Read Ebook: The Sixth Marine Division by Stockman James R

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 160 lines and 19740 words, and 4 pages

On 21 May the Fourth Marines made slight gains in the interior of Horseshoe Ridge but the foothold on the Half Moon could not be expanded. Until Shuri fell it would be virtually impossible to take the Half Moon in its entirety. It was futile to attack on the left. Now the emphasis was shifted to the regiment's right and on the morning of 22 May the front lines advanced slowly to the Asato.

Employing a holding attack on the extreme left of the division front, General Shepherd was ready to exploit his gains. After a thorough reconnaissance of the ground just across the Asato, the Fourth Marines moved two battalions across the river during the afternoon of 23 May and ran into determined enemy resistance. The position of the Fourth Marines, while not precarious, was extremely difficult. Two attempts to bridge the Asato had failed; all food, water and ammunition had to be carried across by hand. The past three days had brought unusually heavy rains and the entire division zone of action was a sea of mud. Wading through mud ankle deep, stretcher bearers had a hard time getting the wounded back to evacuation points north of the rear. Few vehicles could negotiate the morass of mud that characterized the area. These rains were to continue until the last of May.

On 25 May the Fourth Marines resumed the attack and seized most of the north-south ridge line west of Machishi. About a company of the enemy counterattacked during the night and spent its force in the sector of the Third Battalion. While the Fourth Marines were moving into the eastern outskirts of Naha, the Division Reconnaissance Company crossed the Asato near its mouth and penetrated the urban portion of Naha west of the north-south canal. Enemy resistance was very light; only a few snipers harassed the company. Next day, with the heavy rain still falling, the Fourth Marines confined its efforts to vigorous patrolling. The reconnaissance company moved 300 yards further into Naha.

Unmistakable signs on 26 May pointed toward a Japanese withdrawal from the Shuri position. In order to determine the extent of the withdrawal to the front of the Sixth Marine Division, all units commenced patrolling. Part of the Second Battalion, Twenty Second Marines, crossed the Asato and passed through the Reconnaissance Company while pushing farther into Naha. The city was almost a total wreck. Only a few buildings around the outskirts remained standing and these were badly damaged. During the day the Fourth Marines sent patrols over 300 yards forward of the lines and found only light opposition.

Again General Shepherd reoriented his attack; he ordered the Twenty Second Marines to complete the capture of Naha and be prepared to advance through the hills that overlook the Kokuba River from the north. At the same time, he ordered the Twenty Ninth Marines to relieve the Fourth, and to be prepared to continue the attack to the southeast toward the Shichina hills. On 28 May the Twenty Ninth Marines commenced to relieve the Fourth Marines; at the same time, the Twenty Second Marines completed the capture of urban Naha, the part that lies to the west of the north-south canal.

Initially, the Twenty Ninth Marines were to carry out a holding attack while supporting the Twenty Second Marines by fire. On 29 May, with the Twenty Ninth Marines holding on its left, the Twenty Second Marines crossed the north-south canal and commenced to fight through the low hills that lead to Shichina, and parallel the Kokuba River. The attack moved rapidly at first on the right but the enemy rear guard, stationed in the hills to the front of the two regiments, began to resist more fiercely, and it wasn't until 1 June that the two regiments were able to clean out the enemy in the Shichina area; now the division could look down from its position above the Kokuba and see the Naha-Yonabaru cross-island highway. Across the river, troops could see destroyed materiel abandoned by the enemy in his hasty withdrawal to the south.

The Twenty Second Marines rested now for the first time since crossing the Asa River on 10 May. For this period the regiment, and its attached units, was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. In the drive from the Asa to the Kokuba casualties had been heavy.

After the seizure of Naha and the area to its east the Sixth Marine Division prepared to continue its drive to the south by making an amphibious landing on Oroku. General Shepherd ordered his Division Reconnaissance Company, a flexible group that worked under G-2 or G-3 as the situation demanded, to cross the estuary during the night of 1-2 June and reconnoiter possible landing beaches as well as explore the area inland where the beachhead would be established. Using plastic boats, the company made its reconnaissance and returned to Naha at 0300, 2 June, to report that the northern part of Oroku Peninsula was occupied by the enemy but not in great strength.

The plan for the reduction of enemy forces on Oroku was simple and complete; it left the Japanese no alternatives except to surrender or die. The Fourth Marines were to make a dawn landing on 4 June and as the beachhead expanded, the Twenty Ninth Marines were to go in on the left of the Fourth. With two regiments attacking abreast, the plan called for the other regiment, the Twenty Second Marines, to throw a cordon-like line across the base of the peninsula in conjunction with the First Marine Division as it crossed both forks of the Kokuba river and drove south. Then with the Twenty Second facing northwest and preventing the enemy from escaping, the two assault regiments would drive east and southeast to exterminate the enemy defenders of Oroku.

After the rainy weather of the last week in May and the first few days in June, the Sixth Marine Division faced a tremendous logistical problem. Initially the assault regiments would have to be supplied by amphibious craft over the same route used for the landing. As the attack moved to the southeast, there was a chance that the Naha Estuary could be bridged by using little Ona Yama island, which lay in the center of the estuary, almost equidistant from Naha and Oroku. There were a few of the enemy on Ono Yama; these would have to be killed before the engineers could commence their bridging efforts. Simultaneously then, with the landing of the Fourth Marines on Oroku, the Sixth Reconnaissance Company was ordered to land on, and secure, Ono Yama. All through 2-3 June amphibious trucks and tractors carried supplies and equipment over impassable roads to the beach at Naha where the landing was to be launched.

Before dawn, 4 June, the preliminary bombardment commenced on Oroku and Ono Yama. At 0551, the Fourth Marines landed two battalions without any great difficulty. Early enemy resistance was light and the troops moved rapidly inland. At 1000 the Twenty Ninth Marines commenced to load a battalion to send across to join the Fourth. In the meantime, the Division Reconnaissance Company had landed on Ono Yama and killed a handful of Japanese.

Defending Oroku were mixed troops. There were some regular units, some Okinawa Home Guardsmen, and some were naval and air personnel from units stationed at Naha Port, and Naha Airfield. The rough character of the terrain on Oroku, with the exception of the flat ground around the airfield, lent itself to the defenders. From carefully prepared cave positions they could use the machine guns, 40 and 20-mm. antiaircraft guns that had been stripped from the defenses of the airfield. This enemy group on Oroku, some 5000 strong, had resigned themselves to making a last ditch stand on the peninsula. Initially, however, the amphibious landing of the Fourth Marines caught them by surprise. With the advance of the First Division across the Kokuba toward Itoman, the enemy apparently decided that Oroku would be attacked from its base, not its northwest tip, and was originally deployed to fight off any thrust from the base.

It was indeed unfortunate then, that because of two factors beyond its control, the Sixth Marine Division was not afforded the opportunity of really capitalizing on its tactical surprise to the enemy. The rainy weather through the latter part of May and early June had made Oroku extremely muddy. What few roads there were that led inland from the landing beaches were either mined or had sections blown out so that our tanks could not use them. The rice paddies, fields and hills, ankle to knee deep with mud, were heavily mined, precluding the possibility of tank movement and causing the infantry to move with utmost caution. At a time when speed could have meant rapid gains, the division found itself forced to let the rifle companies fight as best they could and without many of their supporting arms. The brief respite gained by the enemy allowed him to redeploy his forces to resist the attack of the Fourth and Twenty Ninth Marines.

It wasn't until 13 June that the enemy forces on Oroku were destroyed. The Fourth Marines, after landing on 4 June, had seized the first hills inland and then as the Twenty Ninth came in on the left, the Fourth secured Naha Airfield and drove to the southeast in an encircling maneuver. Facing the enemy from the east, the Twenty Second Marines kept him bottled up and harassed his rear. On the left, driving down the long ridge that parallels the estuary, the Twenty Ninth moved slowly. In the extreme broken terrain that characterized Oroku, the enemy resisted fiercely using all the weapons at his command to prevent the advancing Marines from crossing the numerous compartments, and denying them the use of the corridors.

The advance was slow and the action costly. In addition to his automatic weapons, small arms, grenade discharges and mortars, the enemy had 320-mm. spigot mortars and artillery. Cut off, surrounded, and assaulted from all sides, the enemy was exacting a final price for the peninsula. It was not until 12 June that the first real break in his carefully coordinated defense became apparent. On this day, converging forces of the Fourth Marines and the Twenty Ninth had the enemy completely encircled. From his positions, the enemy could look to the northwest and see the Twenty Ninth; turning to the south, he could see the Fourth Marines driving in on his flank; behind him was the Twenty Second Marines, moving in slowly to complete his doom.

During the afternoon of 12 June, some enemy groups came out waving white surrender flags. Others refused to surrender and pressed grenades to their stomachs. Still others allowed themselves to be killed while offering only feeble resistance. In most, the will to live was gone; they were resigned to their fate. Next day, 861 Japanese were killed and 73 taken prisoner.

Before the capture of Oroku could be called complete, there remained to be taken the small island of Senaga Shima. After a heavy preliminary bombardment, the Sixth Division's Reconnaissance Company, with a company from the Twenty Ninth Marines attached, landed on the island and quickly seized it. Only two of the enemy were found and killed but many fine coastal guns were captured. Now the battle for Oroku was over. The enemy had resisted bitterly, 1,608 Marines were killed or wounded in the capture of the peninsula, and thirty of our tanks were lost. During the ten days of fighting the Sixth Marine Division had killed almost 5,000 Japanese and had captured nearly 200. For its excellent work in landing on the peninsula, seizing the airdrome and then driving around the enemy's position to overwhelm him from the flank, the Fourth Marines was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

Next morning, 18 June, the Twenty Second Marines continued the attack, passing the Second Battalion through the Third, which was left to mop up in its immediate area. Against heavy resistance the Second Battalion advanced to Kuwanga Ridge and by late afternoon had a firm hold on the ridge. While moving through the Mezado Area to inspect his regiment's attack, Colonel H. C. Roberts, USMC, the Commanding Officer of the Twenty Second Marines, was shot through the heart by a sniper.

Although the Second Battalion had a foothold on Kuwanga Ridge, it could not hold the entire length of the ridge, some 1800 yards, and General Shepherd decided to move up a battalion of the Fourth Marines on the left in order to hold the ridge through the night. On the next day he could continue the attack to the south with a fresh regiment.

Early in the morning of 19 June, the Fourth Marines with the First and Third Battalions abreast, assaulted Ibaru Ridge and, after a brisk fight, had seized the ridge by noon. After a hasty reorganization on the ridge, the regiment attacked again, this time to capture the Kiyamu-Gusuku hill mass. Immediately upon leaving Ibaru the Fourth Marines ran into heavy enemy fire from mortars emplaced behind the hill mass and machine guns firing from concealed positions on it. Just before dark the regiment succeeded in gaining a small foot hold on the high plateau of the hill mass. During the afternoon the little island just offshore from Nagasuku was seized by a quickly assembled task force consisting of three amphibious tractors, two 37-mm. platoons and a War Dog platoon. In the brief action 20 Japanese soldiers were killed and 8 taken prisoner.

On 19 June the Sixth Marine Division committed two battalions of the Twenty Ninth Marines on the right of the Fourth Marines in preparation for a final assault to seize the 5000 square yards of ground remaining. Next day at 0700 both regiments attacked, the Twenty Ninth to drive to the coast, and the Fourth to complete the seizure of the Kiyamu-Gusuku Ridge. Against light opposition, the Twenty Ninth Marines advanced rapidly and reached the southern coast. Harassing long range fire from the regiment's left caused few casualties. The enemy in this sector began to surrender. An LCI, equipped with a loud-speaker, moved along the coast calling to the remaining Japanese to give themselves up. Over 700 Japanese officers and men surrendered during the day.

Meanwhile over on the division's left, the Fourth Marines were engaged in a bloody fight to secure Kiyamu-Gusuku Ridge. From their positions in the hill mass the Japanese resisted desperately with intense mortar and small arms fire. After a day of bitter fighting the Second Battalion captured Hill 80, the peak of the hill mass, but the remainder of the ground was still held by the enemy.

