_The seaplane tender_ Tangier _(AV-8) (seen here off Mare Island,
California, in August 1941), a converted freighter, had elements of the
4th Defense Battalion embarked as well as vitally needed ammunition and
equipment, including radar._]
Scrambling over to that Wildcat after the raid had ended, Kinney saw
that the enemy ordnance had hit close to the tail but had damaged only
the oil tank and intercoolers. Since that was the squadron’s best
engine, Kinney knew that it must be removed, mount and all. Kinney used
an improvised hoist to lift the plane by its nose.
With only the single makeshift hoist, Kinney and his crew removed one
engine and attached the other mount by nightfall, fortified only by a
gallon of ice cream which Pete Sorenson, one of the contractors, had
thoughtfully brought them. Since the hangar was not complete, they had
to work quickly to avoid the blackout.
Kinney instructed the civilian foreman to call him as soon as the
hangar was ready to receive the plane. He sent Hamilton to bed at
0800, and retired, himself, to be awakened an hour and a half later.
With Hamilton in tow, he awoke the three civilians who had been
helping them, and all went to the hangar. With a bit more effort, they
were ready for the aircraft at 1130. Kinney and his civilian helpers
completed installing the engine by 0330 on the 15th.
The failure to have the hangars completed, meanwhile, proved to be
a sore point for Major Putnam. Commander Cunningham differed with
his Marine subordinate over just how much pressure to apply to the
civilians, eschewing the use of armed force in favor of addressing the
workers in small groups and appealing to them to lend a hand.
Annoyed that Cunningham seemed to be using only “moral suasion” on
the contractors, Putnam, on 14 December, personally persuaded the
contractors to work on the underground shelters--no work having been
done for the previous 24 hours--and the civilians turned out in force
(“about 300 when only 50 could work,” Kinney noted).
The enthusiastic turnout, however, had an unexpected effect. Curiosity
moved many workmen to line the airstrip to watch the take-off of the
evening patrol. The surging crowd caused Captain Freuler to ease his
plane to the left to avoid hitting any men, and in so doing found
that he had aimed the plane toward a crane which sat on the north
side of the airfield. Continuing to the left, Freuler tried to miss
the piece of heavy equipment but instead “ground-looped” his F4F into
the “boondocks,” wrecking it. Hauled back to the runway, the damaged
Wildcat served, thereafter, as a decoy.
At Pearl Harbor, at 1231 on 14 December (0901 15 December, on Wake),
Task Force 11 (formerly Task Force 12) stood out to sea. Its commander,
Vice Admiral Wilson Brown, had been ordered to raid Jaluit to divert
attention away from Task Force 14, which was to sortie the following
day and proceed to Wake. Brown’s force was to conduct the raid on
Jaluit--reckoned to be the center of Japanese operations in the
Marshalls--and then to retire toward Pearl Harbor the day before Task
Force 14, under Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, was to reach Wake.
Fletcher’s task, meanwhile, was to see that the _Tangier_ reached her
objective. The _Saratoga_, with VMF-221 embarked, was to launch the
Marine fighters to fly into Wake while the seaplane tender was to
moor offshore to begin the process of putting ashore reinforcements,
ammunition, provisions, and equipment--including an important radar
set. The _Tangier_ was then to embark approximately 650 civilians and
all of the wounded men and return to Pearl Harbor. Kimmel and his
staff had estimated that the process of unloading and debarkation
would take at least two days; embarking all the people at Wake could
be accomplished in less than one. Unfavorable weather, however, could
lengthen the time considerably. At 1331 (at Pearl Harbor), on 15
December Kimmel informed the Chief of Naval Operations (Admiral Harold
R. Stark) of the relief expedition he had just launched. He received
Admiral Stark’s concurrence early the following morning.
Meanwhile, during the day on the 15th, Dan Godbold’s men observed the
usual routine, starting the day at full alert and replacing the natural
camouflage before reducing the alert status at 0700. His men completed
the shelters near the guns during the day and began work on a shelter
at the heightfinder position. They stopped work at 1700 to return to
full alert. A half hour later, however, battery lookouts reported a
plane lurking amongst the low clouds to the east, and Godbold reported
the presence of the intruder to the island command post. At 1800, four
flying boats came in at 1,000 feet and dropped bombs on what their
crews thought was the “barracks area (Camp 1) on the northern part of
the island.” They also strafed the area near Batteries D and B. The
Japanese reported their bombing as having been “effective,” but it
inflicted no material damage. One civilian workman was killed. From his
vantage point, Marine Gunner McKinstry, in Battery E, thought all of
the bombs landed in the ocean.
The next day, the 16th, 33 Nells raided Wake Island at 1340. The
Marines, however, greeted the Japanese fliers with novel fire control
methods. Kinney and Kliewer, aloft on patrol, spotted the incoming
formations closing on the atoll at 18,000 feet, almost 10 minutes
before they reached Wake’s airspace. The U.S. pilots radioed the
enemy’s altitude to the gun batteries. The early warning permitted
Lewis to enter the data into the M-4 director and pass the solution to
Godbold. Battery D hurled 95 rounds skyward. Battery E’s first shots
seemed to explode ahead of the formation, but Gunner McKinstry reported
that the lead plane in one of the formations dropped, smoking, to the
rear of the formation. He estimated that at least four other planes
cleared the island trailing smoke. Godbold estimated that four planes
had been damaged and one had crashed some distance from the island.
Japanese accounts, however, provide no support for Godbold’s estimate,
acknowledging neither losses nor damage to Japanese aircraft during
the attack that day. Kliewer and Kinney each attacked the formations
of planes, but with little effect, partly because only one of Kinney’s
four machine guns functioned.
That day, as half of Wake’s submarine support--the _Tambor_--retired
toward Oahu because of an irreparable leak in her forward torpedo
room, Kinney returned to the task of keeping the planes ready to fight
with field expedient repairs and borrowed gear. Kinney and his helpers
fashioned gun cleaning rods from welding rods. The pervasive, intrusive
coral sand threatened to cause severe mechanical damage to the planes.
Kinney borrowed a compressor from PanAm (two previous compressors had
been “strafed out of commission”) to try to keep the planes clean by
blasting a mixture of air and kerosene to blow out the accumulations of
grit.
[Illustration: