Some history and some trivia

Hi all!
Recently I've read several books on the war and battles of World War II in the Pacific, partly because it almost seems an after thought compared to each years remembering of the D-Day landings in Normandy France and importantly there's a family connection to the war in the Pacific.  I will explore as much as possible those exploits of James Jones, (Carolyn's biological father who served in the Army Air Corps in the Phillippines and was a survivor of the Bataan Death March), Cecil Stearns, (Dad, who served in the US Marine Corps) and Arthur Freer (Uncle Art, who served in the US Navy). I'm going to go one at a time, in no particular order and in no particular time frame. :)
First a little geography; Saipan is an island at the northern end of the Marianas Islands Guam is the largest island in this chain followed by Saipan which is approximately 12 miles long and 5 1/2 miles wide. This island chain is over three thousand miles from Hawaii from which to start a supply chain.
By the end of May 1944 American strategy was in place, after much negotiating and planning between Gen. MacArthur and Admiral King, the units to take part were identified, troops had been trained, the logistical details hammered out and the armada assembled.  The invasion of Saipan was set and expected to take a few days to control the whole island. Two months later there was still resistance though mostly unorganized.

Two days before D-Day, the Battle for Saipan, the intelligence estimates wrongly estimated there were between 15,000 and 17,000 Japanese troops defending Saipan and of those only 9,000 to 11,000 were combat troops.  History would later show the US forces were facing 30,000 well entrenched combat troops.  Just for comparison, Otsego County has a land mass of over 1000 square miles.  Saipan's land mass is approx., 70 square miles.  That works out to a combined 1000 combat troops per square mile.

I'm guessing the authorities held the mail for a period of time. The Post Mark is a little confusing with either a June or July 1944 Post Mark.  At this time Dad was well on his way or actually on Saipan.

After boot camp Dad wrote to a newspaper not sure which one though... He writes;  "Dear Oscar:

I have received two editions of the Journal since I got back after my furlough. One was a back edition that arrived just after I left. I enjoy reading the Journal very much because it is the only paper with news of and about the people I know and love best.  I am glad that I saw you and was able to thank you personally for sending me the paper.  By the way, the above is my new address.  Since I have returned from my furlough I have been classified as an Aviation Machinists Mate and secondly as a Navigation Cannondier. I was placed in Aviation Engineering to await assignment to general duty.... Sincerely yours

Pvt. Cecil Stearns Jr."

Dad eventually was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division 10th Marines  VMO-2  this was a Marine Observation Squadron which utilized in part small Piper Cub type aircraft as "spotters" for Marine Artillery units.

As is true with most WWII veterans any "talk" of their exploits seems to center around the good times, comical incidents, etc., but hardly ever of the gruesome task they had to perform, some by virtue of being in a direct combat unit and others to save their own lives or their buddies lives.  Of all the stories Dad told, I never heard Dad talk of combat and it seemed to me from my readings on the battle for Saipan that if you were a Marine it had to be about impossible to avoid combat.  So, I decided to research his unit and where they were at by looking at the official history, talking to you guys (family) and reading several books. First off, Marcia recalls Dad talking of Hiroshima right after the bomb dropped but not of any combat situations. He described the destruction there very similar to historical photos of the destruction. I can't help but think Dad likely had exposure to nuclear fallout which later in life could have affected his health.  Dave, like me, only recall the good times stories.  Tom actually recalled a story of Dad's unit being over-run, of Dad in a foxhole and coming face to face with a Japanese soldier, they looked at each other and in an instant the Japanese soldier was gone!  This would corroborate as you'll see later what the 10th Marines went through. 

Today, July 6th, 70 years ago, Japanese General Saito sent a final order to his troops.  Today, (present). I talked to Bob regarding Dad and Saipan.  Bob did not recall any specific combat stories but did recall Dad saying his unit was to be a follow-on unit for the main invasion of the Japanese homeland.  Bob related one story of a close friend on Saipan who was a K-9 handler, the exploits of these dogs has been well documented, on this occasion the handler had to leave his dog behind at the air field while he accomplished duties elsewhere.  The K-9 stayed at the air field, would not move, eat, drink, or obey anyone.  The next day upon return the K-9 ate, drank, etc., for his handler, Dad was pretty amazed at that dog.   

USS WarHawk
Dad was aboard this ship when the invasion force arrived at Saipan.

The Marianas missions   (Taken from Wikipedia)

On 21 April 1944 she left the San Francisco Bay headed for Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu. At Pearl Harbor the War Hawk joined the 5th Fleet Amphibious Force and after training, left for her part in "Operation Forager", the liberation of the Marianas Islands. At the time of the landing there were about 59,000 Japanese troops stations in the Southern Marianas Islands, in particular on Saipan, Tinian and Guam.

The assault on Marianas was conducted with overwhelming force. All total there were 198 vessels involved including 110 transports and auxiliary ships and 88 warships. These ships carried and supported a force of 110,000 men. However, Saipan had been in Japanese control for more than ten years and was heavily fortified. There were approximately 31,000 Japanese troops (including navy), and well entrenched on the island.

War Hawk arrived at Saipan on 15 June 1944 and landed elements of the 2nd Marine Division on the southwestern shore of the island. Sometime during the next eight days the War Hawk helped fight off two Japanese air attacks. During this time she also took on eleven seriously wounded Japanese prisoners of war. As was the nature of many Japanese soldiers, the only way they would be taken prisoner was if they could not fight. The extent of their wounds was so great that all eleven died in spite of efforts of the War Hawk's medical staff. They were buried at sea. Four days after the landing, the Allies engaged the Japanese Navy in the Philippine Sea and inflicted tremendous damage. This battle prevented the Japanese Navy from resupplying their troops in the Marianas leaving a brutal war of attrition for the Japanese until the commanding general Yoshitsugu Saitō committed suicide and the island was declared liberated on 9 July 1944.

As the fighting on Saipan came to a close, some of the War Hawk's sister ships began moving troops from Saipan to Tinian. War Hawk did not directly participate in the invasion of Tinian. However, several LCVPs en route to Saipan's beachheads, came within range of what were apparently 20mm explosive shell fire from Tinian which is only a few miles off the coast of Saipan. There were no hits, but lots of spray as the shells hit around the boats.

On 23 June 1944 War Hawk headed back to Pearl Harbor where she picked up elements of the Army's 77th Infantry and returned to the Marianas. She landed her troops on Guam on 21 July. She loitered in the area for several more days before returning to Pearl Harbor on 29 June. There she spent a month practicing with new troops from the Army's 96th Infantry Division before leaving again for the South Pacific Theater.

En route, she was diverted from the canceled invasion of Yap to take part in the invasion of the Philippines.



D-Day
June 15, 1944
Saipan; the topography varies widely, the beaches some are sandy some coral, jungle, swamps, mountains, hills, valleys, caves and dense sugar cane fields.  Saipan was well suited to be defended with each hill and cave providing advantage and proving tremendous obstacles for US forces.
"Admiral King was correct about the crucial nature of the battle for Saipan... Lt.Gen Holland Smith called this the decisive battle of the Pacific offensive. The Japanese considered Saipan as the decisive battle of the war and its loss as ending all hope for a Japanese victory."

The battle plan called for the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions to make the landings on Saipan while the 3rd Marine Division to land on Guam, the Army's 27th Infantrry Division was to remain in reserve for either location if needed.

Each Marine Division had artillery regiments attached to it, the 10th Marines would land in support of the 2nd Marine Division.

Aslito Airfield  was eventually captured and was used by VMO-2.

Dad with pilots.

During 12-14 June American forces bombed all targets on the island, beginning 13 June the Admiral Mitscher's fleet began shelling the island.  "Despite the overwhelming firepower that emanated from the ships, Japanese emplacements remained mostly intact... The Japanese defenses were well camouflaged, hidden in caves, movable or simply too numerous for the Navy to destroy."

Plane representative of those used by VMO-2.  This one, as seen above, came down in a rice field in Japan.

In 1944 Sgt Jim Evans was 20 years old and had already seen combat at Guadalcanal and Tarawa, landing on Saipan about 200 yards north of his target beach found himself in the middle of mines exploding, Marines wandering around looking for their platoons, "marines simply engaged in one firefight after another... All of the landmarks we had been trained to look for were not there. As a result the first day was horrendous... we were getting the shit kicked out of us."  When two or three marines found each other they would form an informal squad until they could find their units."

Despite intense Japanese fire, marines continued to pour onto the beach.  Slowly they scratched out a space for themselves in the sand and then moved forward. "The 2nd Division continued to add to its strength as the day went on...  early afternoon... The 10th Marines, with 75-millimeter howitzers and 105- millimeter guns, played an important supporting role in the early going.  (So Dad was ashore on D-Day.)

Although the landing had placed thousands of marines on the island, not all had gone well.  By the end of the first day the beach was littered with wrecked and twisted machinery, and the 2nd Marine Division had paid for its beachfront with heavy casualties -238 killed and 1022 wounded.

Each of the first three nights after D-day the Japanese instead of defending their heavily fortified positions mounted counter attacks. Each would eventually fail when face with overwhelming fire from the marines.
Throughout this entire operation there was a stench that permeated the whole island, bodies in the tropical heat were quickly infested with flies and then maggots.

July 6, 1944;

Gyokusai  "To Die With Honor"

At the end of June 1944 General Saito and Admiral Nagumo who was one of the commanders of the four aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor, met to plan a final mass attack of all remaining Japanese forces on the island.  Saito's message to all units was delivered at 0800 on July 6, 1944.  Japanese soldiers, land based naval forces and civilians believed that this order for mass suicidal attack had come from the emperor.
"Those who started the offensive with crude spears often picked up the rifles of their slain comrades and continued the charge; in some cases they grabbed American weapons and turned those on the U.S. forces.  As more and more Japanese gathered, the Americans began to hear the noise and launched artillery shells toward the enemy.  The army's 27th Infantry artillery battalions fired 2,666 shells during the night of July 6-7.  At the same time two infantry battalions from the 105th regiment were called up from the reserves to establish a defensive front. Nearby the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Marines (part of the artillery support for the 2nd Marine Division) was already set.  These marines would also confront the Gyokusai on July 7th. To survive the Japanese assault, this marine artillery battery was forced to fight hand to hand.

The Japanese lost 2,295 men, killed by the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 105th regiment.  These 2 battalions had 1,107  men assigned by morning they had over 400 killed and over 500 wounded, a casualty rate of over 80%.  The 10th Marines lost 75 dead and 65 wounded in 15 hours. 75% of one battery was lost.
A Marine Corps historian paid homage to these army troops: "Almost as soon as the attack was launched, communications to the rear were cut. It was then simply a matter of two isolated battalions of soldiers fighting for their lives. This they did and did well. Some of the soldiers stacked so many dead Japanese forward of hteir position that it was necessary to move to get fields of fire."  In total that day the Japanese lost over four thousand men in the Gyokusai.

The Battle of Saipan would see no less than six recipients of the Medal Of Honor!

Dad's unit... VMO-2, 10th Marines, 2nd Marine Division

And finally...

My editing skills are sorry.  I could not figure out how to put the map below into one picture  :(

Map Dad made of travels, lower RR line departing Cherry Point, to San Diego?  the upper red line his return home.