_A lone member of the 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division patrolling
through the outskirts of Tinian Town, pauses at a torii of a Shinto
shrine. The ruins about him give proof of the heavy shelling visited
upon the town before the landing._]
Hoffman had another lively experience before leaving the island. He was
a trumpet addict and carried his horn with him all through the Pacific
war:
For Tinian, I didn’t take any chances such as sending my horn
ashore in a machine gun cart or a battalion ambulance. I had it
flown over to me. One evening, my troops were in a little perimeter
with barbed wire all around us on top of the cliff. My Marines were
shouting in requests: “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” and “Pretty Baby”
and others. While I was playing these tunes, all of a sudden we
heard this scream of “_banzai_.” An individual Japanese soldier
was charging right toward me and right toward the barbed wire. The
Marines had their weapons ready and he must have been hit from
14 different directions at once. He didn’t get to throw [his]
grenade.... I’ve always cited him as the individual who didn’t like
my music. He was no supporter of my trumpet playing. But ... I even
continued my little concert after we had accounted for him.
A final _banzai_ attack on the night the 37mm guns had their big
harvest, occurred in the early morning hours of 1 August. A 150-man
Japanese force attacked the 1st Battalion, 28th Marines, on Hoffman’s
left flank. After 30 minutes, the main thrust of the attack was spent
and at dawn the Japanese withdrew; 100 bodies lay in an area 70 yards
square in front of the position of Company E, 2d Battalion, 28th
Marines. The 8th Marines took 74 casualties that night.
The following morning the two divisions went back to work. The 2d
moved across the plateau toward its eastern cliffs, the 4th toward
cliffs on the south and west. When they reached the escarpment’s edge,
overlooking the ocean, their job was essentially done. At 1855, General
Schmidt declared the island “secure,” meaning that organized resistance
had ended. But not the killing. Hundreds of Japanese troops remained
holed up in the caves pock-mocking the southern cliffs rising up from
the ocean.
On the morning of 2 August, a Japanese force of 200 men sallied forth
in an attack on the 3d Battalion, 6th Marines. After two hours of
combat, 119 Japanese were dead. Marine losses included the battalion
commander, Lieutenant Colonel John W. Easley. Shortly afterwards, the
regiment’s 2d Battalion, led by Lieutenant Colonel Edmund B. Games, was
hit by 100 Japanese, 30 of whom were killed before the unit withdrew.
Contacts of this kind continued for months. By the end of the year,
Colonel Clarence R. Wallace’s 8th Marines, left on Tinian for
mopping-up operations, had lost 38 killed and 125 wounded; Japanese
losses were 500 dead.
Beginning on 1 August, there were large-scale surrenders by civilians
leaving the caves in which they had taken refuge. Marine intelligence
officers estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 civilians had been hiding out
in the southeast sector.
[Illustration: _This cliff was a formidable obstacle to movement on
31 July. Cutting practically across the entire island, it provided
problems for both divisions. Here, 2d Division Marines climb the rocky
slopes toward the flat plateau on top. The 1st and 2d Battalions, 8th
Marines, spent a busy night (31 July-1 August) of the operation holding
a road that curled up this slope._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 87898
]
[Illustration: