I have attempted to write a very short history of the battle that took place on Wake, Wilkes and Johnston Island, these three Islands together are commonly known as Wake Island and the story of its defenders ranks with that of the defenders of the Alamo in 1836.

In the second section of this site is a short brief account of the treatment of Prisoner’s of War by the Japs. It should be noted that the transportation, treatment, food, medical care, clothing and other aspects of the prisoners treatment were by and large the same with all the prisoners taken by the Japs on all Islands and or countries, the survivors of the captivity at the hands of the Japanese is nothing short of incredible, those who died, after doing everything possible to survive, with the many diseases and injuries they substance from their battles, work related injuries and the vicious and sadistic and brutal Japanese soldiers and their officer's, should be honored as true American Hero’s.

Jap Officer’s would engage in contests with each other to see who could cut off the most heads of prisoners. Jap guards would beat prisoners for no other reason than that the prisoner was a prisoner and the Jap knew he could get away with it.

An attempt was made a various times from 1943 on to kill as many prisoners as possible; the reason was to get rid of witness to the inhuman treatment afforded by the Japs.

You might conceder these facts the next time you decide to buy a Japanese car or other product, You are buying from the same companies that used prisoners for forced labor or who’s companies produced the materials used to make war upon the United States of America and whose employees were once prison guards who murdered American Prisoners.

It is the opinion of this Marine that all these Japanese should have been tried as war criminals and then hung or given life imprisonment. The opinions expressed here are those of the Web Master Marine Ben Johnson and do not necessary reflect the opinions of the Marine Corps League nor Detachment 975 of the Marine Corps League. The Web Master would be pleased to educate anyone who disagrees with the above introduction.

Marine Ben Johnson, December 2003

Wake Island; The Alamo of the Pacific

Much has been written about the heroic deeds performed by the defenders of Wake Island during December 1941, but few understand just how unprepared the United States was for war at that time.

Lt. Colonel Earl H. (“Pete”) Ellis had written Operation Plan 712 in 1921. This plan was known as “Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia” In this 50,000 word plan he predicted that Japan would strike first in case of a war. He wrote “It will be necessary for us to project our fleet and landing forces across the Pacific and wage war in Japanese waters. To effect this requires that we have sufficient bases to support the fleet, both during its projection and afterwards”.

Ellis took a leave to tour Micronesia in 1923 and died on the Japanese-held island of Palau under circumstances still not fully explained.

Wake Island (an extinct volcano) was “discovered” in October 1568 by Alvaro de Mendana de Neyra and again sighted in 1769 by captain Samuel Wake of the British ship “Prince William Henry” who named the island after himself. It became an American territory after the Spanish American War. But remained a ‘desert island’ with out human habitation until Pam-Am began building a base there for its ‘China Clippers’ in the 1930’s.

In the 1930’s with the diminishing good relation with Japan, Military leaders looked towards the Pacific as the next possible hot spot. Wake Island being less than 1000 miles from Japan made it an ideal place to establish a forward base. However, as late as 1937 there were not enough full-time residents to field two base-ball teams, ** but changes were on the way.

On September 31, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland and America lost sight of the Pacific in favor of Europe. But, some military leaders continued to view Japan as a threat and made plans to shore up defenses in the Pacific. At this point in time, it should be understood that the Marine Corps had fewer men than the New York City Police Department. But a considered effort was made to fortify Wake Island starting in December 1940.

The Navy ship “U.S.S. William Ward Burrows left Honolulu carrying 2,000 tons of equipment and supplies to build up Wake Island. In January 1941 the task of turning Wake Island into a defensible island began. Civilian contractors (called the Pioneer Party) starting building up the island, laid down an air strip and built housing (the first housing was hard backed tents later turned over to the Marine’s that arrived later) and docks for the clipper ships, but not building any fortification for guns or planes. There were no troops on the Island as yet.

Not until April 18th, 1941 did Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, express fears that the defensive efforts were not progressing to the point where Wake Island would be able to defend itself. (Admiral Kimmel would later be relieved of his command for not being prepared for the Japanese attack, it is my opinion that Admiral Kimmel was aware of the facts and did his best to put the Pacific on a war footing, but was used as a scapegoat so the Navy would have someone to blame) At this point 173 enlisted Marines and 5 officers were dispatched to Wake Island and arrived August 19th. The first Marines to be stationed at Wake Island (939 enlisted Marines and 43 officers were scheduled to go to Wake Island, but there were not that many to send) had arrived. These Marines were then divided between Wake Island and Midway Island) These would be the first troops to begin the fortification of the Wake Island.

On October 15th, 1941 Major James P.S. Devereux, a 18 year veteran of the Marine Corps took command, Major Devereux had seen combat in Nicaragua and China. He pushed his men to start and complete emplacements for the machine guns (twenty-four – .50 caliber and thirty - .30 caliber machine guns), as well as 3’ inch anti-aircraft guns and 5’ coastal guns. The Marines had to build emplacements out of the coral and volcanic rock of the island, which defied the pick’s and shovels’s of the Marines. There had been no allotment of heavy equipment sent with the Marines and the civilian construction company could not help the Marines with their heavy equipment. On November 1st the U.S.S. Castor laid to and 15 more officers and 373 enlisted men joined the 1st Defense Battalion. This brought the total to 546 enlisted and 20 officers to secure an island with 20 miles of shore line. Devereux soon learned he could expect no help from the civilian construction workers (1,700) as they were tasked the job of building up the Pam-Am Air Station and the Naval Air Base (Camp 2), of which there were no naval personal to man as yet. Devereux sought guidance from Hawaii but was told “Do the best you can”, and that is just what Devereux did. Having no authority to make the civilian construction crew build essential defense installations he set about constructing defenses using his Marine’s and picks and shoves. Once the landing strip (Built by the civilian construction company) was built the Marines took on the further responsibility of refueling the new B-17 Bombers who stopped to refuel on Wake Island on their way to the Philippines. This, of course, was done by hand using hand pumps inserted into 55 gallon drums of fuel, as there were no other means of doing the refueling any other way.

At this point in time, unknown to the United States, the Japanese had already made plans to attack and start the war in the Pacific, and Hawaii and Wake Island were tops on their list.

On November 28th, 1941 the U.S.S. Wright arrived and put ashore 64 navy blue jackets, including several Corpsmen and eleven officers’ one of whom was a Navy doctor. Also aboard was the islands new commanding officer Navy Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham, who would become the islands overall commander, replacing Devereux. Cunningham set up his command post at Camp 2. Devereux had his command post set up with the Marine at Camp 1.

No one knew it but time was running out. The Japanese needed Wake Island as a forward base and needed to deprive the United States of this vital island. The “Wake Island Invasion Force” had been put to sea and was on its way under the command of Rear Admiral Sadamichi Kajioka

On December 4, 1941 the U.S.S. Enterprise delivered 12 Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats. Ten of the pilots were officers and two were staff NCOs (A common practice at the time due to a shortage of qualified pilots). This was VMF-211. These would be the only military planes to defend the island (the F4F-3 Wildcat is a fighter plane and is not built for long range duty and is almost useless as a reconnaissance aircraft as it is built for speed and is a real gas eater).

On December 8, 1941 at 7am Army Sergeant James B. Rex, who had arrived on Wake as part of a five man detail to set up communications for the Army Air Corps, received a transmission in plain code (Morse Code) that Pearl Harbor was under attack. Time had run out for the defenders of Wake. Command was notified and efforts were made to build shelters for the planes, 4 planes went aloft and the Marines manned the gun positions though-out the island. [It should be noted here that there were more guns than crews to man them and even if there had been men to man them there would only be one M.G. gun for every quarter mile of shore]. Civilian construction crews were called in to build revetments for the planes but it was too little to late. At 11:58am the Japs struck with twenty-seven twin-engine, twin-tailed Mitsubishi “Nells”. Their primary target was the airstrip where four “Wildcats” set loaded and ready to take off. In a few minutes all but one plane was destroyed, never having left the ground. Two pilots were killed attempting to reach their planes. The ground crews already on the flight line were gunned down where they stood. When it was over, the Japs had destroyed the Marines Base (Camp 1) including their mess hall and the tent area where the Marines lived and killing many Marines and civilian workers. Not a single Jap plane was lost. In just 12 minutes the raid was over. All the visible structures built were in ruins, one 25,000 gallon fuel tank had been destroyed, all but 3 planes were destroyed (there were four in the air; however one was lost while landing) and the flight crews was either dead or wounded. Only the underground ammo bunkers remained. The Pan-Am area faired better but was shot up by the planes machine guns (Camp 2). Commander Cunningham radioed Hawaii to report the attack and received the following message from Fourteenth Naval District headquarters “EXECUTE UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE AND AIR WARFARE AGAINST JAPAN”. Cunningham then had the U.S. submarines “Triton” and “Tambor” notified of the attack, both having been submerged during the attacks and out of contact, having no idea that Pearl Harbor and Wake Island had been attacked, but immediately went on the attack..

Devereux immediately set about to brings the situation under control. The construction foreman, Nathan Dan Teters, placed his construction crews numbering at about 1700 men, at Devereux’s command. Shelters were started for the remaining planes, and construction was continued on the gun emplacements with 150 civilian volunteers coming forward to help man the guns. Most of these 150 men were former military men and wanted to fight along-side the Marines. One 3 inch gun had no crew but was quickly manned by the civilians under a Marine NCOs command. All together between 300 and 400 hundred civilians choose to become part of the powerful auxiliary force in the islands defense, working with the Marines to build emplacements, filling sandbags (500 sandbags per gun), cooking and delivering food and water to the Marines and what ever duties they were called upon to do, hey willing did. December 9 dawned clear with general quarters sounding at 0500, Devereux declared a Condition 1 alert and the Marine pilots once again took to the air. At 1100 hours the Japs planes were sighted and the Marine pilots attacked. However the Japs came though and this time Camp 2 (the civilian camp) bore the blunt of the attack. The camp was reduced to splinters, valuable and irreplaceable construction equipment and materials destroyed, thirty civilians were killed outright and twenty injured. But this was not the worst of it. As the Marines watched in horror the Japs took aim at the hospital, with its Red Cross’ painted on its roof, many of the wounded, too weak or injured, were unable to get out of their beds and as the hospital began to burn these men were burned alive in their hospital beds.

This time the Marine gunners were better prepared for the Japs and many planes were hit by machine gun and ack-ack fire, with at least one exploding in the air. Marine pilots who saw the damage to the planes from the air expressed doubts that all the Jap planes would make it back to their base. At this point all remaining supplies and the wounded were moved into the underground ammo bunkers.

December 10, the Japs returned at 1045 hours with 18 planes at 18,000 feet. Marine gunners set to work and Captain Henry Elrod, who earned the nickname that day of “Hammering Hank” shot down two Jap planes. The Japs once again fled. That night the Jap invasion fleet was sighted on the southeast horizon off Wilkes Island. The battle was about to begin a new phase.

At 0017 hours on December 11th, the “Triton” fired four torpedoes at a Japanese destroyer some ten miles off the coast of Wake Island; at least one struck the destroyer becoming the first torpedoed attack of the Pacific war. The destroyer was part of a flotilla of fifteen warships from the Japanese Fourth Fleet, the so-called “Wake Invasion Force”. This force was made up of three light cruisers, six destroyers, two rebuilt destroyers made into troop transports, two armed merchantmen and two Japanese submarines. This force was stood off the coast at 12,000 yards.

Devereux, an outstanding artillery tactician, decided on a course of action and conferring with Cunningham explained his simple plan. “It seemed to me that our one slim chance was to draw the enemy close enough for our five inch guns to hit him a crippling blow at the start of the attack” Devereux had decided on the only feasible course of action in the coming fight. He would allow the ships to believe his defenses had been so crippled that the Japanese had nothing to fear, thereby drawing the enemy ships in so close that his gunners would have an easy time of it. In order to do this he ordered his gunners to stand down and not to fire until he gave the command. In the mean time, Admiral Kajioka in command of the Jap invasion force was assured by his intelligence reports that if not all, then most of the Marines coastal batteries had been put out of action. Kajioka, however, decided to land his assault troops well out of range of any guns still in action but this debarkation attempt failed due to high seas. Kajioka was then forced to move the troop transports, full of assault troops, closer to shore and into calmer waters, he ordered his Flag Ship (“Yubari”) to within 8,000 yards of the shore and when he received no fire from the island he started to believe his intelligence reports that the invasions would be a “cake walk” Ordering his gun crews into action he and the two other cruisers and three destroyers opened fire. The ships were now at 6,500 yards. Devereux’s gunners remained silent awaiting the command to fire. The Japanese were now at 4,500 yards and the Marine gunners were starting to get anxious but Marine discipline served the Marines well.

The Jap fleet began off loading the assault troops and then at 0610 hours Devereux gave the order to “Commence Fire”. The “Yubari” coming under fire turned and started to run. Battery A, under the command of Lt. Clarence Barninger, struck the flagship with five rounds and she went dead in the water and started sinking. This would be the first Japanese fighting ship to be sunk in World War II by shore batteries. The batteries continued to put out rounds at a rate of one round every six to ten seconds. Captain Wesley Platt commanding Battery L swung his gun onto the destroyer “Hayate” and fired. ‘Hayate” went up like a roman candle taking all 167 men on her to the bottom. Battery L then hit the transport “Kongo Maru and also hit either the light cruiser “Tatsuta or “Tenryu” as it swung away to flee. Meanwhile Battery B, a five inch gun under Lt. Woodrow Kessler, was having major problems with its gun, however even with the range finder out of action and a plug blowing out on a recoil cylinder, the guns crew hit the destroyer “Yayoi” several times, setting off a raging fire. Then turned their gun on the destroyer “Mutsuki” hitting it also, both ship were burning furiously as they fled. The Marine fighter squadron (VMF-211) sank a Jap submarines bringing the known total to 3 major war ships sunk by the Wake defenders.

