BATTLE NARRATIVE
To Sun And Lie In Shallow Water. Saipan: 26 June 1944
The eleventh day on Saipan began with a serenade from the Japanese. An enterprising enemy communicator managed to find the frequency of the Marine radio net and, to the amusement and annoyance of the operators, played incessant bagpipe music. For a time, all radio comms to BLT 1-24 were interrupted by static and skirling.[1]
Destroyed homes and buildings in Chacha Village, June 1944.
Official USMC photos by H. F. Williams.
The portion of the peninsula held by RCT-24 stretched from Bluff Point in the south to Rorogattan in the north. A steep cliff fell away towards a rough patch of ground, described on one military map as “rising land, broken rocks, boulders and bushes,” which in turn terminated in a second cliff that descended to the sea. Imperial soldiers fleeing the American advance were holed up in caves; so too were frightened civilians – Japanese, Korean, Chamorro, and Carolinian men, women, and children. Some hid out in elaborate, multi-room caves accessible only at low tide, well-stocked with food and ammunition. Others simply sheltered under rock overhangs, waiting for the end – whether from a bullet or dehydration, as they were desperately short of water.
A combat patrol of 26 Marine scouts and 40 combat engineers spent two days working on “the cave-honeycombed cliffs of Magicienne Bay… where sharp coral rocks cut heavy field shoes to shreds in the matter of hours.” The patrol leader, 1Lt. Endecott Osgood of BLT 1-24, related the experience to a combat correspondent:
One soldier we captured in another cave had an American carbine. He apparently got it from a dead Marine. But we got him.
All in all, it was good hunting. We would crawl up to the edge of a cave or cliff, and have our interpreter yell over for them to surrender. When they grabbed their rifles and tried to scurry for other cover, we would let them have it. In some cases, we fired 400 or 500 rounds into a cave.
In many cases, however, they did come out. We captured on Jap soldier who not only had been taught by an American, but who happened to be a former friend of the interpreter we had along, The interpreter had lived across the street from the soldier in Japan at one time.[3]
When surrender overtures failed, the engineers took over. “I was radio operator for the engineers for a few days and saw how they blasted 30 or more with TNT from their holes cut deep into the lava and coral rocks,” wrote PFC Pennock B. Bowen of Headquarters Company.
Osgood’s patrol captured more people than they killed, reporting 53 prisoners and 29 dead – a noteworthy effort considering that the ratio would, in most cases, be reversed. Nor was all of the blood on their hands. “We were blasting the Japs from the side of a cliff and when it got too hot for them, they came out,” continued Bowen. “Oh yes, they came out, with women and children in front of them and firing machine guns behind them.”[4] A Chamorro woman found by RCT-24 told interpreters that “a Jap had slashed the throats of several women and children in the cave before killing himself.”[5]
Still, the Marines could not help but notice the formidable Japanese fortifications surrounding the beaches. The Japanese realized the potential threat of landings on Kagman and were ready to meet any assault from the sea with heavy bunkers, networks of trenches, and aerial bombs buried along the roads. Parts of the Brown Beach area were heavily mined, and Marines were warned to avoid anything big enough to hide a booby trap. An early version of the invasion plan involved a diversion landing against these defenses. Fortunately, senior leaders scrapped the mission. “We were glad they did,” recalled Corporal Robert L. Williams. “The entire place was crisscrossed with machine gun fire. We felt that if they had gone through with [the plan], we never would have stood a chance.”[7]
These abandoned emplacements were good for one thing: souvenirs.
Abandoned bunkers and emplacements, as well as the scattered farmhouses of the peninsula and the wrecked buildings of Chacha and Laulau were explored by Marines out looking for souvenirs. A handful of men disdained the practice and considered it little more than looting, but they were a decided minority. Personal battle flags (yosegaki hinomaru) and thousand-stitch belts (sennibari), having failed to protect their original owners, were among the most popular trophies. Japanese canteens were prized for their lightness and durability, and their binoculars were widely regarded as far superior to American issued optics. Marines picked up forage caps, cut off unit insignia, and rifled through Japanese pockets for letters, currency, and personal photos. A few ghouls cut off ears while others pried open mouths; at least one Able Company Marine carried a clinking Bull Durham tobacco sack full of gold teeth.[9]
For some, anything with Japanese writing was souvenir enough. Seventeen-year-old PFC Bernard C. Elissagaray had a fetish for paperwork and collected stacks of postcards and impressive-looking documents that turned out to be ration cards, insurance forms, and business documents belonging to a local family.
A partial sampling of Elissagaray’s collection. Many of the documents belonged to one family: 嘉手苅蒲真, or Kadekaru. An examination by user Hisashi at the Axis War Forums suggests that the Kadekarus were of Okinawan extraction (the name is very rare) and were civilian settlers on Saipan; the elder Kadekaru was licensed to operate a barber shop. One of their four children appears to have been conscripted into the Japanese Army. It seems that Elissagaray simply picked up a pile of papers from the Kadekaru home or shop without understanding their meaning. Unfortunately, the fate of this family is unknown.
Weapons were also popular souvenirs, with swords and pistols occupying the top spot. Most captured swords were the shin gunto of Japanese officers and NCOs – simply called “samurai sabers” by the Americans – and varied from plain, military-issue weapons to elaborate heirlooms several centuries old. PFC Dwyer Duncan picked up “an old Spanish cutlass… from wooden sailing ship days, a real find.”[10]Pistols were prized as they were light, popular, and exotic in appearance – especially the Nambu semi-automatics which resembled the famous German Luger.
Marines sometimes went to great lengths, and took significant risks, to get their hands on these desirable souvenirs. PFC Alexander “Joe” Caldwell wanted a pistol; he thought he saw a dead Japanese officer in a bombed-out bunker and decided to investigate. PFC John C. Pope thought the idea was crazy – he knew about booby traps and “dead” enemies playing possum – but Caldwell wouldn’t let it go, and finally Pope agreed to come along. It was well that he did, because the bunker was not deserted after all. As they approached the entrance, Caldwell spotted the officer – not lying dead, but standing with one leg slightly exposed. He fired and missed; foliage atop the bunker rustled, and the Japanese officer emerged with pistol in hand.
As Caldwell struggled to reload, the officer swing around to face Pope. The young Georgian had never been so close to a living enemy.
As I watched it began to look as though the pistol was suddenly too heavy for him to hold up. He tried to bring it back up using both hands, but his arm continued to sag lowering the pistol in spite of his best effort. His knees gave way, and he fell and died about ten feet from where I was standing. [11]
Although BLT 1-24 “felt as secure as if returned to our base camp,” they could hear the rumble of artillery in the distance as the 27th Infantry Division struggled along Purple Heart Ridge. Occasionally, Japanese gunners on the ridge itself lobbed shells at the peninsula – and “while relatively few casualties resulted from this fire, its harassing effects were considerable.”[12] Two Baker Company men, PFC Lewis J. Cline and PFC James J. Hehir were hit by shrapnel; Hehir was evacuated with a fractured leg. The company reported a third man as missing in action and regarded him as a casualty – until he turned up at their bivouac three weeks later, unhit and unharmed. Of all the missing men who returned to duty, he was the only one to face punitive charges, and was eventually kicked out of the service.[13]
At least one other Marine took himself out of action in more drastic fashion. “We had a guy in our outfit who shot himself in the cock,” recalled Corporal Robert Johnston. “Captain [Horace C.] Parks said, ‘Leave him! Let the bastard lie there, I don’t want any corpsman touching him, leave him alone.’ So we just kept on walking. Probably the next outfit that came along picked him up, thinking ‘the poor bum, he got wounded and nobody’s taking care of him.'” He probably got the Purple Heart and some decoration or something. We never heard.”[14]
Perhaps these errant Marines had a sixth sense for trouble. Late that night, a message reached BLT 1-24 headquarters through the intermittent bagpipe interference. They were to break down their bivouac and be on the road before dawn.
[1] “Action Report: First Battalion, 24th Marines Record of Events, 15 June – 9 July 1944″ (24 August 1944), 1. Hereafter BLT 1-24 Report.
[2] Mac R. Johnson, “Nothing Mild About the Saipan Fight!” The Herald-Journal (Logan, UT) 29 June 1944.
[3] Sgt. Jack Vincent, “Boston Marine’s Patrol Kills 29 Japs and Captures 53,” The Boston Globe 14 July 1944.
[4] Pennock Bowen, letter reprinted in “Haverford Man Writes Home Of Action Against Japanese Forces At Saipan,” Our Town (Narbeth, PA), 27 July 1944.
[5] Northern Troops Landing Force Mailbrief 0098-3, 26 June 1944.
[6] Frederic A. Stott, “Saipan Under Fire” (Andover: Frederic Stott, 1945), 12.
[7] Robert L. Williams, “In My Own Words,” interview conducted by Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh, 12 March 2014. As referenced in the first part of this series, Williams recalled that BLT 1-24 was in line for this mission, however this was not covered in the battalion’s operations order for Saipan. The 27th Infantry Division did have orders cut for a possible landing on Purple Beach – a plan described by author James Hallas as “harebrained.” Ultimately, no assaults were made against any of the Kagman beaches.
[8] Bowen.
[9] Mutilating the dead, while officially frowned upon, was shockingly prevalent in the Pacific Theater. Tommy Lynchard and Wally Duncan both related stories of Marines taking ears and teeth to the author on different occasions. Regarding the man with the Bull Durham sack, Duncan said that this individual had trouble finding a foxhole buddy – not because the Marines were squeamish or disapproving, but because the teeth smelled terrible.
[10] Dwyer Duncan, “Military Career – Dwyer’s Memories.” Posted May 16, 2013; recorded 1995.
[11] John C. Pope, Angel On My Shoulder, Kindle eBook.
[12] Carl W. Hoffman, Saipan: The Beginning of the End (Washington, DC: Headquarters, Historical Division US Marine Corps, 1950), 158. Hoffman notes that the 4th Marine Division had to secure permission to fire on targets in the 27th Infantry Division’s zone of action (“not indicative of uncooperativeness… precautions were necessary”) and the delays involved allowed the Japanese to shift their artillery.
[13] Seven Baker Company men were marked as “missing” at various points during the Saipan campaign, and were taken up on the rolls again on 14 July 1944. While the reasons are unknown, six faced no punitive charges which indicates that their absence was legitimate – either evacuation for reasons not recorded elsewhere, or simple clerical errors. The seventh man compounded his malfeasance by disappearing again on the eve of the Tinian invasion. He was arrested, confined, and charged with two counts of “absent without leave” dating back to 26 June 1944. Fortunately for this individual, the courts martial stopped short of “desertion in the face of the enemy” – a charge potentially punishable by death.
[14] Robert Johnston, interview with the author, August 2015. Johnston served with Headquarters Company; Parks commanded Charlie Company. The identity of the injured man is not known, not is the exact date of this incident.
Battalion Daily Report
Casualties, Evacuations, Joinings & Transfers
KIA/DOW
WIA & EVAC*
SICK
JOINED
TRANSFERRED
STRENGTH
Out of an original landing strength of 888 officers and men.
* Does not include minor wounds not requiring evacuation from the line.
| Name | Company | Rank | Role | Change | Cause | Disposition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baker, William Leroy | Headquarters | PhM2c | Corpsman | Returned To Duty | From hospital | To HQ Company |
| Browning, Joe William | Charlie | Corporal | MG Squad Leader | Returned To Duty | From hospital | To Charlie Company |
| Cline, Lewis Junior | Baker | PFC | Ammo Carrier | Wounded In Action | Shrapnel, right thumb | Not evacuated |
| Hehir, James Joseph | Baker | PFC | Basic | Wounded In Action | Compound fracture, right femur | Evacuated, destination unknown |
| Louvris, George | Baker | PFC | Barber | Missing | AWOL | To MIA status |
| Siranovich, John Michael | Headquarters | Sergeant | Radio Technician | Sick | Unknown | Evacuated, destination unknown |
I’m looking for any information on my great Uncle Joseph B. Fife Jr. He is in the above patrol picture on the left side with his finger on the trigger . He was with the 4th Marines, 1st JASCO and I believe he may have been assigned to the 24th Marines during the Saipan, Tinian invasions, but I’m not sure. His records do not tell us which unit he was assigned too. I’m also curious who took the picture, was it a Marine in the unit or Associated Press? Any information would be helpful.