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Wednesday, February 15, 2017

A battle in the Pacific - the taking of an Island

Japanese Infantry and US Marines Toy Soldiers WWII
It was a quiet and peaceful morning as the sun began to rise over this far away island in the Pacific.

Japanese Infantry and US Marines Toy Soldiers WWII
 The Japanese garrison was slowly going about its morning routine.

Japanese Infantry and US Marines Toy Soldiers WWII
Suddenly, out to sea, the Japanese lookouts spotted a sight they had been fearing since the fall of Guadalcanal. A sight that just a couple years earlier would have been unimaginable: an American invasion fleet approaching.

Japanese Infantry and US Marines Toy Soldiers WWII
All across the island, the alarms went off...

Japanese Infantry and US Marines Toy Soldiers WWII Airfix Bamboo House
The Japanese commander readied his men for battle. Instead of bombing and softening the Japanese defenses in the days leading up to the invasion, the US command had opted for the element of surprise, but the unpredictable weather in the Pacific had pushed them a couple hours behind schedule, and now they were about to attempt an amphibious assault without the cover of darkness.


Japanese Infantry and US Marines Toy Soldiers WWII Diorama
On the beaches, in the jungle, on the high ground, the men manned the defensive positions they had been preparing for the past two years. It was going to be a hard struggle.

Japanese Infantry and US Marines Toy Soldiers WWII
Machine gun nests dug into caves...

Japanese Infantry and US Marines Toy Soldiers WWII
Snipers overlooking the island...

Atlantic Japanese Infantry and US Marines Toy Soldiers WWII
Jungle fighters heading into the thickness of the rainforest to spring deadly ambushes...

Higgins Boat Landing Craft WWII
It was into this mutual death trap that the Marines launched their landing craft. With the coast guard coxswains laying covering fire, and the guns from the destroyers shelling the beach, the Higgins boats made their way to the beach.

Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
The tension was palpable as the Japanese bullets struck the steel ramps of the crafts or whizzed dangerously close overhead. The enemy shells barely missing their boats.

Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
As they approached the beach, the men were eager for the ramp to drop so that they could exit, and simultaneously, they dreaded that precise moment. For most of them this was when they would discover if they could live up to their bravado, and their ideals. For the few 
veterans, this was a far simpler moment. Just one that they were hoping to live through.

Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
And just like that, the wait was over. The ramp dropped and the men poured out of their crafts. To their surprise, what had seemed like a small bluff on the beach from a distance, was in fact a defensive  wall, designed to prevent men and vehicles from moving inland, and to 
provide very good cover for the defenders. Air reconnaissance had totally missed it.

Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
The Marines summoned all their valor and tried to disembark under a hail of bullets from the well protected defenders.
Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
Despite the instinct to freeze, the Marine's training took over. Firing and moving, the Marines stormed up the beach.

Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
The scene was the same all along the shoreline.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Individual acts of valor and leadership kept the men moving forward.

Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
Those men not yet on the ground did their part providing covering fire for their buddies.

Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
The same was true for the Coast Guard men, who stayed on those beaches instead of turning their boats around.

Japanese Infantry Pacific WWII
One problem to get off the beach was the barbed wire blocking the only path inland. 

Marines Landing WWII
Going directly over the sea wall was going to be close to impossible as long as the defenders were still manning their positions. That seemed unlikely to change, as Japanese reinforcements kept crawling forward to replace those who had fallen.

Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
For a moment it seemed that the attack was losing steam as both sides were locked in an exchange of deadly fire. The Japanese protected by the sea wall, and the Marines, supported by their landing craft. Neither side willing to use artillery anymore that close to their own troops.

Higgins Boat Landing Craft Marines WWII
The next wave of landing craft arrived, but still, the men could not move off the beach. 

Amtrak Landing Marines WWII
It was then that the Amtraks showed up.

Amtrak Landing Marines WWII
With blazing 50 cal machine guns, armored all around, and the ability to move across rough terrain, they could shift the tide of the battle.

Amtrak Landing Marines WWII
But could they get over that sea wall without exposing their soft underbelly?

Marines Landing WWII
As the men saw the Amtraks approach a renewed wave of courage, anger, and hope engulfed them, and they surged forward.

Marines Landing WWII
The lead Marines were getting dangerously close to overcoming the barbed wire blocking the exit from the beach.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The Japanese, realizing the criticality of the situation, decided to call in a highly dangerous mortar strike at the edge of their own sea wall positions.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
On the left flank and on the right flank, Japanese mortars opened up. Amtraks, being open vehicles, were particularly vulnerable to this counter measure.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The Japanese defenders at the sea wall, sensing that this was the the defining moment disregarded the mortar shells falling all around them and poured more lead onto the Marines which were temporarily in disarray.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The Marines knew they could not stay there any longer. Prior to the mortars, many had taken shelter against the sea wall, but now that was not an option. 

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Men were firing at each other from just a few feet apart, and even so, many could not figure out where they were being shot from.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Gradually, the Marines started to overcome the sea wall defenders.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
One fox hole at a time.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
But the crossfire was still pretty brutal.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
And yet, it looked like the most recent wave of Marines was starting to break the stalemate.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Some of the men who had made it to the sea wall were able to sneak up and spring a trap on the unsuspecting Japanese.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII Chi Ha Tank
In the meantime, the Japanese commander, who wanted to keep the Amtraks from breaking through, dispatched his treasured, few tanks and supporting infantry towards the beach. 