Meanwhile Major Paul Putman, commanding officer of VMF-211, put up all 4 of the planes left (one having been salvaged from the first air attack) and attacked the Japanese at 15 miles from Wake. Shuttling back and forth from Wake the F4F-3 fighter planes carrying two - two hundred pound bombs attacked the fleet repeatedly. All four planes were hit repeatedly by machine gun and heavy flak fire from the fleeing invasion fleet, but still the planes made strafing and bomb attacks one after the other until it became impractical to continue their attacks. In all they dropped twenty bombs on the fleet and fired more than 20,000 round from their machine guns. It had been a fine day for the planes and crews of the F4F-3’s, the ground crews making near impossible reloading, refueling and repairs while the planes sat on the runway with engines turning over and without their super human efforts, its likely the planes could not have achieved their outstanding performance against the Japs but by now the little Marine air force was down too two planes and it was just now 1000hours. At about the time the Marine planes and ground crews were rearming and refueling the Jap’s returned in thirty land based planes. Lt. Carl Davidson immediately flew up to meet them and sent at least two to a watery grave. December 11th had turned into a very bad day for the Japs, reliable estimates place Japanese casualties between 700 and 800 men, the vast majority killed, many planes shot down and their huge invasion fleet sent running back to Japan all by a small handful of stout-hearted Marines. All across America in those dark days, there was but one shinning report and that was about Wake Island; the cry heard across America was “Wake Up”.

December 12, Japs again bomb Wake.

December 13, One plane was lost in a landing accident and now the Marines were down to only two planes left. But rescue seemed to be almost at hand as a task force leaves Hawaii to reinforce the Wake Defenders.

On December 14 at 0330 hours the Japs were back and dropped some 6,000 pounds of bombs. The bombs fell on the air field destroying one plane in its revetment. The Marine fighter squadron (VMF-211) is now down to one plane.

On December 20th the last PBY to land on Wake arrives ad departs on December 21 and would be the last PBY to leave Wake, no other planes will land on Wake after this plane leaves. Later that day Wake Island is again bombed by Japs from the carrier group of the new “Wake Invasion Force”. Japanese Petty Officer Noboka Kanai, the Jap bombardier credited with the sinking of the USS Arizona on December 7 is shot down by VMF-211 single remaining plane and he is killed.

December 22 the Japs bomb Wake from the carrier group and from land based planes and the new so-called “Wake Invasion Force” arrives at Wake. This new invasion fleet now includes 2 aircraft carriers, 3 cruisers, 6 destroyers, two destroyers refitted for troop transport (they are renamed Patrol Boat 32 and Patrol Boat 33) and two armed merchantmen, the Japs had developed a new respect for the battle weary Marines. On December 23 the Japs begin an assault on Wake Island at about 0200 hours. Patrol Boats 32 and 33 were ordered to run aground and beach themselves so that the assault troops could get ashore faster. As Patrol Boat 32 is repeatedly hit by a 3 inch gun it sinks before it gets to shore and the assault troops are forced to swim to shore under the Marines heavy machine gun fire. About 350 Japs are killed in the attempt. Patrol Boat 33 run aground on the outer reef and again these troops are forced to wade into the shore under heavy machine gun fire with the loss of about 400 Jap Special Landing Troops (Jap Marines). However the Japs do manage to land in three different places along the islands. The out number Marines beat off three different attacks driving the Japs back to the shore and into the sea, the assault troops are all but destroyed.

Commander Cunningham has been out of communications with the shore defenses and believes that the Marines have been overrun. He is at Command Headquarters at Camp 2; and he does not understand what is going on and that the Marines have driven the enemy from the shores. Unknown to him the defenses are still effective but he sends a message to Pearl Harbor “Enemy on Island Issue in Doubt”. Whereupon Hawaii receiving this message orders the relief task force from Hawaii back towards Hawaii. Cunningham is not aware that the Japanese have been driven back and at this point issues the order to surrender. However the Marines continue to fight on until about 1400 hours when Devereux contacts the final shore battery in person and orders them to surrender as per Cunningham’s orders. It should be noted that Cunningham surrendered only because he believed that the shore batteries had been overrun and he did not desire to see needless destruction of the defenders.

The siege is over, the Marines had held out against an overwhelming Japanese force for 14 days; sending the first invasion force running back to Japan after inflicting heavy losses on them. When the Japanese returned after the first invasion attempt they came with a new respect for the Marines, having increased the size and strength of their “Wake Invasion Force” with two aircraft carriers. The Marines had shot down numerous enemy aircraft, sunk at least 3 major Japanese war ships, and killed or wounded about 2000 Japanese troops.

The Marines were able to make their stand on Wake Island with only 23 days to prepare the island defenses. A feat that would place this battle, in Marine Corps history, as “The Alamo of the Pacific”.

Material for this article was obtained from: The United States Marines, A History; Fourth Edition by Edwin Howard Simmons Brigadier General, USMC (Ret.) and Given Up for Dead by Bill Sloan and was written by Marine Ben Johnson in honor of the Marine's of Wake Island. Mistakes or omissions are those of Marine Johnson.

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Odyssey of the Wake Island Prisoners

The heroic survivors of Wake Island's defense force faced nearly four years as prisoners of the Japanese.

by James W. Wensyel

Early on the morning of December 8, 1941, Wake Island hummed with activity. For months, the wishbone-shaped Pacific atoll of three small islands--Wake, Wilkes and Peale--less than 10 miles long and barely above sea level, had been the site of construction work. Working feverishly to complete an airstrip and defensive fortifications were 449 U.S. Marines of the 1st Defense Battalion, commanded by Major James P.S. Devereux; Marine fighter squadron VMF-211, equipped with 12 Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats, led by Major Paul A. Putnam; 71 Naval personnel; a five-man Army radio detachment, commanded by Captain Henry S. Wilson; and 1,146 American civilian construction workers of the Contractors Pacific Naval Air Bases Company, managed by Dan Teters--all under the overall command of Commander Winfield S. Cunningham.

War with Japan was imminent, and an airstrip on Wake, about 2,000 miles west of Hawaii, would allow American heavy bombers to strike the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands. And, if Guam were lost to the Japanese, Wake would be one of the closest American outposts to the Japanese mainland. Each day work began early and finished late. There were no other diversions on the tiny, barren atoll, and the defenders all realized that war could begin at any time.

Around 7 o'clock that morning an Army radio technician on Wake picked up a radio alert from Hawaii: "Hickam Field has been attacked by Jap dive bombers. This is the real thing." Devereux shouted for his bugler, Alvin J. Waronker, and soon the clear notes of "General Quarters" sounded across the atoll.

At 8:50 the Marines raised the American flag on its staff, something Marines did every morning all over the world, and Waronker began to sound "To the Colors." In the past he had had trouble with the bugle call, never getting it quite right, but this time he did not miss a note, and for several minutes all activity stopped as each man stood at attention and saluted the flag. Devereux recalled: "The flag went up, and every note was proud and clear. It made a man's throat tighten just to hear it." Not long after the flag rising, 36 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M2 Nell bombers crossed Wake in three V-formations. Soon their fragmentation bombs, accompanied by a steady drumming of machine-gun fire, tore the island to pieces. For Wake's defenders, the war had begun.

