Richard Wheeler - A Special Valor: The U.S. Marines and the Pacific War

Other Books by Richard Wheeler

IWO

SIEGE OF VICKSBURG

SHERMANS MARCH

WE KNEW STONEWALL JACKSON

VOICES OF THE CIVIL WAR

VOICES OF 1776

The latest edition of the work has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest.

Naval Institute Press

291 Wood Road

Annapolis, MD 21402

1983 by Richard Wheeler

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First Bluejacket Books edition, 2006

ISBN 978-1-61251-441-3 (eBook)

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Wheeler, Richard.

A special valor : the U.S. Marines and the Pacific war / Richard Wheeler. 1st bluejacket books ed.

p. cm.(Bluejacket books)

Originally published: New York : Harper & Row, c1983.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. World War, 1939-1945CampaignsIslands of the Pacific. 2. United States. Marine CorpsHistoryWorld War, 19391945.1. Title. II. Series.

D767.9.W47 2006

940.545973dc22

2005027309

Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my mother, Margaret Wenrich Wheeler, who spent the war years making shirts for Marines

Contents

When I enlisted in the Marines at the outbreak of World War II, I was an aspiring author hoping to encounter a story worthy of a book. My luck was sensational. Fate not only plunged me into the classic Battle of Iwo Jima but made me a member of the company that raised the flag on Mount Suribachi. It took me years to develop as a writer, but a series of books on American military history that I wrote between 1965 and 1980 included two on Iwo Jima, The Bloody Battle for Suribachi and Iwo. With the publication of the latter, I thought I was through with projects based on my Marine connections, but then my publisher suggested I use them to assemble a much bigger story, that of the Corps entire role in the Pacific war. This was the start of A Special Valor.

Much of the material in the book was obtained directly from veterans of the fighting. Many were interviewed, while others sent me cassettes or written memoirs. These obliging men also made available such things as letters they had written home, battlefield reports, unit rosters, casualty lists, and newspaper clippings they had saved for thirty-five years. Particularly helpful was a stack of on-the-spot articles written by Marine Corps combat correspondent William K. Terry. Another correspondent, Elvis Lane, provided some excellent unpublished material from a notebook he kept on Okinawa. Periodicals of special usefulness were Leatherneck, Marine Corps Gazette, and Lowell V. Bulgers Raider Patch. My research included a trip to the Marine Corps Historical Center in Washington, D.C., where I was aided by Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, Henry I. Shaw, Jr., and Benis M. Frank. Franks Oral History Collection produced a bonanza of facts, fresh insights, and anecdotes.

I owe a particular debt to Lawrence M. Hebach, who gave me liberal access to his remarkable World War II library. Former Master Gunnery Sergeant Mark R. Moyer, USMC, also provided some essential books. Most of the maps used in A Special Valor were either borrowed from or adapted from publications of the Marine Corps Historical Branch, and the majority of the photographs came from the Defense Audiovisual Agency at Anacostia, also in Washington. Major Yoshitaka Horie, a Japanese supply officer instrumental in arming Iwo Jima with such items as the mortar ammunition that knocked me out of the fight, helped with the Japanese side of the story. My long-time friend and assistant, Kathleen Bross, conducted a number of the interviews and handled much of the correspondence involved. Most of the veterans who contributed to the project are mentioned in the text. Those not named are: Jack Bishirjian, James C. Buchanan, I. J. Fuertsch, Herman Kogan, Jerry Loper, Leonard J. Mooney, Leonard R. OLeary, Rolla E. Perry, Gordon L. Pouliot, John Radmore, Ray Roberts, Clifford Sharon, Robert D. Sinclair, Eric W. Turner, Jr., and Thomas H. Young.

Even before the First World War, there were American military experts, including certain Marine Corps officers, who foresaw the possibility of a conflict between the United States and Japan. The Empires expanding power in the Western Pacific was beginning to threaten Americas political and economic interests. During World War I, the two nations were among those allied against Germany, but the Treaty of Versailles compounded Americas Pacific apprehensions. In the distribution of the spoils, Japan was given mandate over the Central Pacific islands formerly controlled by Germany, which augmented the Empires influence and strength.

Many American military experts were now convinced that war with Japan was inevitable, and at least one man made a fair prediction as to how the war would be fought. Marine Corps Major Earl H. Pete Ellis, who had been decorated for heroism in France, said that Japan would strike first, and that it would be necessary for the United States Navy to counterattack across the Pacific toward the Empire, utilizing not only American bases such as Hawaii and Guam but also some of the enemys islands. Japan, Ellis reasoned, would have these islands fortified, and they would have to be taken by amphibious assault. The major was troubled by the fact that the United States had no amphibious specialists.

This type of operation, which required troops to emerge from the sea, unshielded in the face of heavy fire from concealed and bulwarked weapons of all kinds, was the toughest known. Some military authorities, in fact, felt that it was impossible to take islands which could be fortified so that every yard of their shorelines could be showered with fire from within. Wrote Ellis: It is not enough that the troops be skilled infantrymen and artillerymen of high morale; they must be skilled water men and jungle men who