_Capt Herbert C. Freuler (seen_ circa _September 1941), was VMF-211’s
gunnery and ordnance officer. Freuler was commissioned a second
lieutenant in July 1931. He was awarded a Navy Cross and a Bronze Star
for heroism at Wake._]
Freuler engaged six carrier attack planes and dropped one, trailing
smoke, out of formation on his first pass. As the group of Nakajimas
broke up, he made an opposite approach and fired, flaming one Kate,
which exploded in an expanding ball of fire about 50 feet beneath
him. As his controls responded sluggishly, and his badly scorched
F4F’s manifold pressure dropped, he glanced back toward Wake and saw
Davidson engaging several enemy planes. An instant later, a _Hiryu_
Zero got on Freuler’s tail and opened fire. Bullets penetrated
Freuler’s fuselage, both sides of his vacuum tank, the bulkhead, seat,
and parachute. After his plane was hit, Freuler threw his F4F into a
steep dive--the Japanese pilot did not follow him--nursed it home,
and landed with the canopy stuck in the closed position. Ground crews
extricated him and took him to the hospital.
Carl Davidson, unfortunately, did not return. The pilot who had knocked
Freuler out of the fight went to the rescue of his shipmates and shot
down Davidson. Rear Admiral Abe later paid homage to the two Marine
pilots who had challenged his carrier planes, lauding them as having
resisted fiercely and bravely.
The _Soryu_ lost two planes and their three-man crews. Damage suffered
in the aerial action compelled a third to ditch, but one of the
screening ships recovered its crew.
That afternoon, at 1320, Cunningham radioed Pye that a “combined land-
and carrier-based plane attack” had occurred and that his fighters had
engaged the attackers. He reported Davidson’s loss and the wounding
of Freuler, but noted that they had shot down “several” planes. The
atoll had suffered “no further damage.” As “Barney” Barninger later
recounted: “Dive bombers again--the carriers must still be in the
vicinity.... Things are getting tense. Rumor continues to fly about
relief, but the dive bombers [are] also present. Things go on in the
same manner as before. All that can be done is being done, but there is
so little to do [it] with.”
Heavy seas bedevilled Frank Jack Fletcher’s Task Force 14 as it pressed
westward. Having been ordered to fuel to capacity before fighting,
Fletcher began fueling his ships from _Neches_ in the turbulent seas.
Rolling swells and gusty winds slowed that process considerably and
permitted the fueling of only four of his destroyers. If Fletcher was
expected to fight, his ships would require more fuel to be able to
maneuver at high speed, if necessary. He resolved to top off the rest
the following day (23 December).
[Illustration: _Wreckage of what is probably Capt Freuler’s plane,
on the beach where he crash-landed it on 22 December, after he had
destroyed a Kate in aerial combat. Bullets penetrated his fuselage,
vacuum tank, bulkhead, seat, and parachute._
National Archives Photo 80-G-413519
]
Meanwhile, at around 1900 on 21 December (1530, 22 December Wake), the
PBY that had borne Major Bayler (the “last man off Wake Island”) from
Wake to Midway arrived at Pearl Harbor. The plane’s commander dictated
a report, which was transcribed by a CinCPac stenographer shortly after
the pilot’s arrival, regarding Wake’s desperate plight. Pye, upon
reading the report, was deeply moved. Members of Pye’s staff, many of
whom had also faithfully served on Admiral Kimmel’s staff, pleaded
with Pye’s Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral Milo F. Draemel, on behalf
of the Wake relief efforts. Referring to the PBY commander’s report,
Pye declared later, “the situation at Wake seemed to warrant taking a
greater chance to effect its reinforcement even at the sacrifice of
the _Tangier_ and possible damage to some major ships of Task Force
14.” The admiral therefore removed the restrictions on Task Force 14’s
operations. The _Tangier_ was to be detached with two destroyers to run
in to Wake to begin the evacuation of the civilians and to disembark
the Marines.
[Illustration: