Blood Is Thicker Than Water: Liberating Guam *8

BUNDSCHU RIDGE A STRUGGLE

In Asan from July 22 to 24, the 3rd Marines struggled to gain Bundschu Ridge on the east.

"This ridge was named on board ship for Capt. Geary R. Bundschu, Company A commander, whose unit was as signed the mission of taking this terrain feature. Ironically, it was the fighting on this ridge that took his life." ... Maj. O.R. Lodge, Recapture of Guam

The Marines were pinned in a gully. Japanese mortar and machine gun fire hit the Marines as they attempted to gain a foothold of the ridge. After bitter and intense fighting, the Marines suffered 615 casualties before Bundschu Ridge was taken.

In the center the 21st Marines had achieved, also after rough fighting, the first ridgeline inland. On the west, the 9th Marines had moved southwest along the coast and taken Piti and Cabras Island by a minor amphibious assault.


OROTE PENINSULA CAPTURED

At the Agat beachhead, patrols from the 9th Marines moving south from Piti briefly contacted the 22nd Marines near Atantano. The 4th Marines in the west and the 22nd Marines on the east attacked Orote Peninsula on 26 July after fighting off determined Japanese soldiers the night before.


"Thousands of saki-crazed Japanese dashed from the mangroves in front of 3rd Battalion, 22nd Marines. Brandishing baseball bats, sticks, broken bottles, and pitch-forks, along with the normal complement of infantry weapons, the Japanese soldiers surged forward frantically, bent on an honorable death. The Marine commanders called in blocking fire to stop the advancing swarm. The area was saturated by 37mm guns, 81mm mortars, machine guns, rifles, and grenades. Between midnight and two in the morning, 26,000 shells blanketed the mangrove swamp area." ... Maj. O.R. Lodge, Recapture of Guam


"He was an extra-small Japanese soldier. His uniform hung limp like a scarecrow's trappings. A marine on Orote Peninsula asked him why he surrendered. 'My commanding officer told us to fight to the last man,' the prisoner answered. 'Well?' queried the marine. A look of wounded innocence spread over the Jap's face as he declared, 'I was the last man!'" ... MTSgt Murray Marder, Semper Fidelis


The 22nd Marines were then delayed in a mangrove swamp. However, by the 28th of July the 22nd Marines had reached the old Marine Barracks at Sumay. Joined by tanks of the Army's 706th Tank Battalion, the Marines finally secured all of Orote Peninsula by the end of 29 July.


In a ceremony, at the old Marine Barracks, for the first time in two and one-half years the American flag was officially raised in Guam. Gen. Shepherd's words followed a "color guard" salute: "On this hallowed ground, you officers and men of the First Marine Brigade have avenged the loss of four comrades who were overcome by a numerically superior enemy three days after Pearl Harbor. Under our flag this island again stands ready to fulfill its destiny as an American fortress in the Pacific."

BATTLE FOR FONTE PLATEAU

On 24 July, the Marines still faced the Japanese in the hills above Asan. While the 9th Marines had advanced rapidly beyond Piti, the 21st Marines in the center had not reached Mount Tenjo Road although the 3rd Marines to the east had seized a section of the road.

However, the Japanese had planned and executed a massive counterattack during the night of 25-26 July. On the west, seven attacks were launched by the 10th Independent Mixed Regiment against the 9th Marines resulting in 950 Japanese dead. In the center, the 18th Infantry Regiment attacked the 21st Marines and reached rear areas in hand-to-hand combat.

The 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines were battered...The Japanese attacked with all they had, cause they knew unless they broke through, that the island, for all intents and purposes, would be lost, unless they could get down to our beach...and disrupt our supplies, our communications, possibly wreck our artillery, that they were done for...They got into our Division hospital, they got into our artillery..." ... Lt. John J. "Jack" Eddy, 9th Marine Regiment

In the book Liberation - 1944 by Don Farrell, a Japanese survivor recalled that night: "We had been thinking that the Japanese might win through a night counterattack ... but when the star shells came over one after the other we could only use our men as human bullets and there were many useless casualties and no chance of success."

On the east, the 48th Independent mixed Brigade hit the 3d Marines. By daylight the Japanese attack had been repulsed and any surviving Japanese were fleeing into the hills. The Japanese lost 3,500 during the night attacks. The 3rd Marine Division suffered 645 wounded, 166 killed and 34 missing.

"It was estimated that it was no longer possible to expel the American forces from the island after the results of the general counterattack on the night of 25 July were collected in the morning to about noon of the 26th. After this it was decided that the sole purpose of combat would be to inflict losses on the American forces in the interior of the island." ... Lt. Col. Takeda, Operations Officer Japanese 29th Division.

Though defeated in the counterattack, the Japanese still held the high ridge of Fonte, and it took three additional days for the 3d and 9th Marines to clear out the Japanese including a last group of Japanese in a depression on top of Fonte Plateau on 29 July.

Japanese General Takashina was killed by Marines as he attempted to evacuate his troops from Fonte on the 28th.

Source

to be continued...