_A May 1941 photo taken from the northeast, from a Navy Catalina
flying boat, reveals the Wake Island coral atoll in the mid-Pacific
beneath broken clouds. Wishbone-shaped Wake proper lies at left, as
yet unmarked by construction of the airfield there. The upper portion
of the photo shows Wilkes; at right is Peale, joined to Wake by a
causeway._]
Major Paul A. Putnam, VMF-211’s commanding officer, and Second
Lieutenant Henry G. Webb had conducted the dawn aerial patrol and
landed by the time the squadron’s radiomen, over at Wake’s airfield,
had picked up word of an attack on Pearl Harbor. Putnam immediately
sent a runner to tell his executive officer, Captain Henry T. Elrod, to
disperse planes and men and keep all aircraft ready for flight.
Meanwhile, work began on dugout plane shelters. Putnam placed VMF-211
on a war footing immediately; two two-plane sections then took off
on patrol. Captain Elrod and Second Lieutenant Carl R. Davidson flew
north, Second Lieutenant John F. Kinney and Technical Sergeant William
J. Hamilton flew to the south-southwest at 13,000 feet. Both sections
were to remain in the immediate vicinity of the island.
[Illustration: MAP I