Robert Leckie - Strong Men Armed

0915

Observation Post resquests that more tanks be rushed forward. But runners sent to bring tanks forward report no tanks in entire area between Command Post and Observation Post.

0117

G Company reports that they are hitting caves with 37-millimeter armor-piercing and high explosive. Will require tanks with 75’s before they can advance.

0930

C Company and G Company being committed up the draw to get into 141U.

0940

Mortar fire commencing on target.

1100

Advance stopped. All companies and Observation Post pinned down underheavy mortar barrage.

1105

E Company reports they have only one effective squad due to exhaustion and heat prostration.1110

TO REGIMENT: “We need more men to continue the advance.” FROM REGIMENT: “Will furnish A Company to support you.”

1130

A company moving forward. They report they have 56 men.

1200

G Company radio operator wounded. Replacement sent forward.

1212

Command Post under mortar barrage.

1220

Attack continues at 1230.

1245

F Company requests 15 stretchers and as many bearers as available.

1250

F Company requests that tanks be sent forward. They are receiving heavy machine-gun fire and are having heavy casualties and only tanks can clear the way.

1300

G Company requests permission to withdraw. The men are dropping from exhaustion and our casualties are great from heavy machine-gun fire and mortars. The position is untenable.

FROM BATTALION: “How far will you have to withdraw?”

FROM G COMPANY: “To the reverse slope the hill to avoid fire.”

FROM BATTALION: “Do not withdraw any farther than absolutely necessary. We will lay smoke to cover your change of position.”

1302

TO A COMPANY: “What situation is G Company in? Can you go forward at all?”

FROM A COMPANY: “No.”

1310

TO FIRST BATTALION SICK BAY: “Please send all available ambulances and stretchers to our Command Post.”

1320

A Company reports that the Second Battalion, Seventh, is pinned douwn to the left and cannot cross the ridge.

1325

TO A COMPANY: “You will advance at once across the ridge to relieve pressure on the line.”

FROM A COMPANY: “We cannot move out. There is heavy machine-gun fire raking the entire ridge.”

TO A COMPANY: “It is necessary that you move out at all costs. I am giving you a direct order. You will move out at once*. If you move in small rushes your casualties will not be great.”

1345

All contact lost with A Company. Second Battlalion, Seventh, has taken hill to the left.

1350

SITUATION: Troops and Observation Post are pinned down by machine-gun fire and mortars in front of Hill 100. All available firepower is being brought to bear on this sector.

1420

FROM F COMPANY: “I must have more men to continue the advance. I am having heavy casualties.”

1425

All available men in the Command Post who can be spared ordered forward. Twenty-four men moving out.

1440

TO E COMPANY: “Move up in support of F Company.”

1450

Pioneers have been sent forward as support for F Company.

1455

A Company has reported to Observation Post for further orders. They have six men and one officers (of original 56).

1505

G Company and E Company have been withdrawn.

1515

Five of 24 men from Command Post knocked out by mortar fire on the lines.

1530

Flame-throwing tanks on way to support F Company.

1531

TO MORTARS: “Extend fire into 143E.”

1540

TO MORTARS: “Cease firing”

1550

FROM G COMPANY RADIO OPERATOR: “Lieutenant Fournier has just been killed. But I think I can get the machine-gun that got him if I can get a bazooka.”

1555

FROM G COMPANY RODIO OPERATOR: “Machine-gun nest knocked out. Am awaiting orders.”

1558

Captain Tiscornia has reported back from hospital ship and is being sent forward to take over G Company. Lieutenant Maples killed in F Company. F and G Company combine under Captain Tiscornia. Lieutenant Burke wounded and evacuated.

1750

The Third Squad of the Fourth War Dog Platoon moving up to support G Company.

1755

Assault continued on entire front on Hill 100.

1759

C Company reports they have taken Hill 100.

It was not called Hill 100, but Walt Ridge, this vital height which Captain Everett Pope and 90 men of C Company had been assaulting since noon. It stood well north of Bloody Nose Ridge, dominating the East Road and the swamp lying between the First and Fifth Regiments. If it were taken, Bloody Nose Ridge might be hit from the rear. Lieutenant Colonel Honsowetz ordered Pope’s company to seize it, with the Division Reconnaissance Company following in support.

Pope’s men moved through the swamp to attack. They were driven back. They moved to their left along East Road, following it until it formed a causeway across a large sinkhole. Pope called for tanks to lead them over the causeway. One tank slipped off the left side, another off the right.

“We’ll have to cross in squad rushes,” Pope ordered.

They crossed. With mortars and machine guns in support, they drove up to the crest of Walt Ridge, and it was at one minute before six o’clock that they reported it seized.

From then on, C Company was struck at from every side. They were shelled, machine-gunned and counterattacked. They fought with rocks and with fists. They struggled with their assailants and hurled them bodily over the cliffs. They held, but at dawn there were only Captain Pope and 16 others alive, and of these only nine had enough strength to fight. It was because of Pope’s leadership that there were any left at all, and for this he won a Medal of Honor. But on the morning of September 20, Pope had to bring his men down from the hill which would be renamed Walt Ridge later in the fight.

The combined First-Second Battalion then attempted to retake Walt Ridge, and was shattered in a relentless crossfire. It was the First Regiment’s last bolt. Colonel Nakagawa jubilantly signaled Lieutenant General Inoue:

Since dawn the enemy has been concentrating their forces, vainly trying to approach Higashiyama [Walt Ridge] and Kansokuyama [Hill 300] with 14 tanks and one infantry battalion under powerful aids of air and artillery fire. However, they were again put to rout, receiving heavy losses.

Bloody Nose Ridge had cut the First’s battalions down to half the size of companies, had reduced some companies to less than a squad. In the combined First-Second Battalion, with its attached units from Division, there were not 100 effectives by the end of the day.

In hard figures of killed and wounded, the First Marines had lost 1,749 men, and there were additional hundreds made non-effective by heat exhaustion, water-poisoning, combat fatigue or blast concussion. But they had killed 4,000 Japanese and had taken 10 defended coral ridges, three big blockhouses, 22 pillboxes, 13 antitank guns and 144 defended caves—one-third of Peleliu’s armament, two-fifths of its defenders. It would require four regiments to take the rest.

But it required only two small hospital transports, Pinckney and Tryon, to take the First’s survivors back to Pavuvu. Even on the way out to the ships, misfortune overtook them. It was a high sea. The edge of a typhoon was moving toward Peleliu. Some of the ducks were swamped, though no one was lost. Weary, dirty, dripping, the Marines climbed over the rails—to be met by clean dry eager sailors.

“Any souvenirs?” an officer asked a Marine.

The Marine stood examining him in silence. He patted his behind.

“I brought my ass outta there, swabbie,” he said. “That’s the only souvenir I wanted.”