World War II Gyrene Photo Album, page 40 Pvt Joseph T. Gambrel HQ Co, 1st Bn, 28th Marines Fifth Marine Division

Pvt Joseph Gambrel served as a field wireman in the 81mm Mortar Platoon, HQ Co, 1st Bn, 28th Marines, Fifth Marine Division. These Marines were one of the assault units in the Iwo Jima campaign, among the very toughest fights in history. With an authorized strength of 954 Marines (Note 1.) 1/28 endured a total of 779 casualties in the 36 days of fighting on Iwo Jima. This equaled a casualty rate of nearly 75 percent. (Note 2.)

The battalion heavy mortar platoon was trained and equipped to provide high-angle fire support to the Marine infantry battalion. Pfc Gambrel was one of two field wiremen in the platoon. His was a demanding and important job that entailed a great deal of risk. As one of the Marines who ran communications wire and operated sound-powered field telephones, Pvt Gambrel ensured that calls for fire could be transmitted to the battalion mortars.

Organized as a battalion landing team (LT), 1/28 found itself in the breach from almost the moment its Marines and Sailors first set foot on Iwo Jima. On D-Day, 19 February 1945, the battalion was assigned as the assault element on Green Beach. This exposed strip of volcanic sand 500 yards wide faced the full fury of Japanese fires that erupted from Japanese emplacements in and on Mount Suribachi.

The first Marines of LT 1/28 set boondockers on Green Beach at precisely 0902. The heavy mortar platoon wiremen, likely including Pvt Gambrel, accompanied the assault companies in the first waves and quickly ran telephone wire following the assault troops. The remainder of the 81s platoon came ashore at 0917 in the fifth wave. They set-up in a pre-designated firing position 150 yards inland from the beach and registered their tubes. Within 10 minutes after touching down, the 81s were ready to answer calls for fire, in no small part because the combat wire had already been laid by the wiremen.

The regimental commander commander, Col Harry Liversedge, and his command party came ashore on Green Beach early in the assault phase. At 1046, he reported: "Machine gun and artillery fire heaviest ever seen." Iwo's Japanese garrison had a grandstand view to every inch of the beachhead and the Marines struggling ashore were completely exposed to the full brunt of enemy firepower. Under this punishing rain of bullets, artillery and mortars, 44 of LT 1/28's Marines died, and a further 143 were wounded. (Note 3.)

D-Day on Green Beach was but the beginning of what must have been a seemingly endless odyssey of combat for the Marines of LT 1/28. In their first five days on the island, 261 men became casualties, among them 66 dead and the battalion's leadership was decimated in this carnage. The mental toll on the survivors was undoubtedly immense, but somehow they went on from day to day.

The 81mm Mortar Platoon, HQ Co, 1st Bn, 28th Marines, aboard the USS Dickens (APA 161) while enroute to the intermediate staging base in the Marianas. There, Pvt Gambrel cross-decked to the USS LST-758 for the final approach to Iwo Jima. USMC Photo

The line companies pushed deeper and deeper into the Japanese defensive belts in Iwo's northern badlands. Through this wilderness of arroyos, switchbacks and dead-end canyons, the wiremen crossed and re-crossed the battlefield laying, checking and repairing field wire. This dangerous work, unsung, yet critically important, was necessary because the wire was constantly cut by shell fragments and tanks driving over it.

A wire team lays combat wire under fire on Iwo Jima. The Marine in front carries the wire reel and the Marine following makes sure the wire spools out smoothly. Once combat wire was laid, it had to be constantly checked for breaks in the lines. This was the type of dangerous and exposed work that Pvt Gambrel engaged in during his combat service. USMC Photo

By 12 March 1945 (D+21) LT 1/28 was working its way yard by bloody yard toward Kitano Point on Iwo Jima's northern shoreline. In this methodical advance, every caliber of gun pounded at enemy positions but the gains were incremental. The first attack of the day kicked off at 0700, but the Marines were stalled almost before leaving their attack positions. A 0900, the battalion again launched into the attack against well-fortified and fanatical Japanese resistance. In the face of heavy enemy defensive fires, this attack also stalled.

Throughout the day's fighting, the heavy mortars laid down fire concentrations and responded to calls for fire. The landing team action report had this to say about their work that day: "Our 81mm mortars seemed to be the only weapon which would get the Japs up and out of their holes. "

In the blizzard of Japanese defensive fires that rained down on LT 1/28 on D+21, Pvt Joseph Gambrel was struck in the head by a Japanese bullet. He was evacuated to the rear for treatment, but died later the same day. He was one of four Marines in the battalion who died in this day's fighting. In addition to the dead, 24 Marines were wounded. Even with tank support and continuous use of mortars and heavy rocket fire, LT 1/28 was unable to make any appreciable gains, and the trace of its positions remained essentially unchanged during the day.

After his death, Pvt Gambrel's remains were interred in plot 5, row 21, grave 1420 at the Fifth Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima. In March 1949, Pvt Gambrel was moved to his final resting place in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. Joseph Gambrel was only a young man when he died, but in life, he was an unsung hero whose work was critically important to mission success. His death in battle was not in vain. He lived and died as a United States Marine. Joseph Gambrel was one of the more than 25,000 Marines and Corpsmen who died in World War II.

Semper Fidelis, Never Forget.

Letter of condolence that LtCol J. B. Butterfield, Commander of LT 1/28, wrote to Pvt Gambrel's mother relating the circumstances of his death in combat on 12 March 1945.

NOTES
(1) Table of Organization F-5, Infantry Battalion, Marine Regiment, dated 27 March 1944.
(2) Casualty figures extracted from Appendix III of Iwo Jima, Amphibious Epic, by Whitman Bartley (1954), US GPO. (See table above for full casualty data for 1st Bn, 28th Marines.)
(3) Information about LT 1/28's actions and casualties on D+21 extracted from The First Battalion, 28th Marines on Iwo Jima, by Robert Allen (1999) McFarland & Co, Inc.

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