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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. 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 captive 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 or the vicious and sadistic and brutal Japanese soldiers and their officer's. 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. BCJ Wake Island; The Alamo of the Pacific By Benjamin C. Johnson, January 05, 1998 Much as 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. Lt. Colonel Earl H. (“Pete”) Ellis had written Operation Plan 712 in 1921. This was known as “Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia” In these 50,000 words 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 affect 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’ without 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 relationship 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, 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 began. Civilian contractors (called the Pioneer Party) started 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 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) At this point 173 enlisted men and 5 officers were dispatched to Wake Island and arrived August 19th. The first Marines to be stationed at Wake Island (939 enlisted and 43 officers were the number of personnel supposed to go, but there were not any to send) were dispatched. These men 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), as well as 3’ inch anti-aircraft guns and 5’ coastal guns. The Marines had to build emplacements in the coral and volcanic rock of the island, which defied the picks and shovels 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 shoreline. 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 station and the Naval Air Base (Camp 2), of which there were no naval personal to man. 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 shovels. 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’s who stopped on their way to the Philippines. This, of course, was done by hand as there was no means of doing the refueling any other way. Unknown to the United States the Japanese had already made plans to attack, 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” 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’s 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 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. He received the 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 thought-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. Then it was over, the Japs having destroyed the tent area where the Marines lived and killing every man their guns could find. 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 crew was either dead or wounded. The Marines Base (Camp 1) including their mess hall was destroyed. Only the underground ammo bunkers remained. The Pan-Am area fared 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. Devereux immediately set about to brings the situation under control. The construction foreman, Nathan Dan Teters, placed his construction crews numbering about 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 and wanted to fight alongside the Marines. One 3-inch gun had no crew but was quickly manned by the civilians under Marine command. All together between 300 and 400 hundred civilians chose 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 whatever duties they were called upon. December 9 dawned clear with general quarters 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 through and this time Camp 2 (the civilian camp) bore the blunt of the attack. The camp was reduced to splinters, construction equipment and materials destroyed. Thirty civilians were killed outright and twenty injured. But this was not the worst of it. The Marines watched in horror as the Japs took aim at the hospital, with its Red Cross atop it. 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 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. Remaining supplies and wounded moved into 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 fled. But, later that night, Japanese ships were 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 on 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, and two rebuilt destroyers made into troop transports and two armed merchantmen and two Japanese submarines. This force was standing off the coast at 12,000 yards. Devereux, an outstanding artillery tactician, decided on a course of action. Conferring with Cunningham, Devereux 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 decided on a 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 meantime, Admiral Kajioka in command of the force was assured by intelligence reports that if not all, then most of the Marines coastal batteries had been put out of action. Kajioka decided to land his assault troops well out of range of any guns still in action. However, the debarkation attempt failed due to high seas. Kajioka seeing that the only way to get the assault troops ashore was to move up and into calmer waters, he ordered his 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 getting anxious. The Japanese began offloading the assault troops and at 0610 hours Devereux ordered “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 sinking. This would be the first Japanese fighting ship to be sunk in World War II. The shore 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 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. 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 turning their gun on the destroyer “Mutsuki hitting it also, both ships burned as they fled. The Marine fighter squadron (VMF-211) sank a Jap submarine bringing the 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 fire and heavy flak. But still the planes made strafing and bomb attacks one after the other. In all they dropped twenty bombs on the fleet and fired more than 20,000 round from their machine guns. A fine day for the F4F-3’s. But by now the air force was down to two planes and it was just now 1000hours. At about that time the Japanese returned in thirty planes. Lt. Carl Davidson flew up to meet them and sent at least two to a watery grave. December 11th was a bad day for the Japs as reliable estimates place Japanese casualties between 700 and 800 men, the vast majority killed. 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, Lost one plane in landing accident now only two left. A task force leaves Hawaii to reinforce Wake. But on December 14 at 0330 hours the Japs were back and dropped some 6,000 pounds of bombs. The bombs fell on the airfield destroying one plane in its revetment. The Marine fighter squadron (VMF-211) is now down to one plane. December 20th The last PBY to land on Wake arrives. December 21 last PBY leaves wake, no other planes will land on Wake after this plane leaves. Wake Island Bombed again by Japs from carrier group “Wake Invasion Force”. Japanese Petty Officer Noboka Kanai, the bombardier to sink the Arizona on December 7 is shot down by VMF-211 squadron and killed. December 22 Japs bomb Wake from the Carrier group and from land-based planes. The so-called “Wake Invasion Force” arrives at Wake and 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. December 23 Japs begin assault on Wake at about 0200 hours. Patrol Boats 32 and 33 are to run aground and beach themselves so that the assault troops can get ashore faster. Patrol Boat 32 repeatedly hit by a 3-inch gun and sinks before it gets to shore, assault troops are forced to swim to shore under the Marines heavy machine gun fire and 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 Japs. However, the Japs manage to land in three different places. The Marines beat off three different attacks and drive the Japs back to the shore. The assault troops are all but destroyed. Commander Cunningham is out of communications with the shore defenses and believes that the Marines have been overrun. He is at Command Headquarters at Camp 2; he does not understand what is going on. He sends a message to Pearl Harbor “Enemy on Island Issue in Doubt”. Upon receiving this message, the relief task force from Hawaii is ordered back to Hawaii. Cunningham not aware that the Japanese have been driven back 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 his command. 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. By Marine Ben Johnson in honor of the Marines of Wake Island. Mistakes or omissions are those of Marine Johnson.