Chapter 77 most treacherous terrain

In July 1944, the Pacific Fleet Marine Command was established, and the US Marine Corps finally had an independent supreme command organization.Under the command of the Marine War Command, the Third Amphibious Army (formerly the First Amphibious Army) and the Fifth Amphibious Army were under the jurisdiction. Send troops to Guam. According to the scheduled plan, the third amphibious army will assault Guam on the third day after landing on Saipan.The sudden appearance of Ozawa's troops made Spruance change his decision not to attack Guam for the time being. The original plan had to be postponed, and the delay lasted for several weeks.The 3rd Marine Division and the Provisional 1st Marine Brigade of the 3rd Amphibious Army had to sit in an overcrowded transport ship, circling aimlessly in the waters near Guam for a long time.

Almost everyone gets prickly heat from the tropical sun.In order to improve the living conditions of the Marine Corps, the transport fleet had to anchor on some islands halfway, so as to send officers and soldiers to the islands in batches, so that they could change their environment and breathe fresh air. The idea is good, but those islands are too small, and only a few people can go ashore at a time. After going ashore, besides watching the sea, watching people is also super boring! The morale of the marines fell to the lowest point, but before the official battle, their morale rose again-just being able to land and fight was enough to lift the spirits of the boys.

Unlike Saipan and Tinian Island, the landing on Guam was for the Americans to regain their lost territory, but until the Pacific War, the United States did not attach much importance to this island, which led to a serious shortage of troops in the hands of Major General Geiger, the commander of the Third Amphibious Army. local information. Aerial photography is an important means to make up for this shortcoming, however, due to the obstruction of clouds, it is not ideal to implement.When there was no good solution, the Japanese helped—the Guam defenders were restrained by Saito of Saipan. Among the large number of Japanese documents seized by the US military from Saipan, such as Saito’s combat orders on Guam, The defense deployment of the Guam defenders, etc. are all available.

The postponement of the plan has the advantage of delaying, not only the information has been obtained, but also the artillery support is more sufficient.The commander of the support fleet said to Geiger, "My goal is to get the troops ashore and stand, so just tell me what we need to do to make that happen, and we'll do it." What Geiger needed him to do was, of course, clear all obstacles to landing.The shelling of the support fleet lasted for nearly two weeks. In terms of total time, it surpassed Tinian Island and was the longest shelling time during the entire Pacific War.The shells that fell on Guam reached saturation, and even wherever the Japanese soldiers went, the shells followed.Before the official landing of the US military, all the Japanese artillery positions and most of the heavy artillery in the exposed areas of the island had been destroyed.

Another obstacle comes from underwater.Three underwater demolition teams placed explosives for three consecutive nights, blowing up the wooden frames and cable cages near the landing beach. They were filled with either reefs or cement. If they were left underwater, it would be difficult for any landing craft or crawler vehicles to pass through. In the early morning of July 21, 1944, the Third Marine Division rushed to Asan Beach in the north of Guam. They saw the slogan "Welcome Marines" left by the underwater demolition team at a glance. The reef at Asang Beach is very wide, and only tracked vehicles can pass quickly. Therefore, the third marine division mainly uses tracked vehicles to pick up and drop off the landing troops. Some tracked vehicles even push the tank landing craft to the reef, and then let the tanks go ashore by themselves.

When it landed on the beach, the resistance encountered by the Third Marine Division was almost negligible. Just after noon, more than 20,000 officers and soldiers, weapons and tanks of the three regiments of the whole division had successfully landed. However, when advancing inland, the situation suddenly changed. Get bad. The terrain of Guam is similar to that of Saipan. Entering the inland, it is full of high mountains with razor-sharp ridges, and the lowlands are also fragmented and potholed.Later, when Lieutenant General Vandergrift, then commander-in-chief of the Marine Corps, came to inspect, he once commented: "This is the most dangerous terrain I have ever seen in my life."

The main force of the Japanese army stationed in Guam is the 29th Division, which is the Japanese division to which the Ogata Wing on Tinian Island belongs.Under the unified command of Lieutenant General Gao Pinbiao, the commander of Guam and the head of the 29th Division, the Japanese army was condescending and fired with mortars and machine guns. The battle for the US military became extremely difficult.In particular, the third marine regiment on the left wing faced the most dangerous terrain, and the Japanese troops were also the most powerful and concentrated. This caused them not only to suffer heavy casualties, but also to make slow progress.

Dark night doesn't mean rest, and that's often the bell for another tough fight.After so many interactions, almost every marine veteran is familiar with the Japanese combat habits and psychology, and knows that the Japanese army will definitely launch a night attack. At this time, the marines were still crowded on the narrow landing field, with their backs against the sea and their faces facing the mountains.What's more serious is that apart from the reserve teams of the front-line regiments, the whole division has no more reserve teams. After a long time of drifting at sea and a day of hard fighting, the front-line troops are already dead, wounded, and exhausted. If Gao Pin launched a suicide attack as desperately as Saito did, it would be difficult for the U.S. military to hold its beachhead after only one attack.

As expected by the U.S. military, the Japanese army came to attack at night, but the scale was not large.By continuously firing flares, the Third Marine Division discovered the Japanese soldiers under the cover of darkness early on, and they had enough time to knock them down. The brain damage and weirdness of the Japanese commanders are sometimes staggering. The Japanese army’s plan here is to catch big fish with a long line, hoping that the US military will move everything ashore and catch them all in one go. If they know that their attempt will never come true, Probably had to insert binoculars.

At dawn, the three regiments of the 3rd Marine Division continued to fight and charge. The 21st Regiment in the center and the 9th Regiment on the right made great progress. Offensively occupy the high ground that controls the beachhead. The reason why the Japanese army's front line of defense was quickly broken was because they did not fully organize their heavy firepower.The U.S. troops who attacked the mountain found 150mm howitzers and 8-inch cannons on the Japanese positions. The cannons that survived these shellings were all intact. However, it may be due to lack of shells that they did not fire from the beginning to the end.

The main attack on the US military was mortar fire.Every time the Marines climbed over a hill and entered the valley, they immediately found that there were many mortars firing into the valley on the reverse slope of the next hill. There are many mortars, but it does not mean that they are fierce.The standard combat mode of the Japanese artillery is not to use the company as a combat unit, but to use the gun as a combat unit. Each gun has its own independent observers, and they also shoot at their own targets during combat. As a result, although the mortars are partially It will cause damage to the U.S. military, but on the whole it is like a swarm of flies, and it is difficult to form a synergy and effect. With the expansion of the front line, the U.S. military strength became weaker and weaker. The division headquarters of the Third Marine Division asked its superiors to increase its strength, but Geiger did not agree to allocate the army reserve. With no soldiers to help, the difficulty of the battle did not decrease at all. For four days after landing, the Third Marine Division had been fighting hard. While the frontline troops were exhausted, casualties were also increasing.In order to be able to sustain it, the division headquarters organized all available personnel on the beachhead, including engineers and engineers, and took advantage of the night to carry out reinforcements to fill the weak defense line. By July 25, the U.S. military finally approached the predetermined position line. Within this distance, the Japanese army could not pose any threat to the landing site.It was also in the second half of the night that the Japanese army began to use flares non-stop.The Marine Corps was very confused about this, because before using flares to prevent the Japanese army from attacking at night, it was the US military. Could it be that they were also afraid of the US military's night attack? In the eyes of the Americans, the thinking of the Japanese army was eccentric, but even by this standard, the scene of that night was still elusive.