small hill to the rear and northeast of Hill 40.
When daylight came the Marines counterattacked with two squads from
L Company ... and two tanks ... and closed the gap. A number of men
from Company K died that night but all 750 Japanese soldiers were
killed. The hill ... represents in miniature or symbolically the
whole hard-fought American victory on Guam.
Along the rest of the Marine front, and in the reserve areas, the
fighting was hot and heavy as the rest of the _38th_ attacked. Colonel
Suenaga pushed his troops to attack again and again, in many cases only
to see them mowed down in the light of American flares. No novice to
Japanese tactics, General Shepherd had anticipated this first night’s
attack and was ready.
[Illustration: _BEACH SKETCH_
_SOUTHERN SECTOR_