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Home : World War II :Marine Corps In WWIIHEADQUARTERS U. S. MARINE CORPSWASHINGTON The Marine Corps is an integral part of the United States Navy. As the land-arm of the Navy, the Corps is prepared by study, practice, and tradition to carry out the land-fighting phases of amphibious operations. The men of our Fleet Marine Force are especially trained for ship-to-shore assault and the subsequent hard fighting usually necessary to wrest the objective from hostile defending forces. Since the war against Japan has been predominately amphibious in nature - has, in fact, been by far the greatest amphibious conflict of all time, the Marine Corps has been committed almost entirely to the War in the Pacific. The men of the Corps have fought throughout the war with unsurpassable heroism and skill, in keeping with the traditions of their Corps and their national heritage. Their record of indomitable fighting service in defense of their country began in the very first hours of the war, when the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, the Philippines, and Guam. Aboard ships and ashore, Marines bore their share of the fighting and the maintenance of order throughout the enemy's sudden air attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Casualties in our ranks, as among all other service personnel there, were heavy. In the Philippines a Marine force, drawn mostly from the Fourth Marine Regiment, fought alongside Army troops throughout the heroic delaying struggle against overwhelming enemy ground and air power on Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor. The first all-Marine action of World War II was the epic stand at Wake Island where a garrison of only four hundred Marines and a Marine air fighter squadron held off for fourteen days a major Japanese task force attempting to make a landing. Actually, the fighter squadron never had more than four planes in operation (others were damaged on the ground by enemy air action), but the dauntless pilots of those four planes at one time forced the task force to retreat and sank a large cruiser. The enemy, after suffering sharp losses in ships and men, finally effected a landing and overran the island on December 23. Our naval base at Guam also was attacked on December 7 and captured by the Japanese after its garrison of slightly more than one hundred Marines and a small naval complement put up a gallant but futile fight. At Guadalcanal, on August 7, 1942, our First Marine Division Reenforced drove ashore in the first American ground offensive of the war, beginning a long but steady march by Allied forces 3,000 miles across the Pacific to the Japanese homeland. From Guadalcanal on, our men never were turned back. Every landing operation ended in the complete seizure of the objective. In almost every instance, the Japanese garrisons fought to stem the advance with desperate fanaticism. To defeat them - to break through and crush them in their huge blockhouses, their pill boxes, and their mazes of heavily fortified positions - called for the highest in courage and skill. And the highest never was lacking.... The Marine Corps also has taken a vital part in the aerial offensive in the Pacific, Marine pilots, flying both land and carrier-based planes, have served in many capacities throughout the Pacific battle area. From Midway to the Philippines, from Wake Island to a carrier off Tokyo, they have supported ground operations, destroyed enemy shipping, immobilized by-passed enemy strongholds, attacked enemy airdromes, scouted enemy activities, defended American-held bases, and carried troops, cargo, and mail to front-line fields. Marine airmen have distinguished themselves unfailingly in every operation to which they have been assigned.
Throughout our history, Marines have served aboard the capital warships of the Navy. In this war, our fighting ships' complements have proudly maintained the high traditions established and upheld by the seagoing Marines of the past.
Twelve hundred miles southwest of Midway, and 2,300 miles from Pearl Harbor, lay a still smaller group of islands only four and one-half miles long and a mile and one-half across. The three islets - Peale, Wilkes, and Wake - go under the name of Wake Island which the United States also possessed as a result of the Spanish-American War. A cable relay station and an airplane stop were the main activities on Wake, but Japanese ships and planes struck there, too, on December 7, 1941. The small Marine garrison answered gallantly with what fire it could muster. Slightly more than 1,500 miles to the southwest of Wake, and about halfway to the Philippines, was another isolated American possession completely surrounded by Japanese-mandated islands - Guam. Here was a relatively large island, thirty miles long and from four to eight and one-half wide. The navy had maintained it as an important station for the Asiatic Fleet, and there was a powerful radio station on the island. Guam had always been a thorn in Japan's side.
Guam was the only island of the Marianas, or Ladrones, not under Japanese mandate. The important enemy base of Saipan was only 128 miles to the north. Rota was sixty-three miles away. Truk, the powerful key-base built up by the Japs in the west-central Pacific, was 635 miles to the southeast and Yap was less than 500 miles southwest. Guam was literally besieged even before the first shot had been fired. At 8:45 on the morning of December 7 eighteen land-based bombers swooped down upon Guam and immediately wrecked the radio station. Then they went after harbor installations and other military targets. The mine-sweeper Penguin was sunk. Warships appeared offshore and opened a bombardment. At 4:45 in the afternoon six more planes came over to pick out objectives that might have escaped. Guam was cut off from the rest of the world at the outset but had not surrendered. Sixteen hundred miles to the west lay the Philippine Islands, now bursting into flames. The bright streaks in the second week of the war included the cheering messages from Wake Island: 378 Marines and seven medical officers were holding off attacks by sea, air, and land with only light weapons and twelve fighter planes. No more than four were in operation at any one time. There was no fort or protected quarters on the little island. The only armament consisted of six 5-inch guns, two 3-inch antiaircraft guns; eighteen 50-caliber and thirty 30-caliber machine guns plus rifles and side arms. Most of the planes had been destroyed or damaged during four sea and air attacks on December 9, but the defenders sank a light cruiser and a destroyer. On December 14-15 forty-one Japanese bombers destroyed the airfield and other installations. The next day submarines joined the attack. A constant battle was waged until the twenty-first. The garrison had lost the island's power plant and all but one battery of guns. Yet in response to a query from Washington if anything was needed, Wake Island radioed back: "Send us more Japs." On December 22, the day after they had asked for "more Japs," the defenders on Wake Island were subjected to fierce assaults. The enemy attempted to land, but all sallies were repelled and two destroyers were sunk. Pressure was increased the next day and the Japanese managed to land a number of men. On December 24 more than two hundred enemy planes hit the island and thousands of Japanese troops poured ashore. Wake Island sent out its last message: "The issue is still in doubt." For more than sixteen days the gallant band on Wake Island, under Major James P. S. Devereux, U.S.M.C., had stood off the best the enemy could offer. His few guns and the planes under Major Paul A. Putnam had sunk seven Japanese warships, damaged two more, and shot down at least a dozen enemy planes.
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