Part 3

During the afternoon of 12 June, some enemy groups came out waving white surrender flags. Others refused to surrender and pressed grenades to their stomachs. Still others allowed themselves to be killed while offering only feeble resistance. In most, the will to live was gone; they were resigned to their fate. Next day, 861 Japanese were killed and 73 taken prisoner.

Before the capture of Oroku could be called complete, there remained to be taken the small island of Senaga Shima. After a heavy preliminary bombardment, the Sixth Division’s Reconnaissance Company, with a company from the Twenty Ninth Marines attached, landed on the island and quickly seized it. Only two of the enemy were found and killed but many fine coastal guns were captured. Now the battle for Oroku was over. The enemy had resisted bitterly, 1,608 Marines were killed or wounded in the capture of the peninsula, and thirty of our tanks were lost. During the ten days of fighting the Sixth Marine Division had killed almost 5,000 Japanese and had captured nearly 200. For its excellent work in landing on the peninsula, seizing the airdrome and then driving around the enemy’s position to overwhelm him from the flank, the Fourth Marines was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

8. END OF CAMPAIGN

On 15 June the III Amphibious Corps instructed the Sixth Marine Division to be prepared to pass through the right of the First Marine Division on Mezado Ridge on 17 June. The mission assigned the Sixth Marine Division was to seize Kuwanga Ridge, part of Ibaru Ridge, and the Kiyamu Gusuku hill mass. Although their plight was hopeless, the enemy still held out in the southernmost part of Okinawa, evidently intent upon exacting as stiff a price, in terms of lives, as possible before being destroyed. Like a trapped animal, the Japanese were resisting bitterly and from their positions on the hills and ridges, were delaying the attackers as long as possible.

With its zone of action limited in width, the Sixth Division committed the Twenty Second Marines at 0300, 17 June. To reach Mezado Ridge, the regiment had to advance past Kunishi through open ground swept by enemy fire. During the hours of daylight, the First Division, fighting on Kunishi and Mezado Ridge, was forced to use tanks to supply the front lines and evacuate the wounded. By moving before daylight the Twenty Second Marines had little difficulty in reaching positions from which to launch an attack to secure Mezado Ridge. After an intense preliminary artillery, naval gunfire, and aerial bombardment on Mezado Ridge, Hill 69 and Kuwanga Ridge, the First and Third Battalions attacked at 0730. The advance was slow and difficult due to increasing enemy resistance. With every weapon at his command the enemy brought fire to bear on the assault battalions. By late afternoon the attack had moved up on the western part of Mezado Ridge; the Third Battalion had captured the key high ground around Hill 69, and could see Kuwanga Ridge to the south.

Next morning, 18 June, the Twenty Second Marines continued the attack, passing the Second Battalion through the Third, which was left to mop up in its immediate area. Against heavy resistance the Second Battalion advanced to Kuwanga Ridge and by late afternoon had a firm hold on the ridge. While moving through the Mezado Area to inspect his regiment’s attack, Colonel H. C. Roberts, USMC, the Commanding Officer of the Twenty Second Marines, was shot through the heart by a sniper.

Although the Second Battalion had a foothold on Kuwanga Ridge, it could not hold the entire length of the ridge, some 1800 yards, and General Shepherd decided to move up a battalion of the Fourth Marines on the left in order to hold the ridge through the night. On the next day he could continue the attack to the south with a fresh regiment.

Early in the morning of 19 June, the Fourth Marines with the First and Third Battalions abreast, assaulted Ibaru Ridge and, after a brisk fight, had seized the ridge by noon. After a hasty reorganization on the ridge, the regiment attacked again, this time to capture the Kiyamu-Gusuku hill mass. Immediately upon leaving Ibaru the Fourth Marines ran into heavy enemy fire from mortars emplaced behind the hill mass and machine guns firing from concealed positions on it. Just before dark the regiment succeeded in gaining a small foot hold on the high plateau of the hill mass. During the afternoon the little island just offshore from Nagasuku was seized by a quickly assembled task force consisting of three amphibious tractors, two 37-mm. platoons and a War Dog platoon. In the brief action 20 Japanese soldiers were killed and 8 taken prisoner.

On 19 June the Sixth Marine Division committed two battalions of the Twenty Ninth Marines on the right of the Fourth Marines in preparation for a final assault to seize the 5000 square yards of ground remaining. Next day at 0700 both regiments attacked, the Twenty Ninth to drive to the coast, and the Fourth to complete the seizure of the Kiyamu-Gusuku Ridge. Against light opposition, the Twenty Ninth Marines advanced rapidly and reached the southern coast. Harassing long range fire from the regiment’s left caused few casualties. The enemy in this sector began to surrender. An LCI, equipped with a loud-speaker, moved along the coast calling to the remaining Japanese to give themselves up. Over 700 Japanese officers and men surrendered during the day.

Meanwhile over on the division’s left, the Fourth Marines were engaged in a bloody fight to secure Kiyamu-Gusuku Ridge. From their positions in the hill mass the Japanese resisted desperately with intense mortar and small arms fire. After a day of bitter fighting the Second Battalion captured Hill 80, the peak of the hill mass, but the remainder of the ground was still held by the enemy.

Resuming its attack on 21 June the Fourth Marines turned from frontal assaults and flanking attacks to a double envelopment from the rear. Early in the morning the two flank battalions sent companies around either extremity of the ridge and at 0800 struck the enemy’s rear in a coordinated attack. For two hours the enemy fought back bitterly but could not halt the assaulting Marines. With the fall of the Kiyamu-Gusuku Ridge all organized resistance in the Sixth Marine Division’s zone of action ceased.

During all but thirteen of the eighty two days that the Okinawa Campaign lasted, the Sixth Marine Division was committed and actively engaged. Credited to the division were 23,000 Japanese killed and over 3,500 captured. The division had captured over two thirds of Okinawa and had repeatedly fought the enemy on his own terms, and his own ground. During this operation the Sixth Marine Division had taken heavy losses; 400 officers and 7,822 enlisted men were either killed or wounded. In the drive from the Asa River to the Kokuba, the division had lost the equivalent of a regiment of men. Not included in the above figures are men lost due to non-battle casualties, sickness, or combat fatigue.

After reaching the southern coast the Sixth Division turned to retrace its steps back to the Kokuba, mopping up enemy remnants at it went.

The first week in July found the Sixth Marine Division busy with preparations for the trip to the new base camp on Guam. On 4 July there was an impressive ceremony held to dedicate the division cemetery. Although the division was preparing to leave Okinawa, it paused briefly to pay its respects to those of its members who would have to remain forever behind. In the last paragraph of the special order of dedication, General Shepherd admonished his men as follows:

“As this cemetery is dedicated to the dead and to the past that they made glorious by their heroic sacrifices, let there be in the minds of the members of this division the resolve to dedicate their future efforts to speeding the impending final defeat of the enemy to the end that there will no longer be occasion for the sacrifice that the honored dead of our division were called upon to make on this island.”

9. GUAM

On 16 July General Shepherd and his staff arrived at Guam and set up his new command post. By direction of Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, a base camp had been built for the Sixth Marine Division on Guam. As soon as the units had moved into their new areas, construction was begun on chapels and recreation facilities. A division training order was issued on 23 July outlining a program to last from 6 August to 15 December 1945.

On 26 July General Shepherd published a letter of gratitude from the people of Guam to the officers and men of the Sixth Marine Division. Written on the occasion of “Guam Liberation Day”, 21 July, one year after the Fourth and Twenty Second Marines had landed on the bloody beaches near Agat, the letter, signed by several leading Guamanians said in part:

“On behalf of the people of Guam we take this opportunity, as a token of everlasting gratitude, to extend our greetings and felicitations to you, the officers and men of the First Provisional Brigade which formed the nucleus of the Sixth Marine Division, with its supporting arms and services, on the first anniversary of D-Day.

“Through popular request, the twenty first of July has been designated as ‘Guam Liberation Day’. It is fitting and proper that we renew and reaffirm our loyalty and devotion to our mother country and the cause for which she stands.”