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Out of the jungle and mixing in with the din of battle coming from the beach, came the rumbling sound of tank engines and Japanese battle cries.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII Chi Ha Tank
But could these light battle tanks push the Marines back into the ocean? 

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII Amtrak
It was right about that time when the first Amtrak reached the gap in the sea wall and broke through the barbed wire defenses.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
As the Amtrak climbed up the bluff, it came face to face with the pill box guarding the exit.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII Amtrak
However the Marines riding on the Amtrak were able to silence it with a few well placed grenade throws and a good dose of suppressing fire.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
This opened up the beach access for several Marine squads to follow up on its tracks.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Just as tthe muzzle of a gun can not hold back its deadly load when the gun powder in the shell's chamber explodes, the Marines who had been crammed and punished along the sea wall burst up the bluff with all guns blazing away.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The Japanese however had another layer of defenders in place ready to meet them. Many of them in prepared positions...

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Many others taking shelter in the craters created by US Navy's heavy guns.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Every fold in the terrain was used to the fullest advantage.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
But the Marine's pent up fury was hard to contain.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Unfortunately for the Marines, the surviving Japanese at the sea wall were now picking up the Marines from the flank.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
But not for long. The Marines following up behind were able to pay them in kind.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The charge up the bluff continued to sweep the defenders. The Marines would need to assume defensive positions very quickly, as the tanks were now dangerously close.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Not to mention a couple of Japanese machine guns which were getting ready to open up on the charging Learthernecks.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The defenders were far from beaten and they continued to throw everything they had at the surging invasion force.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The approaching armor provided extra incentive for the Marines to try to take over some of the prepared positions.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The Japanese men readied themselves for the upcoming hand to hand struggle.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The encounters were swift and decisive. The momentum was on the side of the attackers.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
By the time the Japanese tanks and their supporting infantry reached the beach, the Marines had a few well-placed heavy weapons to meet them.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The passionate Japanese men charged fiercely into the withering machine gun fire and were quickly dispatched.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Once the tanks were without infantry cover, they were also easy prey for hidden bazooka men.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Meanwhile, at the beach, the stragglers were following up the bluff, although there were a few who were too battle shocked to let go of the perceived safety of the sea wall.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The human traffic jam was beginning to clear up, albeit not without leaving behind a heavy toll.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
As the Marines enveloped and outflanked the sea wall, they also came into vicious hand to hand combat with the last few survivors who refused to fall back to the second line of defense and would rather fight to the bitter end.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Some of the Marines who took over those foxholes also found themselves at the short end of the stick as the Japanese fought back to recapture them.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
All across the beach, similar dramatic scenes were unfolding, with some positions changing hands multiple times.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The battle raged on. The last fortification on the beach was within sight of the attacking Marines.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The phone lines had been cut so a runner was dispatched to notify the commander of the situation.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The Japanese commander committed his reserve company to the battle. He knew that unless they held the beach, American reinforcements would continue to pour into the island and it was only a matter of time before they were defeated.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Slowly, the Japanese men moved through the jungle towards the battle. As they advanced, they knew this was most likely a one way mission.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
At their commanding officer's order, the men rushed forward in a frenzied banzai charge. A last ditch attempt to take back the beach.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The jarheads were ready and from the protection of the Japanese defensive positions, they annihilated the Emperor's faithful followers.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
But while this meant that the battle was lost, it was not over yet. The Japanese knew that without reinforcements, they would not be able to prevent the Americans from capturing the island. But they were determined to exact the highest possible price for the remaining real estate. What the Marines could not see was that within the jungle, at every turn there were many hidden defenders waiting in ambush.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
They were carefully spread out, to make the advance painfully bloody and slow.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
And let's not forget those hidden pillboxes and caves that had yet to be dealt with.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
The Marines had to move very carefully through the jungle. It was within this confined space full of combustible organic matter that the flamethrower became many Marines' best friend.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
For the Japanese in the caves, with nowhere to go, this was a dreadful way to meet their end. Some chose to blow themselves up with their last grenades, others charged out to be mowed down by the expecting Marines. Many still discovered how quickly,  thoroughly, and 
painfully, a human body can burn.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
For the Marines, it was a hard slug up the island. Its high ground rose several hundred feet above the sea level, and the Japanese retained a commanding view of the approach routes.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
Sniper teams made the advance very treacherous, particularly for the junior officers who would regularly be killed to disrupt the command and control of the advancing units.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII Amtrak
But the Amtraks, having found their way inland, helped clear those last pockets of resistance.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII
At last, the Marines reached the main Japanese base camp. Very few men remained. Built mostly out of bamboo, the camp did not offer much protection. Once the commander was killed, the firing ceased.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII Airfix Bamboo House
Without any other Japanese men to witness their shameful surrender, the last two defenders put down their weapons and chose to live. The Marines were tempted to kill them, but were too exhausted, physically and mentally, to do so.

Japanese Infantry Marines WWII Iwo Jima Flag
A day later, upon reaching the highest point in the island, the men improvised a flagstaff and Old Glory was raised. The battle for this forsaken piece of land in the middle of nowhere was officially over.