The Pacific (92 page)

309
Thomas J. "Stumpy" Stanley, " To the Men of K-3-5," unpublished MS, October 17, 1980, SCAU.

310
Sledge,
With the Old Breed
, p. 104.

311
While not an official tally, this statistic comes from the manuscript "Chock to Chock." Written by the veterans of VB-2, it includes a list of the members and those who were killed in action.

312
3/5 Record.

313
Comments of 1st Division Monograph (Peleliu) by Lt. Col. L. W. Walt, USMC, RG 127, Box 6, NARA.

314
Ibid.

315
Unit Report, 29 September 1944, No. 11-44 0800 28 September to 0800 29 September, CT- 5, file A6-3.

316
R. V. Burgin interview, author's collection.

317
Sledge,
With the Old Breed
, pp. 116-117.

318
Unit Report, 29 September 1944, No. 11-44 0800 28 September to 0800 29 September, CT- 5, file A6-3.

319
Naval Gunfire Report, Palaus [sic] Operation, pp. 5, 6, October 14, 1944, A4-8, Box 298.

320
Ordinance Report, Palau Operation, by Corps Ordinance Officer, p. 5, 24 October 1944, Box 298, NARA.

321
Unit Report, 29 September 1944, No. 11-44 0800 28 September to 0800 29 September, CT- 5, file A6-3.

322
3/5 Record, p. 9, Special Map.

323
Eugene Sledge was highly critical of the USMC's casualty figures. He and Thomas Stanley labored mightily to develop their own. In this case, Stanley came out with the numbers cited here. Sledge used the figure of eight KIA and twenty-four WIA for the company.

324
Sledge,
With the Old Breed
, p. 125.

325
R. V. Burgin interview, author's collection; Stanley to Sledge, March 1980 (day unknown), SCAU.

326
Sterling Mace interview, author's collection.

327
Harris Comments, p. 136.

328
Unit Report, 2 October 1944, No. 16-44 0800 1 October to 0800 2 October, CT- 5, file A6-3.

329
Harris Comments, p. 137.

330
1-7 Marines War Diary, p. 16.

331
Unit Report, 3 October 1944, No. 17-44 0800 2 October to 0800 3 October, CT-5, file A6-3; 1-7 Marines War Diary, p. 16; 3/5 Record, p. 11.

332
1-7 Marines War Diary, p. 18.

333
3/5 Record, p. 11.

334
Ordinance Report, Palau Operation, by Corps Ordinance Officer, p. 9, 24 October 1944, Box 298, NARA.

335
Special Map; 3/5 Record, p. 11.

336
1-7 Marines War Diary, p. 18.

337
Henry "Hank" Boyes to Sledge, December 16, 1979, SCAU.

338
Thomas J. "Stumpy" Stanley, " To the Men of K-3-5," unpublished MS, October 17, 1980, SCAU.

339
D-2 Journal, 1st Marine Div., Peleliu, RG 127, Box 299, NARA.

340
Sterling Mace interview, author's collection.

341
E. B. Sledge, "Lecture to the Squadron Officer School," 1993, SCAU.

342
3/5 Record, p. 11.

343
Eugene Sledge to Dear Mother and Father, February 5, 1945, SCAU.

344
1-7 Marines War Diary, pp. 19-20.

345
Sterling Mace (K-3-5) interview, author's collection.

346
Unit Report, 5 October 1944, No. 17-44 0800 4 October to 0800 5 October, CT- 5, file A6-3.

347
1-7 Marines War Diary, pp. 19-20.

348
3/5 Record; Thomas "Stumpy" Stanley, " To the Men of K-3-5," unpublished MS, October 17, 1980, SCAU. Stanley compiled a different total for this day, as is often the case. His figures are seven WIA and one KIA.

349
Harris Comments, p. 137.

350
Report on Fitness, 18 August 1944 to 30 September 1944, signed by Colonel Harris, Shofner USMC File, NRC.

351
Harris Comments, p. 137; General Bucky to Stumpy Stanley, July 17, 1981, SCAU.

352
Field Order No. 1-44, CT-5, In the Field, 5 October 1944, Box 305, Peleliu, USMC Geographic Files, RG 127.

353
3/5 Record, p. 13; Unit Report, 8 October 1944, No. 20-44 0800 7 October to 0800 8 October, CT-5, file A6-3.

354
Unit Report, 9 October 1944, No. 21-44 0800 8 October to 0800 9 October, CT- 5, file A6-3.

355
Harris Comments, p. 138.

356
Stanley to Sledge, " Thoughts on Bucky's Notes," August 17, 1981, SCAU.

357
Thomas J. "Stumpy" Stanley, "To the Men of K-3-5," unpublished MS, October 17, 1980, SCAU; Captain Flagg War Diary: Peleliu, RG 126, Box 299, NARA.

358
R. V. Burgin interview, Playtone Collection; Stanley to Sledge, "Thoughts on Bucky's Notes," August 17, 1981, SCAU.

359
Frank O. Hough,
The Assault on Peleliu
(Washington, D.C.: USMC Historical Branch, 1950), p. 162. This book states that 3/5 was near the division CP.

360
Gen. Gordon Gayle interview, author's collection.

361
Shofner, "WWII Memories," pp. 83-84. Shofner claimed that he developed this response. His claim is hard to prove, since it is obvious from the available testimony that many officers came up with the same solution. It is likely that the practice began with line company officers, who noticed the tourists in their zone of action.

362
Daily Diary of John Wesley "Deacon" Tatum, author's copy courtesy of Tatum Family.

363
G-2 Report No. 5, September 19, 1944, p. 3, III Amphibious Corps, A4-16, Box 298, NARA.

364
Derrick Wright,
The Battle for Iwo Jima
(Phoenix Mill, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1999), p. vii.

365
Harris Comments, p. 141.

366
Shofner, "WWII Memories," pp. 82-83. Shofner's descriptions of this incident include a lot of rich detail. The author, having examined the memoir composed late in Shofner's life against the written record, concluded that some of his descriptions had become embroidered a bit.

367
Unit Report, 12 October 1944, No. 25-44 0800 11 October to 0800 12 October, CT-5, file A6-3.

368
The unit diary of 3/5 lists their location on October 12 as Wattie Ridge. The same location was listed in the USMC Historical Division's
The Assault on Peleliu
, p. 137, as "Waddie Ridge." This example, while not the most consequential, is apt for explaining the many small discrepancies found in the unit reports of 3/5.

369
Richard Higgins interview, author's collection.

370
Sledge to Walter McIlhenny, May 31, 1977, SCAU.

371
The representation of Lt. Thomas J. "Stumpy" Stanley's combat leadership, at odds with the way he is portrayed in Sledge's book, comes from the author's interviews with R. V. Burgin, Ray Wilson, Sterling Mace, and other veterans of K/3/5.

372
Unit Report, 12 October 1944, No. 25-44 0800 11 October to 0800 12 October, CT- 5, file A6-3. See also Harris Comments, pp. 138-139; the Fifth Regiment CO describes this process at some length.

373
Commanding General, III Amphibious Corps to CMC, 26 May 1945, RE: Army Intel Report: Peleliu, RG 127, Box 306, NARA.

374
Harris Comments, p. 140.

375
Unit Report, 13 October 1944, No. 26-44 0800 12 October to 0800 13 October, CT-5, file A6- 3, NARA. The unit report incorrectly names the ridge--its actual name was Wattie Ridge. The incorrect name is used here because that's what 3/5 called it on the day.
The Assault on Peleliu
by the USMC Historical Division, a fine reference work, reported that the 75-mm gun was established on Hill 140. The author chose to use Harris's report. The evidence indicates that as many as three 75-mm howitzers were placed on the ridges in this area, but distinguishing exact times and locations is impossible.

376
The casualty figure comes from the 3/5 record. It is just one of the many instances where it provided a different figure from from the one created by Thomas J. Stanley; see " To the Men of K-3-5," unpublished MS, October 17, 1980, SCAU.

377
D-2 Journal, 1st Marine Div., Peleliu, RG 127, Box 299, NARA.

378
Sledge to Henry "Hank" Boyes, July 25, 1970, SCAU; see also note 375 above.

379
3/5 Record; Unit Report, 15 October 1944, No. 28-44 0800 24 October to 0800 25 October, CT-5, file A6-3.

380
General Harris to Stumpy Stanley, July 17, 1981, SCAU.

381
Harris Comments, p. 141.

382
Harris to Stanley, July 17, 1981, SCAU; Harris Comments, pp. 141, 143.

383
Annex G--Phase II--Special Action Report--Palau Operation, p. 1, Box 298, USMC Geographic Files, Peleliu, RG 127.

384
3/5 Record, p. 16; Harvey Lund (K/3/5 corpsman) interview, author's collection.

385
Stanley to Harris, December 30, 1983, SCAU; Sledge to Stanley, January 16, 1984, SCAU.

386
Annex G--Phase II--Special Action Report--Palau Operation, p. 3, Box 298, USMC Geographic Files, Peleliu, RG 127.

387
Rudyard Kipling, "Prelude,"
Departmental Ditties
, 1886.

388
Annex G--Phase II--Special Action Report--Palau Operation, p. 1, Box 298, USMC Geographic Files, Peleliu, RG 127.

389
KPI. In this interview, Sledge asserted that he and his friends knew that taking the ridges was unnecessary even as they were taking them. Given the date of MacArthur's landing, however, his assertion seems a trick of memory.

390
3/5 Record.

391
3/5 Record, p. 16, mentions the stragglers; R. V. Burgin interview, author's collection. In his book
With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa
(p. 138), Sledge tells the story a bit differently.

392
Stanley to Sledge, October 7, 1980, SCAU.

393
Sledge to Henry "Hank" Boyes, July 25, 1970, SCAU.

394
5th Marine Regiment--Movement Order--Peleliu, No. 1-44 October 24, 1944, p. 1, B13-3, Box 305, RG 127, NARA.

395
3/5 Record.

396
Ibid.

397
Daily Diary of John Wesley "Deacon" Tatum, author's collection; Stanley to Sledge, December 10, 1982, SCAU.

398
Sledge,
With the Old Breed
, p. 164.

399
Henry "Hank" Boyes to Sledge, May 5, 1980, SCAU; Boyes to Sledge, December 16, 1979, SCAU.

400
"Americans Invade 2 Major Jap Island Bases,"
The Mobile Register
, September 14, 1944, #133, p. 1.

401
Sledge to Walter McIlhenny, May 31, 1977, SCAU: " . . . right after we came off Peleliu I began writing notes on what my comrades and I experienced there."

402
St. Elmo Haney USMC File; Stanley to Sledge, November 30, 1983, SCAU. Hank Boyes said Haney left after two days. Sledge recalled him being on the ill- fated "war-dog patrol" a few days later.

403
Thomas J. "Stumpy" Stanley, " To All Hands," 1982, SCAU.

404
Henry A. "Hank" Boyes to Sledge, January 28, 1980, SCAU.

405
Sam Menzelos (2d Lt. K/3/5) interview, author's collection.

406
Harry Bender (K/3/5) interview, author's collection.

407
USMC Photographs #106562, 106564, and 106565 and their captions (in the Still Pictures Branch of the National Archives) tell this story.

408
Correspondence of Andrew A. Haldane, Special Collections and Archives, Bowdoin College. The author thanks Steve Moore, Haldane's nephew, for providing him with copies of these documents.

409
Henry "Hank" Boyes to Sledge, December 16, 1979, SCAU.

410
Garand and Strobridge,
USMC Operations in WWII, Vol. IV
, p. 87.

411
Brig. Gen. Austin C. Shofner, USMC Personnel File, NRC. This file contains copies of his transfer orders. The description of his time with the US Army comes from Shofner's "WWII Memories," p. 82. A note about his memoirs is necessary. Written in 2000, the memoirs reflect the memories of a man who may have had too long a time to burnish them or, as has been suggested by others who knew him, of a man who had a failing memory. In either case, there are overstatements and misrepresentations that can be proven as such. Other assertions found in his memoirs can neither be proved nor disproved at this date. The author has included only those aspects that were independently verified.

412
Wells,
Give Me Fifty Marines
, p. 118.

413
Ibid. p. 134.

414
Conner,
The Spearhead
, p. 25; Garand and Strobridge,
USMC Operations in WWII, Vol. IV
, p. 483.

415
Tatum,
Red Blood Black Sand
, p. 112.

416
Clinton Watters interview, author's collection.

417
PBC Articles.

418
John Basilone letter to parents, undated, Basilone Family Collection.

419
Shofner, "WWII Memories," p. 85.

420
"Memo to 6th Army G-2," dictated by Austin Shofner, January 23, 1945, RG 338, Entry 44469, Box 24, Folder 383.6, and attached routing slip signed by Col. Horton White and others, NARA.

421
Austin Shofner wrote in his "WWII Memories" (p. 85) that Admiral Nimitz had requested Shofner's presence and that he served alongside General Krueger on that assignment. The orders found in Shofner's USMC service file, however, show that this assignment came from the 1st Division staff. The memo Shofner dictated was completed by the staff of the 37th Division, who forwarded it up to Krueger's HQ. Shofner also insisted that he was there to greet the POWs freed from Cabanatuan on January 31, 1945. His orders, as well as the account he wrote in 1945, make clear that he departed Luzon on January 23, before the "Great Raid" began.

422
Harry Bender interview, author's collection.

423
Thomas J. "Stumpy" Stanley, " To All Hands," 1982, SCAU.

424
Garand and Strobridge,
USMC Operations in WWII, Vol. IV
, p. 87.