Destiny's Landfall: A History of Guam, Revised Edition

CHAPTER 11. Return of the Americans: 1944–1945

170 Liberation as Apocalypse The American plan for the assault on Guam in 1944 resembled the Japanese invasion of the island in 1941 but differed in sheer massiveness and in the precise beaches where landings took place. One major U.S. force—the Third Marine Division under Major General Allen H. Turnage—would land northeast of Apra Harbor at Asan. The second major force—the First Provisional Marine Brigade led by Brigadier General Lemuel C. Shepherd and, as a reserve, the Seventy-seventh U.S. Army Infantry (“Statue of Liberty”) Division under Major General Andrew D. Bruce—would land south of Apra Harbor at Agat, just as the Japanese had done. Together, the two U.S. forces made up the III Amphibious Corps, which once ashore would come under Major General Roy S. Geiger of the U.S. Marine Corps. Geiger—unlike some Marine Corps commanders —was a quiet man who worked smoothly with his army and navy compatriots. After the beachheads were established, the two forces were to converge to pinch off Apra Harbor behind a Force Beachhead Line, or FBL. With the harbor and Orote airstrip in American hands, the combined army and marine forces would push out to occupy the rest of the island. The American commanders knew the Japanese order of battle and unit strengths on Guam from documents of the Thirty-first Japanese Army headquarters captured on Saipan. The Japanese commanders , in contrast, did not know what they faced on the American side. The main opposing ground units were as outlined in Table 1. The Americans thus had a three-to-one superiority in numbers. The Japanese actually numbered about 20,800, but over 3,000 of these were in support or construction battalions, not combat units. Table 1: Order of Battle on Guam, 1944 Americans Third Marine Division 20,328 Seventy-seventh Infantry Division 17,958 First Provisional Marine Brigade 9,886 III Amphibious Corps units 6,719 Total 54,891 Japanese Army troops 11,500 Fifty-fourth Keibitai 2,300 Naval ground forces 2,700 Naval air units 2,000 Total 18,500 Sources: Crowl (1960, 329); Lodge (1954, 196–197). CHAPTER 11 Return of the Americans 1944–1945 172 Chapter 11 Furthermore, the total of effective Japanese troops declined significantly by W-Day as hundreds of men died or suffered wounds in the intensive preinvasion bombardment by the Americans since April. From April until the invasion, the Japanese cremated their dead every day, and the stench pervaded the island. The W-Day landings were preceded by U.S. Navy underwater demolition teams (UDTs), which blew up reef and lagoon obstacles off the Agat and Asan beaches. On July 20, the UDTs reported “the assault beaches cleared of obstructions.” The next morning , the final bombardment began before dawn at the military time of 0530 hours. This crescendo of firepower lasted for three deadly hours. A Japanese defender, machine-gunner Masashi Ito, described the effect: “The din robbed us totally of all sense of hearing . It wasn’t the same as a boom or a roar that splits the ears: it was more like being imprisoned inside a huge metal drum that was incessantly and insufferably being beaten with a thousand iron hammers.” Pinned inside their caves and bunkers, the Japanese at first could not see the enormous U.S. fleet of eleven battleships, twenty-four aircraft carriers, and 390 other ships that massed off Guam’s western shore. At 0806 hours, the first U.S. armored landing craft of the Third Marine Division crossed the line of departure 1,000 yards offshore of Asan. The landing craft were manned by men of the U.S. Coast Guard. At 0828, the first armored amphibious vehicles (LTVs) crunched up on Asan Beach, which was divided into four segments—Blue, Green, and Red 1 and 2—between Asan and Adelup points. The Ninth Marine Regiment hit Blue Beach on the right flank nearest Asan Point, the Twenty-first Regiment splashed ashore on Green Beach in the center, and the Third landed at Red 1 and 2 near Adelup on the left flank. The air and ship bombardment shifted inland as the U.S. Marines charged over the beaches. Five miles to the south, the Twenty-second Marine Regimental Combat Team (RCT) of the First Brigade landed at Agat on Yellow Beaches 1 and 2 north of Gaan Point at 0832 hours, as the Fourth...