Japanese land-based aircraft from Roi in the Marshalls, later joined by aircraft from approaching Japanese carriers, pounded the atoll day after day. Before each attack, a dwindling number of American Wildcat fighters rose to meet them. At 3 a.m. on December 11, a Japanese invasion task force commanded by Rear Adm. Sadamichi Kajioka, consisting of a light cruiser, six destroyers, two troop carriers and two armed merchantmen, confidently approached Wake's beaches. Marine gunners let them close to 4,500 yards before their 5-inch naval guns opened fire. Their patience was rewarded with the sinking of one Japanese destroyer and damaging of the cruiser and three additional destroyers. Kajioka retreated, now knowing that Wake would not be taken without a fight.

By the 21st, the last of the Wildcats had been destroyed in dogfights over the atoll. With nothing left to fly, Putnam's aviators were assigned duty as riflemen. Japanese airplanes now roamed over the island at will, pounding American positions in preparation for a renewed attempt to seize the atoll.

In the dark, rain-swept early morning hours of December 23rd, Kajioka returned, his fleet bolstered by four heavy cruisers and various other warships, including landing craft, to assault Wake's beaches with more than 900 well-trained infantrymen of the Special Naval Landing Force. At 2:35 a.m., the first Japanese landing barge ground ashore. Soon a desperate battle was being fought across the atoll between groups of men fighting with rifles, bayonets, grenades and fists. The Americans fought hard, but more Japanese landed and pushed them toward the island's center. Teters' civilian construction workers, many of whom had manned anti-aircraft guns earlier in the fight, now took up rifles and grenades to fight beside the American servicemen.

At dawn, Devereux and Cunningham, separated but talking over the single phone line between the islands, took stock of the situation. The American flag still flew from a battered water tower, the highest point on Wake, but Japanese flags fluttered everywhere else. Reports from the three islands were discouraging; there were simply too many Japanese and too few Americans. Cunningham radioed Pearl Harbor: "Enemy on island. Issue in doubt."

Meanwhile, enemy planes continued bombing and strafing while Japanese ships, beyond the range of the few remaining shore batteries, shelled pockets of American resistance. Devereux, unable to contact his remaining strong points, had no idea what was happening a few yards beyond his own command post. Later he would reflect: "I tried to think of something...we might do to keep going, but there wasn't anything....We could keep on expending lives, but we could not buy anything with them."

Cunningham, as the ranking officer, made the inevitable decision to surrender. The naval commander phoned Devereux to tell him the depressing news. The major gulped, then quietly agreed, "I'll pass the word."

Devereux and Sergeant Donald R. Malleck, who carried a white cloth tied to a mop handle, then walked across the island, ordering surviving Americans to lay down their weapons. Stunned defenders threw away rifle bolts, destroyed delicate range-finding instruments, drained hydraulic fluid from recoil cylinders and then surrendered. Eighty-one Marines, eight sailors and 82 civilian construction workers had been killed or wounded.

The Japanese, however, paid a heavy price for their victory. The fight for Wake Island had cost them two destroyers and one submarine sunk, seven additional ships damaged, 21 aircraft shot down and almost 1,000 men killed.

Enraged by their losses, the Japanese treated their prisoners--military and civilian--brutally. Some were stripped naked, others to their underwear. Most had their hands tied behind their backs with telephone wire, with a second wire looped tightly from their necks to their wrists so that if they lowered their arms they would strangle themselves. Personal valuables were taken and wounds ignored.

The prisoners were then jammed into two suffocating concrete ammunition bunkers. Later they were herded to the airstrip and made to sit, naked, on the blistering hot concrete. When the Japanese set up machine guns nearby, most of the prisoners expected to be executed. That night, bone-chilling winds replaced the heat. The prisoners sat there, still waiting for food, water or medical treatment. The unfortunate prisoners remained sitting on the airstrip for two days. Finally, they were given food, much of it spoiled by the heat, and water, contaminated from being placed in unclean gasoline drums. Piles of assorted clothing seized earlier were placed before them; an individual had little chance of finding his original clothing. Marines found themselves in civilian dress, civilian workers in Marine khaki. Private First Class Carl Stegman, Jr., was dressed in a bloodstained shirt, ill-fitting Marine trousers and a pair of sneakers. Lieutenant John Manning would begin his captivity in a pair of Marine trousers and two oversized, hip-length rubber work boots.

After returning his prisoners' clothes, Kajioka, resplendent in white dress uniform and gleaming samurai sword, read a proclamation to the assembled prisoners. When he concluded, a Japanese interpreter informed the Americans that "the Emperor has graciously presented you with your lives." To which a resolute Marine croaked, "Well, thank the son of a bitch for me!"

During the next 10 days the prisoners were given small amounts of food taken from the remaining stores on the island. They cared for their own wounded with whatever supplies they could obtain.

On January 11, 1942, Kajioka informed the prisoners that they would soon be transferred. This was alarming news because although they had been poorly treated by their captors, both sides had come to some accommodation with one another. Now all that would change.

The next day most of the prisoners were taken to the merchant ship Nitta Maru. Before boarding, however, they were forced to run a gantlet of cursing and spitting Japanese sailors who struck them with clubs, fists and heavy belts. Crowded into the ship's hold, they next confronted a Japanese officer who shouted the rules that would govern them.

Thousands of miles from home, crammed into Nitta Maru's dimly lit hold, with several buckets for toilets, no heat or ventilation and confronted by brutal guards, the prisoners' future was bleak. Even so, they were luckier than the 380 prisoners the Japanese kept on Wake to rebuild the island's defenses. Those unfortunates would slave away until October 1943, when, in retaliation for the strikes on the island by a U.S. Navy task force and fearful of an Allied invasion, the Japanese garrison murdered them all.

It took Nitta Maru six days to reach Yokohama, Japan. During that time the prisoners never left the ships hold and were given only tiny amounts of food. Not understanding Japanese was no excuse for prisoners who failed to instantly obey their captors' shouted orders. Beatings were commonplace. In one instance a Japanese guard thought he saw Pfc Herman Todd talking without permission. The private was ordered to jump up and grab an overhanging beam. As Todd hung suspended above the deck, a Japanese bayonet was thrust at his stomach while a Japanese petty officer beat him with a pick handle.

Once they had reached Yokohama, eight American officers and 12 enlisted men were sent to a prison camp in Japan while the remainder of the men continued on to Shanghai, China. On the voyage to China, Lieutenant Toshio Sato, commander of the Japanese guard detachment, selected five Americans, three seamen and two Marines, at random, blindfolded and bound them, and took them on deck. There, surrounded by 150 Japanese sailors, the Americans were made to kneel. Sato then read to the Americans in Japanese: "You have killed many Japanese soldiers in battle. For what you have done you are now going to be killed...as representatives of American soldiers." The bewildered, frightened Americans understood none of his speech. Perhaps it was just as well, for when Sato finished speaking the five unfortunates were beheaded. Their bodies were then used for bayonet practice before being thrown overboard.

After landing at Woosung the prisoners were forced to march five miles to what the Japanese called the Shanghai War Prisoners Camp--seven gray, ramshackle single-story buildings with no fresh water or plumbing and limited electricity. To deter escape, the camp was surrounded by barbed wire, electric fences and four constantly manned guard towers.

The prisoners were housed in large, open rooms called sections. Within each section 36 men slept shoulder to shoulder on wooden pallets. Although the temperature seldom exceeded 20 degrees, most of the men wore ragged garments and many had no shoes. There was no heat. In the cold, crowded rooms disease spread quickly. Enforcement of prison rules was simple--if any man in a section misbehaved, all were punished.

At Woosung the Japanese commissary routinely issued food for only 300 prisoners. Rations provided only about 500-600 calories per man per day. Each of the Wake prisoners would lose at least 60 pounds during his captivity at the prison.

The Americans would never forget Woosung. The bleak loneliness, bitter cold winds whistling through their flimsy huts, wormy stone-studded rice and dawn-to-dusk work made a lasting impression. The excesses of the Japanese guards only added to their misery. Although a few of them adopted a live-and-let-live attitude toward the Americans, most of the guards were brutal.

The worst of the Japanese at Woosung was Isamu Isihara, a civilian interpreter who enjoyed beating the helpless Americans. Although he was a civilian who had once driven a taxi in Honolulu, Isihara wore a samurai sword and insisted that the prisoners treat him as an officer. Without reason or warning he would fly into a rage, and the prisoners dubbed him the "Beast of the East."

Sergeant Bernard O. Ketner later recalled: "I was severely beaten by Isiehara [sic]. He struck me four times...with a saber....Later...the sentry held a bayonet against my abdomen [while] they beat me with their fists....I was kicked in the testicles twice. Isiehara spit in my face and called me a white American son of a bitch. I was then thrown into the brig...for four days, two of which I was given no food."

When the former British governor general of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, refused to salute him, Isihara tried to behead Young with his sword. Finally Japanese military officers took the sword away. Instead, Isihara resorted to a leather riding crop with a leaded handle that could be used as a blackjack.

Commanding the Woosung prison camp was Colonel Goici Yuse, notorious for his violent and unpredictable temper. He organized the prisoners into 10-man "shooting squads," explaining that if "one man escapes, the other nine die."

Yuse, whom the Marines called "Useless," died in March 1942, and was replaced by Colonel Satoshi Otera, dubbed "Handlebar Hank" by the Marines for his moustache. Otera, more concerned with his personal comforts than with his duties, could also be very harsh. In one instance he discovered a hole in a 100-pound bag of sugar and in retaliation denied all of his prisoner’s food for 72 hours.

The Japanese captors' attitude toward their prisoners was based on Bushido, the code of the samurai warrior. Bushido taught blind loyalty to the emperor and a disregard for death. A soldier should die before surrendering. Those who surrendered to the enemy surrendered everything, even their lives. Thus, the prisoner became the slave of his captor, to be spared or killed as the captor wished. As an interrogator explained to the prisoners, "You gave up everything when you surrendered. You do not even own the air that is in your bodies....You are the slaves of the Japanese."

At Woosung life became a war of wills. Devereux recalled: "The main objective of the Japanese...was to break our spirit, and on our side was a stubborn determination to keep our self-respect whatever else they took from us....[That] struggle was almost as much a part of the war as was the battle we fought on Wake Island."

Colonel William H. Ashurst, commander of the Marine detachment captured at the U.S. Legation at Tientsin; his executive officer, Major Luther A. Brown, and Devereux ensured that their fellow Marines would never succumb to their captors. Ashurst and Brown, using Brown's battered copy of the Army field manual, The Rules for Land Warfare, repeatedly confronted Japanese officers with their violations of the Geneva Convention of 1929, prescribing proper treatment of prisoners of war.

Devereux insisted on the same military discipline found at a stateside Marine base. He also insisted that the Marines exercise every day, despite their weakening bodies. Some hated him for maintaining such practices, but later, when they saw that they were winning the mental battle with their captors, most respected him for leading the way.

Despite the terrible conditions inflicted on them, American prisoners saluted their officers, maintained their chain of command, and walked with pride and dignity. They held their own religious services and, using fellow prisoners as instructors, began a series of classes--including history, English, photography, beekeeping and navigation. They leveled a field for softball and soccer and began a vegetable garden.

Occasionally they scored small victories against their captors that encouraged them to fight on. Put to work repairing roads, the prisoners instead widened or deepened potholes or loose-packed the dirt so the holes would soon get worse. Assigned to clean weapons, they polished the metal until it was too thin to be safely fired, lost parts, hid bearings, loosened bolts or substituted incorrect parts.

Survival was never easy. Soon after their arrival at Woosung, the prisoners began to die of illness, untreated battle wounds and malnutrition. Others died more violently. In June 1942, a young Japanese sentry playfully pulled the trigger of his rifle, and Lonnie Riddle, a civilian construction worker, fell dead at his feet. Two months later Seaman Roy K. Hodgkins was electrocuted while trying to recover a softball from beneath an electrified fence. Later, Marine Corporal Carroll W. Boncher died when he accidentally fell against the same fence.

After nearly a year at Woosung, the Americans were moved to another prison camp at Kiang Wang. By now they were hardened to days with little or no food, brutal guards and backbreaking work, but it all became even worse upon their arrival at Kiang Wang, which Devereux called "the worst hellhole in our captivity."

At Kiang Wang, Japanese engineers ordered the Americans to build what they described as a playground complex for Japanese children. The prisoners were forced to engage in a year-and-a-half's labor to complete the complex, which they called the "Mount Fuji Project." Divided into six-man work teams, the prisoners first cleared an area 600 feet long by 200 feet wide, all by hand. Each team had a few crude spades and perhaps a mattock. They were forced to remove the soil in large woven baskets slung on their backs.

When they had cleared the large area, they began to build an earthen mound 45 feet high, a miniature Mount Fujiyama. As it grew, the prisoners laid a narrow-gauge railroad track up its slope. Then they pushed small mine cars, loaded with dirt and stone, to its summit.

When American officers realized that the "children's playground" really was to be a large rifle range for the Japanese army, they protested, citing Article 31 of the Geneva Convention forbidding prisoners of war to work on military projects. Otera, however, dismissed their complaint with a sharp retort, "Japan did not sign the Geneva Convention."

By the summer of 1943, as a result of their sparse prison diet and 12-hour workdays, the prisoners were living skeletons, plagued by dysentery, tuberculosis, pellagra, influenza and malaria. Month after month of hunger, cold, pain, bone-weary fatigue, loneliness and despair were severely trying the prisoners. Despite the privation, there was only one rule--survive.

Many prisoners remembered that only the occasional delivery of packages of food, medicine and clothing from home, and the personal, and dangerous, intervention of two men saved their lives.

Loved ones heard little from the prisoners but continued sending them packages and letters. Most mail got as far as the prison camp but never reached the intended recipient. Japanese guards pilfered the packages or kept them in supply rooms for months before delivering them to the prisoners. By September 1943, estimated 1,000-1,500 pieces of mail had reached the prison camp, but only 719 of them had been given to the prisoners. Christmas mail arrived on December 23, 1943, but was not delivered until April 12, 1944. Mail that did reach the men, however, kept them apprised of the war's progress. Although Japanese censors read each letter and would not deliver obvious reports of Allied victories, some cleverly disguised messages slipped through. In one case, the prisoners learned of the American victory at Midway Island. "Uncle Joe and Uncle Sam met at the halfway house and had one hell of a fight. Uncle Sam won," read the letter.

Critical to the Americans' survival was the intervention of Eduardo Egle, a Swiss representative of the International Red Cross. Because they saw their Shanghai War Prisoner Camp as a model for the world, the Japanese allowed Egle far greater access to the American prisoners there than other camps. Egle was a very competent, compassionate man. Between 1942 and 1945, he constantly risked Japanese retaliation by insisting upon providing medical and dental help for the prisoners and by supplying them with food and medical packets. Although Japanese guards looted the packets, enough got through to help the Americans survive.

Egle also provided clothing for the ragged prisoners (critical during the bitter-cold winter months), some heating stoves, books, seeds and livestock for the prisoners' farm. Learning that four American doctor-prisoners, aided by a kindly Chinese doctor, had set up a small hospital in the prison compound and were performing surgery with razor blades, closing incisions with common thread or fishing line, and treating dysentery with grains of burnt rice scraped from cooking pots, he provided them with medical instruments and other desperately needed supplies and equipment.

In March 1944, with the prisoners' situation desperate, Egle personally delivered six food parcels and a pair of coveralls, a cap and a pair of boots to each prisoner. For some of the men it was their first change of clothing in two years.

The prisoners also remembered the kindness of an American civilian, "Shanghai Jimmy" James, a Minnesotan who, at the outbreak of the war, owned four American-style restaurants in Shanghai that the Japanese somehow allowed to continue operating for some time. At Christmas 1942, Shanghai Jimmy provided a Christmas tree with trimmings, cigars, cigarettes and a hot turkey dinner for the Woosung prisoners, a tremendous boost to both health and morale. He continued to send food, medicine and other help to the prisoners until he, too, was interned in the prison camp.

In the spring of 1945 the Americans' lot improved. The prisoners received a shipment of food and medical packets, and the Mount Fuji Project finally ended. More important, their captors saw that the war was winding down. The Allies' drive across the Pacific was nearing Japan, and American warplanes had begun bombing Shanghai. The Japanese now knew that the war would soon end, and the Allies would be the victors. The guards now made the occasional friendly gesture to their prisoners.

Japanese frustration at the course of the war and at the prisoners' continuing resistance, however, still made life hazardous and uncertain. The Kiang Wang prison was located between two military airfields. American air strikes against these facilities endangered their countrymen. Sometimes Japanese guards, angered at the bombing, took out their frustration on the prisoners. On January 20, 1945, for example, when prisoners cheered U.S. North American P-51 fighter planes shooting down a Japanese plane, furious guards bayoneted three of them.

While listening to a clandestine radio, the prisoners learned that the Allies were nearing Japan. Then Boeing B-29s, en route to bomb Japanese installations around Shanghai, appeared overhead. On another occasion, American fighter planes buzzed the prison compound, so low that the prisoners reveled in the pilots' waves of encouragement. The Americans were getting too close for the Japanese, who were not about to release the Kiang Wang prisoners. On May 9, 1945, they loaded them aboard a train for a five-day trip to Fengtai, eight miles southwest of Peking. During the long train trip from Kiang Wang to Fengtai the only successful escape occurred. Five Americans--two Marines captured from the legation at Tientsin, two Wake Island Marines and one aviator--jumped from the prison train. Finally found by Chinese Communist troops, they walked for 42 days through more than 700 miles of occupied China before reaching friendly territory and freedom.

The Fengtai prison, a large brick warehouse surrounded by a moat, barbed wire and guard towers, held more than 1,000 prisoners in an area 200 yards long by 146 yards wide. Prisoners slept on Fengtai's hard concrete floor and used a single spigot for water.

Fortunately, the Americans' stay in Fengtai was brief. On June 19, they again were crowded into boxcars for another hard ride, this one to Pusan, Korea, where they were held in shacks, stables and warehouses until a ship could be found to carry them across the Tsushima Strait to Japan.

At dusk on June 28, the prisoners boarded a small coastal steamer for the hazardous 12-hour trip across the strait to Shimonoseki, on the southwestern tip of Honshu. At Shimonoseki they were crowded into another train.

Seeing the mass destruction American bombers were wreaking everywhere on the Japanese homeland while riding on the train, one Marine exclaimed, "I never saw such destruction in all my life." They were in Osaka during a B-29 raid and, while changing trains in Tokyo, narrowly escaped death or injury when an angry civilian mob attacked them as their Japanese guards looked the other way.

At Osaka some of the prisoners were diverted to a prison camp at Sendai. Most of them, however, continued to the northern tip of Honshu, where they were ferried across narrow Tsugaru Strait to Hakodate, site of the group's final prison.

Hakodate's guards were brutal. A Marine recalled: "The Japanese required every prisoner to stand up and bow or salute every member of the guard whenever they passed by....If the prisoner was...slow...the guards beat him....Prisoners were beaten because they could not understand the Japanese language...."

Most of the prisoners worked 12-hour shifts in a coal mine; others worked in a lumberyard. Some Marine prisoners labored in an iron mine seven days a week, with a daily ration of three small bowls of rice and soybeans or a small teacup of soup made from weeds. Civilian foremen beat prisoners to encourage better production or, it seemed to the Americans, for the fun of it. In one instance, three Japanese civilians were beating Marine Sergeant Bernard H. Manning when Pfc Norman H. Kaz interfered. Japanese guards then beat Kaz senseless before tying him to a pit timber at the bottom of the mine shaft. Then, for two weeks he was beaten every day, emerging with a pair of black eyes, a broken nose and several teeth knocked out.

After they had been at Hakodate for several weeks, however, the Americans noticed that the attitudes of their guards and civilian supervisors changed. The brutal interrogations and beatings ended, prisoners were fed a bit better, and their captors even began to smile cordially at them. One day a Japanese guard explained to one of the prisoners, "Very soon we will all be friends again."

In late July 1945, Japanese officers treated American officers to a formal dinner at which they offered many toasts to their guests, bowed often and professed friendship with the Americans. Finally, a senior Japanese officer stood and proposed a toast to "everlasting friendship between America and Japan." The other Japanese smiled, nodded and waited for an appropriate response from the Marines.

The American officers sat quietly for a long moment, the gaunt, haggard men looking uncertainly at each other. Then, Major Luther A. Brown, for so long a thorn in his captors' side, stood, looked about and said matter-of-factly, "If you behave yourselves, you'll get fair treatment."

There were other encouraging signs. On August 15 a mine official suggested that Leonard Mettscher work in another part of the mine because it would be "less dangerous there." And on the same day, the prisoners' work ended early, an unprecedented gesture. From scraps of a Japanese newspaper they also learned that the Soviet Union had entered the war, attacking Japanese-held Manchuria.

The next day the prisoners woke to find their prison unguarded. Fearful of reprisals by local civilians, the Americans stayed inside the camp. Later that day, Japanese boy-soldiers, so small that the tips of their bayonets stood high above their heads, appeared at the camp's perimeter, apparently more intent on protecting the prisoners from civilian assault than in preventing their escape. That night the prisoners' rations were increased.

On the 17th they learned about the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On the 23rd several Marines scaled the prison's fence and ventured around the nearby village. Seeing them, young Japanese guards begged them to return to the safety of the camp. The following morning, a Japanese army colonel assembled the prisoners to announce that Japan had surrendered to prevent further bloodshed.

The prisoners now decided to wait for the U.S. Army's arrival rather than wander around the countryside of a defeated nation. On August 28 and 30, B-29s parachute-dropped 55-gallon drums crammed with food, medicine and clothing to the war-weary prisoners, a sure sign that their rescue was near. Many of the men, so long deprived of adequate food, became sick from the feast that followed.

On September 1, Hakodate's prisoners used colorful cargo chutes to fashion an American flag and, using a Japanese bugle, for the first time in three years, nine months and 21 days Marines sounded "To the Colors" as they hoisted their makeshift flag above the prison camp. Cautiously, more adventuresome Americans now began to explore the area outside their prison. On September 9, during the last airdrop of clothing and provisions, a parachute bearing a fuel drum packed with supplies malfunctioned, killing a Marine and two Army prisoners. They were the last Wake Island prisoner casualties of the war.

Several days after these final tragic deaths, troopers from the 1st Cavalry Division reached Hakodate. For the prisoners there the long war was at last over.

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BATTERY LOG -- D BATTERY, 1st DEFENSE BATTALION

A TRUE COPY FROM THE EFFECTS OF PFC SOLON JOHNSON, USMC ” The entire log of faded, single-space typescript is on two 8" x 10.5"sheets of fragile, acidified paper. All four sides are covered with type, with virtually no margins. The lines are run-on from beginning to end, with minimal spacing and no spaces between dated entries, as though the paper itself were a scarce commodity. Whether the log was first recorded on Wake Island as the events occurred, or first written down at some later date from memory, is unknown.

In the transcript which follows, individual entries are separated by spaces to facilitate ease of reading; errors in spelling, grammar, etc., are mostly left intact.

BATTERY LOG -- D BATTERY, 1st DEFENSE BATTALION

A TRUE COPY FROM THE EFFECTS OF PFC SOLON JOHNSON, USMC

Monday, 8 December.

Report made by Capt. B. d. Godbold, Commanding "D" Battery F.D.R. 0700 two officers, Capt. Godbold, F.B.D. and Lt. Grealy with enlisted men moved to the battery position by truck as ordered. In addition to his duties as battery commander, Capt. Godbold acted as Peale Island Strong Point Commander. 0730 Battery reported manned and ready, to Island Commander, C.P. Director, height finder, power plant. 3 guns manned, 4 gun directors, power plants, and 02 sandbagged prior to occupation of position. Heightfinder position was not sandbagged and there were no shelters for personnel, except protection of emplacements, 75 rounds of ammunition were in the battery magazine (located 75 yards from the battery and underground). 0900. 60 rounds of ammunition at guns 1, 2 and 4, were removed from cardboard containers and made ready for firing.

1000. Executive Officer ordered Battery Commander to keep one gun, director, height finder and power plant manned at all times. Remainder of personnel to work improving position.

1015. Crew of gun 4 left battery position with tractor and trailer to fill sandbags near bridge connecting Peal and Wake Islands.

1140. Noon meal arrived and was served in the road opposite gun four. Crew of gun 1 and 4, of director and Heightfinder ordered to obtain their food, returning to gun and posts immediately.

1150. While a portion of the above mentioned personnel were still on the road, 27 Japanese Bombers at an altitude of approximately 1500 ft. were observed over the air field in the direction of camp 3. Battery engaged the planes, and guns 1 and 2 fired a total of 40 rounds. No bombs fell near the battery position, and there were not casualties to the battery personnel or material.. No enemies were observed to be hit by the battery. It was difficult to deliver effective fire due to the low altitude of the planes. In addition visibility was very poor due to light rain falling during the raid. Sandbag emplacements around guns 1 and 2 gave in during firing. This was caused by failure to fire guns prior to laying the sandbags and because of deterioration of the bags. The telephone line to the position 2 was shot out during the raid and 02 personnel returned to the position at 1215. Due to the shortage of personnel at the battery and because of the difficulty of maintaining communication, the 02 station was secured. In the afternoon caved in positions were repaired and the director emplacement was improved. Gas masks, hand grenades, .30 cal. ammunition and .45 cal. ammunition were delivered to the battery position.

1600 18 men reported to the battery position for duty. 16 were assigned to gun 3 and under Sgt. Bowsher as chief of section the remaining two men were assigned to Battery Hdqs. as lookouts. A station wagon was turned over to the battery by the contractors and it proved to be invaluable during the several days of battle.

1900 set night watch consisting of

--- (a) Combination talker and lookout on each gun and at director and HF . --- (b) NCO in charge of lookouts posted at director

--- (c) In addition to their organization lookouts, the 5" battery was ordered to post a sentry on patrol on Toke Point

. --- (d) The 4 .50 cal. MG., were ordered to keep one man on watch at each gun at all times.

2000 Detail of 4 men returned to camp 1 for battery bedding.

Tuesday, 9 Dec.

0500 Set condition 1 which consisted of
--- (a) All phones manned.
--- (b) All personnel in emplacements.
--- (c) LOOKOUT AT EACH GUN AND AT DIRECTOR AND LOOKOUT AT HEIGHTFINDER.

0700 Set condition 2 which consisted of
--- (a) All phones manned,
--- (b) All personnel in emplacements,
--- (c) 3 lookouts one each of 2 guns and at director, and one lookout at Heightfinder.

0900 Commenced building sandbag emplacements for height finder and improving all guns and directors emplacements. Cor. Marvin left battery position with a tractor and trailer to haul sandbags filled by civilians.

1145 27 Japanese bombers raided island from the east at an altitude of 13,000 ft. Guns 1 and 2 and 4 fired on the enemy and 2 planes left the island smoking. One of the damaged planes was observed by the height finder to explode and crash into the ocean some distance from the island. Gun 3 did not fire due to a short firing pin. 100 rds. were fired by the battery, no bombs fell into the battery area.

1215 Corp. Marvin returned to the battery position with a slight wound to his head, after treatment by corpsmen he returned to his gun station.

1245. Set condition 2, in the afternoon continued work improving gun and director emplacements.

1930. With the assistance of .50 cal. MG, personnel and 5" personnel we commenced moving food from Marine storeroom to distribute it over island.

2400. Completed hauling food or dispersing food from storeroom.

Wed. 10 Dec.

0500 Set condition 1.

0700 Set condition 2.

1045 Island raided by 2 formations of Japanese bombers from the east at an altitude of 1800 ft. Just as the planes were sighted power plant went out of control. One formation of 9 planes bombed battery position, bombs fell on reef off Toke Point. Formation flew to north circled, again coming over battery. Only 8 planes participated in the second run. 1 plane believed shot down as it was observed smoking after first run. On second run, the battery again fired by local control, the bombs falling in lagoon near battery. During the second attack, the lanyard on gun 3 broke. But gun captain hastily replaced it with new lanyard to resume firing. No casualties to personnel, 275 round were fired by battery.

1115 Power plant temporarily repaired.

1145 Set condition 2 during PH, continued improving emplacements. Heightfinder emplacements completed. Power plant permanently repaired. Installing a small diesel power plant from Camp 2. .

1245 Set condition 2 in afternoon.

1715 900 rds. of 3" AA ammunition and 600 rds. of 3" armor piercing ammunition delivered to battery. AA ammunition placed in battery magazine and AP ammunition dispensed in small dumps near battery positions.

1900 Set regular night watches

Thursday 11 December

0400 Received information that enemy ships were sighted near island

0500 Japanese warships begin shelling island. No retaliation by battery.

0600 "B" Battery opened fire on enemy destroyer off Kuku point. First remaining under well camouflaged positions until enemy drew very close. Fire directed toward our battery. No material or personnel casualties.

0945 18 Jap bombers raided island northeast at an altitude of 18,300 ft. Battery engaged planes and fired 125 rounds. 3 planes to lee observed smoking, 1 plane reported to have crashed in ocean of Wilkes. Some bombs falling near battery positions and buildings on Peal Is. There were no casualties to battery (material or personnel).

1400 Ordered to move battery to east end of Peal Isl. during coming night

1500 Battery Comdr. and firing battery officer reconnoitered over battery positions. More substantial naturalized position to camouflage was determined.

1715 Red flare observed about 200 yds. in the air, some 4000 yds. northeast. This was reported to Is. CP. during the intervals of about 10 minutes. Two more flares were observed in the same locality.

1745 Secured all battery watches, commenced moving battery to new emplacements. Due to shortage of new sandbags, cement bags and ammunition boxes, fi11ed with sand were used to construct emplacements, thanks to civilian personne1.

Friday 12 Dec.

0445 Completed the new establishment of new positions.

0500 Is. raided by one lap patrol plane. No bombs fell near battery position. No retaliation as plane was no observed.

0700 Set condition 2. Emplacements were improved and camouflaged.

1700 Set condition 1.

1900 Set regular night watches. Two additional posts were established along the beach 400 yds toward Toki Point, the other stationed at Peale Island end of bridge. Continued during the night, improvements on emplacements

Saturday, 13 December

0500 Set condition 1. Replaced natural camouflage materials.

0700 Set condition 2. Improved emplacements during the day

1700 Set condition 1.

1900 Set regular night watches improving emplacements by camouflaged means, during early part of evening.

Sunday, 14 December

0345 One enemy patrol bomber attacked island. No bombs dropped near battery. We did not fire.

0500 Set condition 2.

1700 Set condition 1

1900 Set regular night watches. Work was commenced on a large dugout for all battery personnel near the new hospital building. Improve shelters at guns, especially at gun 2.

Monday, 15 December

Set condition 1. Replaced natural camouflage materials.

0700 Set condition 2. Gun shelters completed during the day. Heightfinder shelters commenced.

1700 Set condition 1.

1730 Battery lookouts reported one lone plane visible in low clouds in east. A short time later reported to CP. Plane did not reappear.

1800 4 enemy patrol planes attacked island. Battery position machine gunned. Heavy ca1. bombs dropped on reef near battery. No casualties to battery material or personne1. Battery did not fire.

1900 Set regular night watches. Continued work on large shelters during night.

Tuesday, 16 December,

0550 Set condition 1. Replaced natural camouflages.

0700 Set condition 2. Continued work on large battery dugout during the day. Heightfinder shelter completed.

1300 Friendly plane reported enemy bomber approaching island from the east at 18,000 ft. Enemy planes in 2 formations of 9 planes each. Batlery engaged planes and fired 95 rounds. Several planes were observed smoking as they continued on. 1 enemy plane reported having crashed in ocean some distance out. Bombs dropped in lagoon near battery. No casualties to entire battery.

1415 Set condition 2.

1700 Set condition 1.

1800 Island raided by enemy patrol planes, heavy ca1. bombs dropped across road from battery. Battery positions heavily machine gunned. Battery did not fire. No casualties to personnel or materia1.

1900 Set regular watches. Battery dugout completed during the night. Dugout for director personnel commenced. 2 go battery from Marine garage, Schneider and LePore.

Wednesday, 17 December

0500 Set condition 1. Natural camouflage material replaced.

0700 Set condition 2. Dugout for director personnel completed.

1330 Lone enemy plane reported flying high over island. Battery unable to locate plane.

1415 Set condition 2.

0100 Set condition 1.

1900 Set regular night watches. Director dugout completed during night.

Thursday, 18 December,

0500 Set condition 1. Replaced natural camouflaged materials.

0700 Set condition 2.

1130 27 enemy bombers attacked island from the northeast. The battery engaged the planes at 18,000 ft. firing 70 rounds. 1 plane left the island smoking. Bombs fell near the battery but there were no personnel or material casualties.

1215 Set condition 2.

1700 Set condition 1.

1900 Set regular night watches.

Friday, 19 December,

Planes attacked the island from the northwest. Gun Capt. gun 2 reported them. Battery engaged them at 18,600 ft., firing total of 70 rounds. 1 plane left the island smoking. One enemy aviator observed to parachute from plane too far out to see and to be rescued off Peacock. No bombs fell on battery or casualties to personnel or material.

1214 Set condition 2.

1700 Set condition 2.

1900 Set regular night watches. During the night work on a second large dugout shelter was commenced 50 yds. from the completed one.

Saturday, 20 December.

0500 Set condition 1. Replace natural camouflage material.

0700 Set condition 2.

1600 One PBY arrived Midway Island.

1700 Set condition 1.

1900 Set regular night watches. Work on second large dugout continued.

Sunday, 21 December.

0500 Set condition 1. Replaced natural camouflage material.

0700 Set condition 2. One plane took off for Midway Island.

0900 Attacked by carrier base planes. Battery position dive bombed and heavily machine gunned. Battery did not fire due to low visibility, no casualties.

Monday, 22 December.

0930 Battery personnel ordered to large dugout. Remained there one hour.

1045 Set condition 1. Work not resumed on account of anticipation of carrier ships near, probably escorted by ships of fighter ability.

0145 Island again attacked by 2 formations of lap. bombers coming from due east, first drawing our fire by bombing our field and "E" Battery so that second formation could concentrate their bomb sighting on our position. Our battery opened fire. Failed to see second formation until they had released their bombs. The director pit was hit. Totally destroying director. One casualty and 3 injured.

0200 Battery personnel ordered to keep under cover except for 2 lookouts.

0430 1 casualty buried. Gun Capts. ordered to report to "E" Battery. Gun 2 moved to "E" Battery. Civilians were started on digging a dugout. Helping also with sandbag emplacements.

0500 Gun 2 in position, ready to fire. Cable not connected until 0545.

Tuesday, 23 December.

0700 Set condition 1.

1145 Island attacked by bombers; took cover in dugout which was not completed. Bombs fell close in lagoon. There were no casualties to personnel or materials. 0245 Island attacked by ships for landing party. Fired several rounds toward enemy troops. Too dark for observation of results. Surrender of island

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