With general preparations for future combat operations against the enemy underway, the Sixth Marine Division launched an intensive training program in August. The main effort of the division was diverted, however, from 11-15 August to preparing and mounting out Task Group Able for the forthcoming occupation of Yokosuka Naval Base. This task group was a headquarters command headed by Brigadier General William T. Clement which was superimposed over the Fourth Marines (Reinforced), under the command of Lt. Col. Fred D. Beans. On 16 August, Task Group Able departed from Guam and three days later joined the Third Fleet.

As a part of the Fleet Landing Force, Task Group Able landed at Yokosuka Naval Base and Airfield on 30 August. There was no opposition to the landing. Here it remained as a part of the Sixth Marine Division until late in November when it passed from the administrative control of the division to that of Fleet Marine Force, Pacific. Its general duties consisted of demilitarizing the Naval area of responsibility, and in providing security for the Naval Base and Airfield. On 20 September, all reinforcing elements of the Fourth Marines and its superior command, Task Force Able Headquarters, returned to Guam, leaving the regiment under the operational control of the Eighth Army. By January the force had been reduced to the Third Battalion; the other two battalions, Weapons Company, and Headquarters and Service Company departed for the U. S. to be disbanded. Later a reduced regimental headquarters group left for Tsingtao to rejoin the division.

10. TSINGTAO

During the month of September the Sixth Marine Division prepared for an operation, the forthcoming occupation of Tsingtao, China. From 2 October until 11 October the division was aboard ship en route to China and commenced unloading at Tsingtao on the latter date.

While aboard the division command ship en route to Tsingtao, General Shepherd stated the general mission of his command:

“Our mission is to land and occupy Tsingtao and the adjacent Tsangkou Airfield; to assist local authorities in maintaining order and in preventing disease and starvation; to release, care for, and evacuate Recovered Allied Military personnel and Allied internees; to cooperate with Chinese Central Government forces; to accept, when necessary, local surrender of Japanese forces, as authorized by higher authority, and to assist the Chinese in effecting the disarming and confining of these forces.”

The city of Tsingtao, with 1,300,000 inhabitants is situated on a promontory on the southern coast of Shantung Peninsula. It is regarded as one of the finest ports in China, and is second only to Shanghai as a textile manufacturing center. When the division landed, it found the citizens of Tsingtao to be a polyglot group: Communist agents, former Nazis, White Russians, Koreans, Japanese civilians, Japanese military personnel, Europeans, Eurasians, and Chinese.

Politically, Tsingtao, as the most coveted city on Shantung Peninsula, was a hotbed of intrigue and strife. The Communists, with a stronghold at Chefoo, hoped to gain control of the peninsula, and the city. Resisting them were Japanese troops, protecting rail lines leading into the city. Here too, were independent factions ostensibly aligned with the Chungking government. Still in evidence, but ineffective, were puppet groups. At large, but not easily identified with either Chungking or Yennan, were small groups of brigands which terrorized Tsingtao despite the Mayor and his poorly trained and discipined troops.

Most of the interior of the Shantung Peninsula was controlled by Communists; their only access to the sea was at the port of Chefoo. Early in the month of October an emissary from the Commander-in-Chief of the Liberation Army of the Communists entered the harbor and sought an audience with General Shepherd. Permission was granted and a letter was presented which proposed, in essence, passive collaboration between the Marines and the Communists. Offering to enter the city to “restore order” by killing puppet troops, that is those troops who professed allegiance to Chiang Kai-Shek’s Chinese Central Government, the Communists promised not to disturb the Marines of the Sixth Division. To this General Shepherd replied firmly that he would have no part in a fratricidal war between factions in China, and that his combat veterans could prevent any disorders in the city.

Obviously, the Communist forces had hoped to gain complete control of the Shantung Peninsula at the cessation of hostilities through the surrender of Japanese troops to them.

One of the earliest problems to confront the men of the Sixth Marine Division in Tsingtao was a financial one, the fluctuating rate of exchange. With inflation rampant, attempts to stabilize the exchange at one American dollar to 2,000 Chinese Federal Reserve Bank dollars failed. Black markets flourished for a while and speculation in local currency helped to make that currency unstable. Food was plentiful but there was a shortage of coal.

Law and order was more a matter of theory than practice. Throughout October uniformed Chinese perpetrated many small crimes against both the Japanese and German residents. These usually consisted of breaking into houses, threatening the occupants with rifles or pistols, and stealing jewelry, silver, or small valuables. Marine roving patrols remedied this situation. It wasn’t long before the Sixth Marine Division found itself regarded as the guardian of minority groups within the city.

The morning of 25 October found the Twenty Second Marines, the Twenty Ninth Marines, the Sixth Tank Battalion, the Sixth Engineers, the Sixth Marine Division Headquarters Battalion, and other troops, marching out to the race track at the edge of Tsingtao to witness the surrender ceremony of the Japanese to representatives of the United States and Chinese Central Governments.

At 1100 the ceremony began. For the Japanese, Maj. General Eiji Nagano, commanding officer of the Japanese 5th Independent Mixed Brigade, stepped up on the platform and affixed his signature to copies of the surrender document. After laying his sword on the table Nagano withdrew to rejoin his staff, who immediately followed his example. On the platform representing the United States was General Shepherd who signed his name next. Lt. Gen. Yen Nien Li, deputy commander of the 11th War Area and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek’s personal representative, signed for the Chinese Central Government.

The surrender document stated that all Japanese forces in the Tsingtao area were to surrender unconditionally to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and that all equipment and records were to be turned over to the Allies in good condition. Civilian internees and prisoners of war were to be released immediately. General Shepherd, as Commanding General of the Sixth Marine Division, was named as Chiang’s authorized representative.

By the end of October, the division had settled to its routine duties. Guards had been established over American properties and Japanese warehouses; patrols were maintained throughout the non-Chinese sections of the city. A new training program was started. Special Services distributed athletic gear and arranged athletic events; in addition, an education program had been started. The division began to make plans for withdrawal as soon as the 8th Chinese National Army arrived. By 23 November, before a lapse occurred, 6,701 Japanese military personnel and 877 Japanese civilians had been evacuated to Japan. Along with the repatriation of the Japanese, many members of the division were “repatriated” to the United States through rotation as point scores dropped.

During the month of December the Sixth Marine Division continued its duties in Tsingtao; 7,827 military and 18,390 civilian Japanese were repatriated. Near the end of the month Major General A. F. Howard, USMC, arrived to relieve Major General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., USMC, as Commanding General of the Sixth Marine Division.

Gradually many of the functions of the division were absorbed by the 8th Chinese National Army and the division turned to schools and training prior to deactivation on 1 April, when from its units the Third Marine Brigade was formed.

The career of the Sixth Marine Division had been relatively brief, a few days less than nineteen months, but in that short time the division had won a respected position among the fighting divisions of this war. For its excellent work on Okinawa the division was warmly commended by both Lt. General Roy S. Geiger, Commanding General, III Amphibious Corps, and the late Lt. General Simon B. Buckner, Commanding General, Tenth Army. To each of the three infantry regiments of the Sixth Marine Division, the Twenty Second Marines, the Twenty-Ninth Marines and the Fourth Marines, went the highly coveted Presidential Unit Citation. While it lived, the division not only upheld all the proud traditions of the Marine Corps, but added to the impressive record of brave deeds long associated with the Corps.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX “A”

_Copy_

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS Office of the Commanding General Second Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force c/o Fleet Post Office San Francisco, California

26 September 1944

From: The Commanding General. To: The Commanding General, 6th Marine Division. Subject: Services rendered by personnel of 1st Battalion, 29th Marines.

1. I wish to express my appreciation of the heroic part played by the officers and men of the 1st Battalion, 29th Marines (Reinf), while attached to the 2d Marine Division, in the defeat of the Japanese forces on Saipan.

2. This battalion landed on the Japanese base of Saipan, Marianas Islands, on D-day, 15 June 1944, and immediately upon landing was attached to CT-8 and subsequently committed to front-line action on the original beachhead. For a period of twenty days until the zone of action of this division was completely secured, it occupied front-line positions, participating in attacks against most determined resistance over the most difficult terrain the island offered. During this entire period, due to tactical considerations and the nature of enemy resistance, it was at no time relieved from its front-line positions. In its advance over very difficult terrain, including the main ridge of Mount Tapotchau, the commanding terrain feature of the island, it successfully repulsed numerous counter-attacks and overcame many pockets of inordinately tenacious enemy resistance, including heavy machine gun and mortar fire.

3. In its advance it suffered very heavy casualties. Despite these losses, this battalion continued its attacks and advances with unabating vigor and persistence.

4. It has been a pleasure to have under my command these officers and men who were of inestimable value to the success of the operation as a part of the 2d Marine Division, Reinforced. The parent organization of the 1st Battalion, 29th Marines can well be proud of the accomplishments of this battalion during the Saipan operation.

/s/ T. E. Watson T. E. WATSON

First Endorsement 8 October 1944

HEADQUARTERS, SIXTH MARINE DIVISION, IN THE FIELD

From: The Commanding General.

To: The Commanding Officer, Twenty-ninth Marines, Reinforced.

_Copy_

Subject: Services rendered by personnel of 1st Battalion, Twenty-ninth Marines, Reinforced.

1. Forwarded.

2. This is a fine tribute to the 1st Battalion, Twenty-ninth Marines, Reinforced, and will be an inspiration to the remainder of your excellent regiment.

LEMUEL C. SHEPHERD, JR.

2d Endorsement 11 October 1944

HEADQUARTERS, 29th MARINES, REINF., SIXTH MARINE DIVISION, IN THE FIELD

From: The Commanding Officer.

To: The Commanding Officer, First Battalion, 29th Marines, Reinf.

Subject: Services rendered by personnel of the First Battalion, 29th Marines, Reinf.

1. Forwarded with congratulations.

2. The Commanding Officer takes pleasure in forwarding this letter from the Commanding General, Second Marine Division, In the Field, commending you and your men for heroic and valiant services at Saipan.

3. It is a source of gratification for me to receive this report, and to welcome your splendid unit to this regiment.

VICTOR F. BLEASDALE

_Copy_

HEADQUARTERS, TWENTY-NINTH MARINES REINFORCED, SIXTH MARINE DIVISION, IN THE FIELD.

16 November 1944

REGIMENTAL MEMORANDUM

Combat Record of the First Battalion, 29th Marines.

_NUMBER 129 1944_

1. The article, “BATTALION ON SAIPAN” by War Correspondent Robert Sherrod, appearing in the October 1944 issue of the MARINE CORPS GAZETTE describes the splendid part played in the conquest of Saipan during June and July 1944, by the battalions of the Sixth Marine Regiment. However, in addition to his description of the fighting done by the battalions of the Sixth Marine Regiment, Mr. Sherrod includes the following reference to the magnificent achievements of the First Battalion, Twenty-ninth Marines:

“And none of them (battalions of the Sixth Marine Regiment) approached the rather appalling losses incurred by an extra battalion formed of detachments from each of the nine regular battalions of the Second Division. This heroic battalion, the First Battalion, Twenty-ninth Marine Regiment, commanded first by Lieutenant Colonel Guy E. Tannyhill and later by Lieutenant Colonel Rathvon McC. Tompkins (until he was also wounded near the end of the battle), faced the fearsome task of taking the 1,554-foot peak of Mount Tapotchau, the highest point on Saipan. Like good Marines, Colonel Tompkins’ men never faltered in their assignment, but there were only about 200 left in the battalion when the battle ended. The United States can thank its lucky stars for such picked men who are not afraid to die; without them it is difficult to see how the Pacific war would even now be advanced as far as Tarawa, which is 2,000 miles to the rear.”

2. The officers and men of the 29th Marines are very proud of the splendid reputation already established by our First Battalion.

VICTOR F. BLEASDALE, Colonel, U. S. Marine Corps Commanding

THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY

WASHINGTON

The Secretary of the Navy takes pleasure in commending the

FIRST PROVISIONAL MARINE BRIGADE

for service as follows: