_LtGen Alexander A. Vandegrift was an early commander of IMAC._]
The men in the rifle battalions long remembered the sight. On one
occasion, a Marine Corsair was about to pull the trigger on an enemy
Zeke (“Zero”) fighter set up perfectly in the pilot’s sights when
a burst of fire from Marine .50-caliber machine guns on the beach,
meant for the Zeke, shot the American down. One of the riflemen later
recalled that the Marine pilot fell into the ocean and surfaced with a
broken leg. “We waded out to get him. He was ticked off--mostly because
he missed the Jap.”
In spite of all these problems, the assault battalions had, by the
end of D-Day, reached their objectives on the Initial Beachhead Line,
600-1,000 yards inland. One enormous unexpected obstacle, however, had
now become painfully clear. Available maps were nearly useless, and a
large, almost impenetrable swamp, with water three to six feet deep,
lay right behind the beaches and made movement inland and lateral
contact among the Marine units impossible.
The night of D-Day was typical for the ground troops. By 1800, darkness
had set in and the men all knew the iron-clad rule: be in your foxhole
and stay there. Anyone moving around out there was a Japanese soldier
trying to infiltrate. John A. Monks, Jr., quoted a Marine in his book,
A Ribbon and a Star:
From seven o’clock in the evening till dawn, with only centipedes
and lizards and scorpions and mosquitoes begging to get
acquainted--wet, cold, exhausted, but unable to sleep--you lay
there and shivered and thought and hated and prayed. But you stayed
there. You didn’t cough, you didn’t snore, you changed your
position with the least amount of noise. For it was still great to
be alive.
At sea, the transports and cargo ships were withdrawn; there was
intelligence that enemy naval forces were on the move.
[Sidebar (page 5):] Major General Allen H. Turnage, USMC
[Illustration]
Allen Hal Turnage was born in Farmville, North Carolina, on 3 January
1891. After attending Horner Military Academy and then the University
of North Carolina, at age 22 he was appointed a second lieutenant in
the U.S. Marine Corps. Sent to Haiti, he served with the 2d Marine
Regiment from 1915 to 1918, becoming a company commander in the Haitian
Gendarmerie.
A captain in 1917, Turnage did get to France where he commanded the 5th
Marine Brigade Machine Gun Battalion. Home in 1919, he was assigned
to the 5th Marines at Quantico and became regimental adjutant and an
instructor for the first Field Officers School, 1920-22.
A major in 1927, Turnage had three years with the Pacific fleet, and
then he served with the U.S. Electoral Mission in Nicaragua (1932).
He came back to Washington, made lieutenant colonel in 1934 and
full colonel in 1939. He was director of the Basic School at the
Philadelphia Navy Yard, and, in the spring of 1939, he was sent to
China to head Marine forces in North China.
In summer of 1941, on the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
he returned to Headquarters in Washington. In 1942, as a brigadier
general, he commanded the burgeoning Marine Base and Training Center at
New River, North Carolina.
When the 3d Marine Division was formed in September 1942, he was
named assistant division commander. In the summer of 1943 Turnage was
promoted to major general and selected to head the division. He then
led the division on Bougainville and in the liberation of Guam, the
first American territory to be recaptured from the enemy.
After the war, he was appointed Assistant Commandant, followed by
promotion to lieutenant general and command of FMFPac (Fleet Marine
Force, Pacific). He retired 1 January 1948, and died 22 October 1971.
His awards included the Navy Cross, the Navy Distinguished Service
Medal, and the Presidential Unit Citation (which his men received for
both Guam and Iwo Jima).
_Planning the Operation_
[Illustration: