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WW2 Gyrene Note: Click on any name to go directly to that Marine's lessons learned. These are direct transcriptions from "Fighting on Guadalcanal."
FOREWORD To secure the point of view of the fighting men in the Solomon Islands, Lt. Colonel Russel P. Reeder, Jr., of the Operations Division of the War Department General Staff, was designated as my personal representative. He reported to Major General Vandegrift, USMC, and Major General Patch, US Army, on Guadalcanal, and discussed with many officers and soldiers their experiences in jungle fighting against the Japanese. The stories of these men as told to Colonel Reeder have been printed for your information. The American Marines and Doughboys show us that the Jap is no superman. He is a tricky, vicious, and fanatical fighter. But they are beating him day after day. Their's is a priceless record of the gallantry and resourcefulness of the American fighting man at his best. Soldiers and officers alike should read these notes and seek to apply their lessons. We must cash in on the experience, which these and other brave men have paid for in blood.
MAJOR GENERAL VANDEGRIFT, Commanding General 1st Marine Division “I desire to thank General Marshall for the message which he has just sent me. I passed this message of congratulations on to my men. "My message to the troops of General Marshall's in training for this type of warfare is to go back to the tactics of the French and Indian days. This is not meant facetiously. Study their tactics and fit in our modern weapons, and you have a solution. I refer to the tactics and leadership of the days of ROGER'S RANGERS."
"Your men have to be rugged and rough, and to win they must learn to disregard politeness and must kill."
“ hear that in the new jungle kits the men will get water sterilizing tablets. These will help as my men dip water out of streams."
"In turn, they have surprised us by being in defensive positions on the reverse slope of a ridge. I think the snipers look for BAR men." (Note by Col Edson: "No doubt about this. In one engagement, in one platoon, every BAR man was hit.")
"We have learned that when we get off the beaten trails, it seems to confuse the Japs, and we have better success."
"Put the big rugged men in the heavy weapons company. "Some of our new men were so scared of our hand grenades when they were first issued, that they jammed down the cotter pin. Then, later in action they could not pull the pin! "I noticed, and I pointed this out to my platoon, that when men get hit, the men close by go to yellin,' 'Corpsman, Corpsman, Corpsman,' and they get so excited sometimes that they actually forget to use first-aid packets. "In first-aid training, teach correct use of injecting morphine and procedure of tagging, 'cause what you gonna do when the Corpsman gets hit? I'd give $75.00 for a pair of tennis shoes to rest my feet and for use in night work. I only have been in the Marine Corps four years, but I have learned that you have got to develop a sense of responsibility in themen wearing chevrons. "In action we have had unauthorized persons yelling, 'Cease firing,' or 'Commence firing.' This caused confusion."
"In our training for this jungle warfare we had a great deal of work in hand-to-hand individual combat, use of knife, jujitsu, etc. With the exception of bayonet fighting we have not used this work. I have been in many battles since I hit this island and I have never seen anyone use it. "Bring back the signal flags; needed badly. "Sir, every man should have a watch. "We could use pack artillery here. "Our Battalion Commander, Major Walt, wants every last man in our Battalion to know as much as he does about the situation. It pays. "Get rid of the gold-bricks. It's better to be short-handed having good men around than having lots of undependables."
"It's helpful in using the field glasses in this tropical sun to cup your hand over the front end in order to keep out the glare. "The men in my squad fire low at the base of the trees. There is too much high firing going on. I have observed the Japs often get short of ammunition. They cut bamboo and crack it together to simulate rifle fire to draw our fire. They ain't supermen; they're just tricky bastards. "Put 'bug dope' in your jungle equipment. "A palmetto log looks sturdy for use in machine gun emplacements and dugouts, but it is spongy and rots. I have seen it collapse and pin the gun. It is better to use the hard wood."
"Not every man can lead a battalion. Find out who can lead your battalions before you go into the combat areas. (Remark by Col. Edson: 'I would like to concur in that statement.') "We learned from the Nips to make the 'stand-up covered Japanese spider hole.' (Camouflaged American fox-hole.) "In defense in the dense jungle sometimes you make a line-- then on other types of terrain you make strong points. "In an advance in a jungle it is hard for the platoon leader to keep control of his men. Corporals and their men must be taught to act individually."
"I have been fired at many times by snipers and haven't seen one yet. "The sabers which the Japanese officers carry have proved to be worthless. I killed two Japs who came at me with sabers and I got them first by shooting them. But, I wished I had 'in reserve' a good jungle knife. I don't mean a bolo, which we should have for cutting trails, but a knife with a 12-inch cutting blade of good steel. We could use this against the Japs as well as cutting vines that catch us at night." (Note: Many men expressed their wish for a jungle knife such as described here. This desire is being omitted in further remarks to avoid repetition.) "If the numbers on the mortar sight were luminous, with a luminous strip on the stick, we would not have to use the flashlight. This flashlight business is dangerous." "We learned not to fire unless we had something to shoot at. Doing otherwise discloses your position and wastes ammunition. "Sergeant Dietrich of Company I, of our Regiment, recently used his head. One night when the Japs advanced, a Jap jumped into Sergeant Dietrich's foxhole. Sergeant Dietrich pulled the pin of a hand grenade and jumped out. There was a hell of an explosion and one less Nip. "I have been charged twice by the Japs in bayonet charge. Our Marines can out-bayonet fight them and I know our Army men will do the same. (Note by Col. Edson: 'Incidentally, in the last push we executed three bayonet charges.') "A Japanese trick to draw our fire was for the hidden Jap to work his bolt back and forth. Men, who got sucked in on this and fired without seeing what they were firing at, generally drew automatic fire from another direction. "Every scout should be taught to look in the trees. I was a scout and got shot in the shoulder by a Jap in a tree. I look in the trees now. "We take turns being scouts; so, all should be trained as scouts."
"Men get killed rushing to help a wounded man. If the wounded man would crawl about ten yards to his flank, he can generally be aided in safety, as the Japs seem to fire down lanes in the jungle. (Remark by Col. Edson: "We have taught our men that the best way to aid a wounded man is to push ahead so that the wounded man can be cared for by the Corpsman.') "The men have to be trained individually, for when the fire fight starts, the Corporal can't see all of his men and further, when the order for attack is given, any number of men are unable to see the man on his left or right. So you see, Sir, it takes guts for men to get up and move forward when the signal is given. The men have to depend on one another and have confidence in each other. "I was in one advance when the Japs let us come through and then rose up out of covered fox holes and shot us in the back. The best cure for that is a rear guard looking towards the rear."
"My platoon is the best one in the company because we are like a baseball team. Our lieutenant is like the Captain of the team. He is close to us and we like him and yet respect him. We have a wonderful platoon. I am not bragging. That's a fact! (Note: When I read this to Col. Edson at the end of the day, he was so delighted that he sent a runner to find out who Corporal McAllan's platoon leader was.) "Some men used to lag behind in the advance. They have finally learned to keep up, as lagging is unsafe for all. "This BAR I have here is my best friend."
"If I had to train my regiment all over again, I would stress small group training and the training of the individual even more than we did when we were in training. "There must be training in difficult observation, which is needed for the offense. It is my observation that only 5% of the men can really see while observing. "The offensive is the most difficult to support, as you cannot tell exactly where your troops are. "Whether the Japs will continue to fight as they do now, I don't know. They defend on the low ground in the jungle. They dig standing trenches, extremely well camouflaged. "We need the rifle grenade, or a weapon to fill the gap between hand grenade and the mortar. We need to dig the Nip out of his holes under banyan trees, etc. "We need the knee mortar badly. The name 'knee mortar' is a misnomer. It is not fired from the knee. One of my men tried this and broke his leg. The following are reasons in its favor: "1. It is a one-man load. "2. A man can carry ten rounds on his person besides his weapon. "3. It has a high rate of fire. "4. It gives the Platoon Commander a weapon of this type which is immediately available to him. 5. This mortar uses the Jap all-purpose hand grenade-- ranges 50 yards to 650, I believe. "The Japs have three of these mortars in a mortar squad in each rifle platoon. They have two ammunition carriers per mortar. It can be lowered to a low angle and placed against a log and shot straight out further than a hand grenade. "I would recommend one change in the projectile. The Japs have too much high explosive in the projectile and the case is too thin. We get a lot of casualties from it, but they are minor wounds. "I recommend substituting the M1919A4 (the light machine gun) for the heavy machine gun for offensive operations in the jungle. The heavy machine guns are needed and are very valuable in the defense. I am even considering substituting BAR's for the light machine guns in the offensive. "I think that the Battalion Heavy Weapons Company should have the 60mm mortar to use in addition to the 81mm mortar. I like the 81 but it cannot keep up in certain situations because of its weight and itsheavy ammunition. "I think that in each of our squads there should be two BAR's instead of one. "I suggest that you have maneuvers with ball ammunition where possible, even if you get a few casualties. "The tendency is to overload infantrymen with ammunition. It seems to be the standard practice to start out with a belt full plus two bandoleers. We soon found out that 25 rounds was enough for two or three days if you do not have targets to shoot at. (Note: Our infantrymen approaching Buna in the jungles of New Guinea were carrying 40 rounds.) "Two ammunition pockets in the belt should be converted to grenade pockets. Each man should have two hand grenades. If you don't do that, develop slip-open pockets, which can be quickly opened and which will carry two hand grenades. "Our Marine field shoes have too heavy a 'top', which chafes. It should have a type of hobnail as it slips on the jungle grasses. Rubber shoes are needed for night work. "Your principle of the command post up and to the front is certainly true here. "In your scouting and patrolling, and your 'training in patience' (which you should have) have the menwork against each other. Same thing for squads and platoons in their problems. "We should develop better snipers. The Japanese snipers are really annoying. All commanders, up to include the regiment, must realize you cannot clear out all the snipers before you advance. Some will be left, but they won't be particularly effective. Annoying, yes. You can get these snipers by small groups from the reserves. Some Japanese snipers, which were bypassed in the attack, hid for two or three days and then quit. Some will hang around inside your lines for a month. "The Japanese night attacks, of course, have limited objectives; and sometimes withdrawing after dark asmuch as fifty yards will fool them and they won't know where you are. "The smoking lamp goes out at dark and you have got to be quiet. "In the Raiders we adopted the custom of dropping all rank and titles. We used nicknames for the officers. All ranks use these nicknames for us. We did this because the Nips caught onto the names of officers and would yell or speak in the night, 'This is Captain Joe Smith talking. A Company will withdraw to the next hill.' So we adopted nicknames as code words. Captain Walt became 'Silent Lou.' My nickname was 'Red Mike.' An example of the use of these nicknames as code words is: One night the Japs put down smoke and they yelled 'gas.' We were green at that time and two of our companies withdrew leaving A Company exposed on its two flanks. In this instance I was a battalion commander. "Captain Walt called me on the voice radio to inform me of the situation. He was cautious and used the nickname as follows: He said 'Who is speaking?' and I said, 'Red.' He said, 'What name do you identify with 'Silent?' I said, 'Lou.' He said, 'That is correct.' So we both knew that we were talking to each other and were not talking to the enemy. He explained the situation to me. At the end of his conversation, a voice broke in and said in perfect English, 'Our situation here, Colonel Edson, is excellent. Thank you, Sir.' This was the enemy speaking. "A value of night training is that it lets men learn the normal noises of the woods at night. Woods are not silent at night. "The Japanese is no superman. He has the same limitations that we have. They have the advantage of experience. With proper training, our Americans are better, as our people can think better as individuals. Encourage your individuals and bring them out. "Discontinue the use of tracers for night firing. They give away your position. "Both our riflemen and machine gunners must be taught to shoot low. "This leadership business boils down to being hardboiled. By that I mean getting rid of the poor leader, even if you like him personally, because this is a life and death affair. That goes right down to the non-coms. "At Tulagi the Japanese used wooden bullets. I saw some of these wooden bullets. My theory for their use is that they were developed for troops which were to infiltrate behind our lines and shoot us in the back. These wooden bullets could not carry far enough to injure their attacking troops."(Note: Colonel Edson asked me at the end of the day to read back to him what each man had said when he was interviewed. Notes by Colonel Edson which appear, were made after the men had been interviewed.)
"I can officially report to you that we had nine men killed in one company in the last assault! Four of these were killed by a wounded sniper who had three holes in him. He was laying in thick brush 15 yards from my CP. He was camouflaged and had been passed over for dead. You have to KILL to put them out. They attack in bunches, shoulder to shoulder. "An example: we were on the Matanikau River. (See fig. 1) Our companies were at half strength. This was a Raider Battalion plus two companies of the 3 rd Battalion, 5 th Marines. The Japanese beach head was a thick jungle with camouflaged standing-type fox holes. They had with them in their beach head six heavy machine guns and eight light machine guns which we captured in this action.
"At 6:30pm they smoked our two right companies, and when the smoke had enveloped these two companies, they broke out. They came out in a mass formation, twenty abreast, yelling, bayonets fixed, automatic weapons working, rear ranks throwing hand grenades, (heavy arrow in the above sketch shows the Japanese route.) They were trying to escape to the sand spit at the mouth of the river in order to cross the river to get back. "Our right front company had just completed a double apron barbed wire fence. When the Japanese hit the left flank of the right company, they killed nine out of the first eleven men they met. Then they hit the barbed wire. Two of our heavy machine guns opened up, shooting down along this barbed wore fence and dispersing their attack. "It got dark— quickly like it does here. There was smoke, Japs and Marines all mixed up. Three Jap officers were swinging their two-hand swords. There was hand-to-hand fighting all night long. We mopped them up at daybreak. We killed 78 Japs. They killed 12 Marines and wounded 26 of us. "The Jap has a great deal of respect for our hand grenade, and it is a valuable weapon to us. Do you ever practice throwing it in wooded country? "The Jap is not an individual fighter. He won't fight with a bayonet unless backed up with a dozen other Japs. "Here is something else that I know the Army teaches, Sir, but I would like to say it, as we really believe in it here, and that is don't put troops in a skirmish line until actual physical contact is made. Keep 'em insquad columns, with two scouts in front of each squad. Sometimes making files between the columns. "As in the Basic Field Manual, each man should know the objective. I make my platoon leader designate an objective every 100 yards in the jungle, and they work to it and reorganize. They don't push off for the next objective until they get word from the Company Commander. This method, we have found, ensures control. "I control my companies exactly the same way. I set up objectives for each company. When the companies reach their objectives, they report. After the reorganization, we go ahead. "I think reserves in the attack should be kept up close so that they can be committed immediately. The Reserve Company Commander continually reconnoiters the ground and is ready to commit his company at once when ordered to do so. If the Reserve Company is not on its toes and has to take time out for reconnaissance, this may delay them to such an extent that their effort may be useless--the situation may change if they cannot act at once. I keep my best Company Commander in reserve.
"I practice walking quietly over rocks, twigs, grass, leaves, through vines, etc. I practice this around the bivouac area. I received instruction in scouting and patrolling at Quantico, but I still practice this around here in the bivouac area. I believe because I practice this is the reason I am still alive. "Some of the other NCO's laughed at me because I am always seeing how quietly I can walk around and because I go out and practice on my own. But they have stopped laughing at me because I have been on more patrols than any man in the Regiment. I am still alive. "When I am scouting and come to an opening in the jungle, and have to cross it, I generally run across quickly and quietly. Going slow here may cost a scout his life. Different types of terrain call for different methods. "Here is the way the Japs patrol. I was out on the bank of the river with another man. We were observing and were carefully camouflaged. We heard a little sound and then saw two Japs crawl by 7 feet away from us. These Japs were unarmed. We started to shoot them, but did not do so as we remembered our mission. Then, 15 yards later came 8 armed Japs. They were walking slowly and carefully. We did not shoot as our mission was to gain information. "When I got back, we had a lot of discussion as to why the two Japs in front were not armed. Some of the fellows said maybe it was a form of Japanese company punishment. I believe they were the point of the patrol and were unarmed so they could crawl better. "You can tell Jap troops in the distance because of their short, choppy step." (Remark by Col. Edson: "This is true and we think the reason for their short, choppy stride is because they wear wooden shoes in Japan.)
FIGHTING ON GUADALCANAL, PART II
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