Resuming its attack on 21 June the Fourth Marines turned from frontal assaults and flanking attacks to a double envelopment from the rear. Early in the morning the two flank battalions sent companies around either extremity of the ridge and at 0800 struck the enemy's rear in a coordinated attack. For two hours the enemy fought back bitterly but could not halt the assaulting Marines. With the fall of the Kiyamu-Gusuku Ridge all organized resistance in the Sixth Marine Division's zone of action ceased.

During all but thirteen of the eighty two days that the Okinawa Campaign lasted, the Sixth Marine Division was committed and actively engaged. Credited to the division were 23,000 Japanese killed and over 3,500 captured. The division had captured over two thirds of Okinawa and had repeatedly fought the enemy on his own terms, and his own ground. During this operation the Sixth Marine Division had taken heavy losses; 400 officers and 7,822 enlisted men were either killed or wounded. In the drive from the Asa River to the Kokuba, the division had lost the equivalent of a regiment of men. Not included in the above figures are men lost due to non-battle casualties, sickness, or combat fatigue.

After reaching the southern coast the Sixth Division turned to retrace its steps back to the Kokuba, mopping up enemy remnants at it went.

The first week in July found the Sixth Marine Division busy with preparations for the trip to the new base camp on Guam. On 4 July there was an impressive ceremony held to dedicate the division cemetery. Although the division was preparing to leave Okinawa, it paused briefly to pay its respects to those of its members who would have to remain forever behind. In the last paragraph of the special order of dedication, General Shepherd admonished his men as follows:

"As this cemetery is dedicated to the dead and to the past that they made glorious by their heroic sacrifices, let there be in the minds of the members of this division the resolve to dedicate their future efforts to speeding the impending final defeat of the enemy to the end that there will no longer be occasion for the sacrifice that the honored dead of our division were called upon to make on this island."

On 26 July General Shepherd published a letter of gratitude from the people of Guam to the officers and men of the Sixth Marine Division. Written on the occasion of "Guam Liberation Day", 21 July, one year after the Fourth and Twenty Second Marines had landed on the bloody beaches near Agat, the letter, signed by several leading Guamanians said in part:

"On behalf of the people of Guam we take this opportunity, as a token of everlasting gratitude, to extend our greetings and felicitations to you, the officers and men of the First Provisional Brigade which formed the nucleus of the Sixth Marine Division, with its supporting arms and services, on the first anniversary of D-Day.

"Through popular request, the twenty first of July has been designated as 'Guam Liberation Day'. It is fitting and proper that we renew and reaffirm our loyalty and devotion to our mother country and the cause for which she stands."

With general preparations for future combat operations against the enemy underway, the Sixth Marine Division launched an intensive training program in August. The main effort of the division was diverted, however, from 11-15 August to preparing and mounting out Task Group Able for the forthcoming occupation of Yokosuka Naval Base. This task group was a headquarters command headed by Brigadier General William T. Clement which was superimposed over the Fourth Marines , under the command of Lt. Col. Fred D. Beans. On 16 August, Task Group Able departed from Guam and three days later joined the Third Fleet.

During the month of September the Sixth Marine Division prepared for an operation, the forthcoming occupation of Tsingtao, China. From 2 October until 11 October the division was aboard ship en route to China and commenced unloading at Tsingtao on the latter date.

While aboard the division command ship en route to Tsingtao, General Shepherd stated the general mission of his command:

"Our mission is to land and occupy Tsingtao and the adjacent Tsangkou Airfield; to assist local authorities in maintaining order and in preventing disease and starvation; to release, care for, and evacuate Recovered Allied Military personnel and Allied internees; to cooperate with Chinese Central Government forces; to accept, when necessary, local surrender of Japanese forces, as authorized by higher authority, and to assist the Chinese in effecting the disarming and confining of these forces."

The city of Tsingtao, with 1,300,000 inhabitants is situated on a promontory on the southern coast of Shantung Peninsula. It is regarded as one of the finest ports in China, and is second only to Shanghai as a textile manufacturing center. When the division landed, it found the citizens of Tsingtao to be a polyglot group: Communist agents, former Nazis, White Russians, Koreans, Japanese civilians, Japanese military personnel, Europeans, Eurasians, and Chinese.

Politically, Tsingtao, as the most coveted city on Shantung Peninsula, was a hotbed of intrigue and strife. The Communists, with a stronghold at Chefoo, hoped to gain control of the peninsula, and the city. Resisting them were Japanese troops, protecting rail lines leading into the city. Here too, were independent factions ostensibly aligned with the Chungking government. Still in evidence, but ineffective, were puppet groups. At large, but not easily identified with either Chungking or Yennan, were small groups of brigands which terrorized Tsingtao despite the Mayor and his poorly trained and discipined troops.

Most of the interior of the Shantung Peninsula was controlled by Communists; their only access to the sea was at the port of Chefoo. Early in the month of October an emissary from the Commander-in-Chief of the Liberation Army of the Communists entered the harbor and sought an audience with General Shepherd. Permission was granted and a letter was presented which proposed, in essence, passive collaboration between the Marines and the Communists. Offering to enter the city to "restore order" by killing puppet troops, that is those troops who professed allegiance to Chiang Kai-Shek's Chinese Central Government, the Communists promised not to disturb the Marines of the Sixth Division. To this General Shepherd replied firmly that he would have no part in a fratricidal war between factions in China, and that his combat veterans could prevent any disorders in the city.

Obviously, the Communist forces had hoped to gain complete control of the Shantung Peninsula at the cessation of hostilities through the surrender of Japanese troops to them.

One of the earliest problems to confront the men of the Sixth Marine Division in Tsingtao was a financial one, the fluctuating rate of exchange. With inflation rampant, attempts to stabilize the exchange at one American dollar to 2,000 Chinese Federal Reserve Bank dollars failed. Black markets flourished for a while and speculation in local currency helped to make that currency unstable. Food was plentiful but there was a shortage of coal.

Law and order was more a matter of theory than practice. Throughout October uniformed Chinese perpetrated many small crimes against both the Japanese and German residents. These usually consisted of breaking into houses, threatening the occupants with rifles or pistols, and stealing jewelry, silver, or small valuables. Marine roving patrols remedied this situation. It wasn't long before the Sixth Marine Division found itself regarded as the guardian of minority groups within the city.

The morning of 25 October found the Twenty Second Marines, the Twenty Ninth Marines, the Sixth Tank Battalion, the Sixth Engineers, the Sixth Marine Division Headquarters Battalion, and other troops, marching out to the race track at the edge of Tsingtao to witness the surrender ceremony of the Japanese to representatives of the United States and Chinese Central Governments.

At 1100 the ceremony began. For the Japanese, Maj. General Eiji Nagano, commanding officer of the Japanese 5th Independent Mixed Brigade, stepped up on the platform and affixed his signature to copies of the surrender document. After laying his sword on the table Nagano withdrew to rejoin his staff, who immediately followed his example. On the platform representing the United States was General Shepherd who signed his name next. Lt. Gen. Yen Nien Li, deputy commander of the 11th War Area and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek's personal representative, signed for the Chinese Central Government.

The surrender document stated that all Japanese forces in the Tsingtao area were to surrender unconditionally to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and that all equipment and records were to be turned over to the Allies in good condition. Civilian internees and prisoners of war were to be released immediately. General Shepherd, as Commanding General of the Sixth Marine Division, was named as Chiang's authorized representative.

During the month of December the Sixth Marine Division continued its duties in Tsingtao; 7,827 military and 18,390 civilian Japanese were repatriated. Near the end of the month Major General A. F. Howard, USMC, arrived to relieve Major General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., USMC, as Commanding General of the Sixth Marine Division.

Gradually many of the functions of the division were absorbed by the 8th Chinese National Army and the division turned to schools and training prior to deactivation on 1 April, when from its units the Third Marine Brigade was formed.

APPENDICES

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS Office of the Commanding General Second Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force c/o Fleet Post Office San Francisco, California

From: The Commanding General. To: The Commanding General, 6th Marine Division. Subject: Services rendered by personnel of 1st Battalion, 29th Marines.

/s/ T. E. Watson T. E. WATSON

First Endorsement 8 October 1944

From: The Commanding General.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet