The _Yubari_’s action record reflects that although Wake had been
pounded by land-based planes, the atoll’s defenders still possessed
enough coastal guns to mount a ferocious defense, which forced Kajioka
to retire. As if the seacoast guns and the weather were not enough
to frustrate the admiral’s venture--the heavy seas had overturned
landing boats almost as soon as they were launched--the Japanese soon
encountered a new foe. While Cunningham’s cannoneers had been trading
shells with Kajioka’s, Putnam’s four Wildcats had climbed to 20,000
feet and maintained that altitude until daylight, when the major had
ascertained that no Japanese planes were airborne. As the destroyers
that had dueled Battery B opened the range and stood away from Wake,
the Wildcats roared in.
Major Putnam saw at least one of Elrod’s bombs hit the _Kisaragi_.
Trailing oil and smoke, the damaged destroyer slowed to a stop but then
managed to get underway again, internally afire. While she limped away
to the south, Elrod, antiaircraft fire having perforated his plane’s
oil line, headed home. He managed to reach Wake and land on the rocky
beach, but VMF 211’s ground crew wrote off his F4F as a total loss.
Meanwhile, _Tenryu_ came under attack by Putnam, Tharin, and Freuler,
who strafed her forward, near the number 1 torpedo tube mount, wounding
five men and disabling three torpedoes.
The three serviceable Wildcats then shuttled back and forth to be
rearmed and refueled. Putnam and Kinney later saw the _Kisaragi_--which
had been carrying an extra supply of depth charges because of the
American submarine threat--blow up and sink, killing her entire crew
of 167 men. Freuler, Putnam, and Hamilton strafed the _Kongo Maru_,
igniting barrels of gasoline stowed in one of her holds, killing three
Japanese sailors, and wounding 19. Two more men were listed as missing.
Freuler’s Wildcat took a bullet in the engine but managed to return
to the field. Technical Sergeant Hamilton reached the field despite a
perforated tail section.
The _Triton_, which had not made contact with an enemy ship since
firing at the unidentified ship during the pre-dawn hours, did not
participate in the action that morning. Neither did her sistership, the
_Tambor_. The latter attempted to approach the enemy ships she observed
firing at the atoll, until they appeared to be standing away from Wake.
Then, she reversed course and proceeded north, well away from the
retiring Japanese, to avoid penetrating the _Triton_’s patrol area.
Meanwhile, after Kinney witnessed the _Kisaragi_’s cataclysmic demise,
he strafed another destroyer before returning to the field. Having been
rearmed and refueled, he took off again at 0915, accompanied by Second
Lieutenant Davidson, shortly before 17 Nells appeared to bomb Peale’s
batteries.
Davidson battled nine of the bombers, which had separated from the
others and headed toward the southwest. Kinney tackled the other eight.
Battery D, meanwhile, hurled 125 rounds at the bombers. Although some
of the enemy’s bombs fell near the battery position on Peale, the
Japanese again inflicted neither damage nor casualties, and lost two
Nells in the process. Eleven other G3M2s had been damaged; casualties
included 15 dead and one slightly wounded. Putnam later credited Kinney
and Davidson with shooting down one plane apiece.
Ordered to move Battery D’s 3-inch guns the length of Peale during
the night, Godbold reconnoitered the new position selected by Major
Devereux, and at 1745, after securing all battery positions, began
the shift. For the next 11 hours, the Marines, assisted by nearly
250 civilians, constructed new emplacements. By 0445 on 12 December,
Godbold could again report: “Manned and ready.” At Peacock Point, on
the night of the 11th, Wally Lewis gave permission for all but two men
at each gun, and at the director, to get some sleep--the first the men
had had in three days.
[Illustration: _A pre-war view of the destroyer_ Kisaragi, _sunk as the
result of damage inflicted by two 100-pound bombs dropped by Capt Henry
T. Elrod on the morning of 11 December 1941. Out of the crew of 167
men, not one sailor survived._
Naval Historical Center Photo NH 3065
]
[Illustration: