BATTLE NARRATIVE
Things Were Pretty Miserable Tinian: 31 July 1944
The path to Lalo Point, Tinian’s southernmost tip, traversed some of the island’s most challenging terrain. Two thousand yards of flat ground “rose in an abrupt, wooded escarpment to a plateau. Along the east coast the rise was so sheer as to virtually prevent scaling, and even in the center it was steep enough that a road up it followed a double hairpin pattern.”[1] The slope was not so steep on the west coast, but Marines in that sector had to contend with a coastal plain so thickly covered with clutching vegetation that tracked vehicles had a difficult time maneuvering. Concealed atop the plateau or in cliffs overlooking the plain were anywhere from 4,500 to 6,000 Japanese troops with their backs to the sea.[2]
The Marines could generally count on reliable fire support from land, sea, and air, but on the morning of July 31, they were spectators to an astounding display of pyrotechnics. Naval vessels, including two battleships, threw 625 tons of high explosive into the cliff, and artillery batteries added thousands of shells. After 95 minutes, the drone of aircraft replaced the drumbeat of explosions, and 126 Navy and Army bombers – many flying from Aslito Airfield on Saipan – dropped their payloads on the cliff over the course of 40 minutes. The ships opened fire again, targeting the cliff for another 35 minutes. The barrage was “more intense than any Tarawa or Saipan veteran had ever witnessed,” in the words of Carl Hoffman – himself a veteran of those two battles.[3] At 0830, as the last shells landed on target, Marine infantry and tankers began the day’s advance.
They were not entirely surprised to find some fight left in the Japanese, despite the hell-raising bombardment. “I hadn’t made it more than 150 feet when something hit me in the chest and knocked me back in the grass,” recalled Corporal Howard E. Smith. ” It was mortar shrapnel. A medic patched me up and told me to go to the aid station, but I felt I should stay. At twenty-two, I was the oldest man in the squad. I also worried that if the aid station sent me to the hospital ship, I might not see my company again. This had been my home for nearly two years, and since my wound required no surgery, I stayed with my unit.” [3.5]
BLT 1-24 maintained its position on the right flank, with Able and Baker Companies in the assault. Baker was to the right, with 1Lt. Robert S. Selinger’s platoon covering the beach. PFC Kenneth W. Mosty, a nineteen-year-old BARman from Macon, Missouri, was possibly the rightmost Marine on Tinian as he walked point for his squad. To his right were the blue waters of Sunharon Bay; to the left, the rest of the Fourth and Second Marine Divisions extended in a long line to the opposite coast.
Just ahead lay “Blue Beach,” a one-time candidate for invasion now reduced to near insignificance. Japanese naval forces had installed some heavy weaponry overlooking the beach, including a pair of 75mm howitzers and a trio of British-made six-inch guns, but these had been knocked out in a Jig Day duel with the USS Colorado. Approximately seventy defenders still manned fighting positions, but the limited field of fire was useless – unless an American appeared dead ahead. Mosty’s squad had the misfortune to do just that.
“We were hit by heavy machine gun and mortar fire from two strong points where the Japs had decided to make a last stand,” wrote Selinger.[4] Reacting quickly, PFC Mosty charged headlong into an enemy-occupied cave and fought hand-to-hand until felled by grenade shrapnel. His self-sacrificing rush gave Selinger’s platoon a moment to take cover and call up their supporting weapons. Sergeant Everett E. Schafer deployed his machine gun squad as flank security as the riflemen dueled the entrenched Japanese. “We had been left behind – the rest of the company had pushed on about 300 yards when the word was passed back that the Japs were coming our way,” he wrote. “When they got to us, we opened up and cut them off from breaking through to the rear. We had a couple riflemen with us, but they pulled back as soon as they threw their grenades, so we just stayed and kept firing all we could.” The Japanese counterattack gained steam and focused on Schafer’s position.
PFC Eddie Curylo took part in the firefight from a distance. “We sorta surrounded a wooded area. [The Japanese] were coming down a path; they had to make a turn to follow the path, and at that point, their chest would be exposed. I was roughly 300 yards away and I was popping them off. How many I shot, I don’t know, but it was quite a few.” He noticed leaves falling around him, but focused on his sharpshooting. When the bullets stopped flying, Curylo’s buddies “were giving me hell. They said, ‘did you see the leaves falling down? They were shooting at you.’ I said, ‘well, it’s a fortunate thing our weapons are far better than theirs.’”[6] The hour-long fight for the strongpoint wounded six Baker Company Marines and killed PFC Mosty; the defenders were wiped out. Sergeant Schafer’s gun alone was credited with eighty dead Japanese. The battalion moved on at 1100, detailing one company (probably Charlie) to double-check the caves and cliffs with the help of flamethrowing tanks.
Japanese troops in other sectors mounted similarly spirited counterattacks, particularly in the steeper terrain at the center and right of the advance, and at 1600 the order came down to dig in for the night. Captain Irving Schechter took stock of his weakened company. “We had been on the go for seven days, always facing some resistance,” he remarked. “We hadn’t had any food other than regular combat rations [and] we had run into some heavy rain. In short, things were pretty miserable.” When called by “a pretty high source who claimed he was interested in finding out how my men were,” Buck gave an honest answer. “Just about done. Perhaps it’s time to pull them out.” He rolled his eyes at the ranking officer’s complaint of dysentery: “Oh, my God, he’s back there on the beach with hot rations, coffee, the whole works, and he has a slight case of the runs. Tough.” Then the hammer dropped. “Schechter, I have a bet with someone over in the Second Division that we will take Tinian before they do.” The captain was “thunderstruck” at the callousness of the call. “How the hell could anyone make a bet like that, playing with other people’s lives?” he wondered. “But, our orders were to keep going, so we did.”[7]
Schechter knew he was fortunate to have a sympathetic ear in his new battalion commander, LtCol. Otto Lessing. Born in Munich, Germany, in 1904, Lessing immigrated to the United States at a young age, attended the University of Wisconsin, and received his Marine Corps reserve commission in 1924. An engineer by profession, he was called to active duty two weeks after Pearl Harbor and trained young officers to build roads and landing fields. In late 1943, he took over Second Battalion, 20th Marines (the engineer regiment of the Fourth Marine Division) and served as a battalion commander and regimental exec until assigned to BLT 1-24 during the battle of Saipan. Lessing was a “top officer” and a gentlemanly figure, and seems to have earned the respect of the First Battalion officer cadre – although some whispered about his German heritage. His father, Otto Eduard Lessing, had been a college professor at the University of Illinois and headed the German language department at Williams College. He was also an ardent Nazi. The elder Lessing’s anti-Semitic writings grew more and more virulent until he “gave up the happy right of breathing clean air to return to Germany minus his American citizenship.”[8] From Berlin, he worked as “one of Germany’s top-flight propagandists” until his death in January 1942.[9] While father and family were long estranged, the younger Lessing apparently still felt the weight of his name. “Maybe this was why Otto tried to be such an outstanding Marine,” commented Schechter.[10] The final days of the Tinian campaign would deliver the ultimate test of LtCol. Lessing’s leadership.
- Hoffman, 101.
- Ibid. Hoffman quotes WO Akiyama of the 56th Naval Guard Force as estimating Japanese forces suffered about 50% casualties; American intelligence estimates were around 33%. The original garrison strength was approximately 9,000.
- Ibid. 102-104.
3.5 Howard E. Smith, “Taking Tinian Island,” The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, FL), August 21, 2001. According to battalion muster rolls, Smith was “evacuated” overnight and returned to duty the next morning. - Kenneth Mosty Was Killed On ‘Tinian’,” The Macon Chronicle-Herald (Macon, MO), October 26, 1944.
- Everett E. Schafer, letter to Mrs. Etta Schafer, 27 August 1944.
- Curylo, 2013 interview.
- Berry, 228.
- “Nazi Propaganda is Delivered Free by U. S. Mail,” The Phillips County News (Malta, MT), November 7, 1940.
- “Lessing, Former Williams Prof, Serving Axis,” The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA), October 6, 1942. Although this article implies that Lessing was still alive at the time, a death certificate for “University Professor, Doctor of Philosophy Otto Eduard Lessing” confirms his date of death.
- Berry, 224.
Battalion Daily Report
Casualties, Evacuations, Joinings & Transfers
KIA/DOW
WIA & EVAC*
SICK
JOINED
TRANSFERRED
STRENGTH
Out of an original landing strength of 599 officers and men.
* Does not include minor wounds not requiring evacuation from the line.
| Name | Company | Rank | Role | Change | Cause | Disposition | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birdsall, Robert Greenfield | Baker | Sergeant | MG Squad Leader | Wounded In Action | Unknown | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Bouthillette, Raymond Eugene | Charlie | PFC | Basic | Sick | Unknown | Evacuated, destination unknown | |
| Cole, Eugene Israel | Charlie | Corporal | Squad Leader | Wounded In Action | Shrapnel, multiple | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Gerner, Erwin Frank | Baker | PFC | BARman | Sick | Unknown | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Lehman, Raynor Cecil | Baker | Private | Rifleman | Wounded In Action | Shrapnel, multiple | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Mackey, Thomas David Jr. | Baker | Platoon Sergeant | Squad Leader | Returned To Duty | Joined Baker from HQ this date | Visit | |
| Mann, Leo Charles | Able | Sergeant | Squad Leader | Sick | Unknown | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Mason, Clyde Florn, Jr. | Able | PFC | Rifleman | Wounded In Action | Shrapnel, left leg | Evacuated to hospital on Saipan | Visit |
| Matulica, Andrew | Charlie | PFC | Squad Leader | Sick | Unknown | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| May, George Leroy | Baker | PFC | Rifleman | Wounded In Action | Shrapnel, left shoulder | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Mosty, Kenneth Wayne | Baker | PFC | BARman | Killed In Action | Gunshot, left chest | Removed for burial | Visit |
| Muller, William Edward | Baker | PFC | Machine Gunner | Wounded In Action | Unknown | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Naab, Charles Francis Jr. | Baker | PFC | Machine Gunner | Wounded In Action | Shrapnel, right ankle, left hip, right shoulder | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Nichinson, Sol | Charlie | PFC | BARman | Wounded In Action | Unknown (slight) | Not evacuated | Visit |
| Patterson, William Robert | Charlie | Sergeant | Squad Leader | Sick | Unknown | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Rewerts, William Jacob | Able | PFC | BARman | Wounded In Action | Gunshot, left arm | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Schafer, Everett Ellsworth | Baker | Sergeant | MG Section Leader | Wounded In Action | Shrapnel, multiple | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Silvera, Richard Eugene | Charlie | PFC | Rifleman | Sick | Unknown | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Smith, Howard Eli | Able | Corporal | Squad Leader | Wounded In Action | Unknown | Evacuated to field hospital on Tinian | Visit |
| Stanfield, Hatley Wallace | Charlie | PFC | Rifleman | Wounded In Action | Unknown (slight) | Not evacuated | Visit |
| Szalay, Alex Francis | Baker | Private | Rifleman | Wounded In Action | Compound fracture, right finger | Evacuated, destination unknown | Visit |
| Wendte, Joseph Henry | Able | Sergeant | Squad Leader | Returned To Duty | Visit |
