_Raymond R. “Cap” Rutledge, one of the contractors on Wake, (seen here
as a POW at Shanghai in January 1942), had served in the U.S. Army
during World War I and threw hand grenades into Japanese landing barges
off Wake in the pre-dawn fighting of 23 December._]
Putnam had placed Captain Elrod in command of one flank of VMF-211’s
defensive line, which was situated in dense undergrowth. In the
impenetrable darkness, the squadron executive officer and his men--most
of whom were unarmed civilians who acted as weapons and ammunition
carriers (until weapons became available)--conducted a spirited defense
which repeated attacks by _Special Naval Landing Force_ troops could
not dislodge. Each time he heard Japanese troops mounting a probe of
211’s position, Elrod interposed himself between the enemy and his
own men and provided covering fire to enable his detachment to keep
supplied with guns and ammunition. Shortly before dawn, a Japanese
sailor who had hidden himself among the heaps of casualties surrounding
Hanna’s gun shot and killed the gallant Captain Elrod.
Captain Tharin, in charge of a group of Marines on the left flank of
VMF-211’s line, delivered covering fire for the unarmed ammunition
carriers attached to his unit, which repulsed several assaults on
his position. At one point, Japanese sailors penetrated the defenses
in Tharin’s sector, but in the counterattack, which drove the enemy
from the position, Tharin captured an enemy automatic weapon and used
it “successfully and effectively against its former owners.” The
indomitable Aviation Machinist’s Mate First Class Hesson armed himself
with a Thompson sub-machine gun and some grenades and although wounded
by rifle fire and grenade fragments, single-handedly drove back two
concerted attacks--killing several Japanese and preventing them from
overrunning 211’s flank.
Despite the heroic efforts of Putnam’s “platoon,” the Japanese managed
to move into the roughly triangular area which was bounded by Peacock
Point, on one side, the beach and the south side of the airstrip on the
others. Corporal Graves’ squad from Battery D, meanwhile, detrucked
somewhat north of their intended destination (200 yards south of the
airstrip rather than 600), began walking toward VMF-211’s position,
and quickly encountered a Japanese patrol. In the ensuing fire-fight,
enemy machine gun and rifle fire killed one Marine and pinned down the
remainder for a time, until Graves and his men managed to extricate
themselves and retire northward toward the battalion command post.
Graves’ encounter indicated that the Japanese had penetrated the U.S.
defenses. Despite their extraordinary efforts, neither Kliewer and the
.50-caliber guns at the airfield, nor the Hanna-VMF-211 group at the
3-inch gun near the shore, had been able to stop them.
At the same time, Batteries A and E began to receive mortar, small
arms, and machine gun fire, prompting Barninger to deploy his range
section, armed with two .30-caliber Brownings, and deployed as
infantrymen, facing northwest “across the high ground” to the rear of
the 5-inchers at Peacock Point. Lewis, whose 3-inch fire had silenced
an automatic weapons position in the thick undergrowth southwest of
Battery E, dispatched a patrol to try to relieve the pressure on his
position. That group, under Sergeant Raymond Gragg, progressed only
50 yards beyond the perimeter before it came under heavy fire. The
Japanese, however, moved no further because of the resistance put up by
Gragg’s squad.
[Illustration: MAP 5