Tinian, As I saw it.

TINIAN, BATTLE OF, July 24-August 2nd,1944

The conquering of Tinian was a lot more important than we thought when we took it. It was from there that the B-29’s began to seriously bomb Japan. It was from there that a pilot named Tibbets took the Enola Gay with its atomic bomb to completely destroy a major Japanese city.
We were on Saipan, completely worn out. We had a few days in which we were able to change and wash our clothing, receive a lot of mail. My mother wrote me almost every day and sent cookies every two weeks. I also had a lot of friend’s back home that wrote me. I received more mail than anyone I knew. Our outgoing mail was censored, but my folks said there was never anything cut out or blacked out from my mail. We used “V-mail” and didn’t have to have any postage from my end.
We set up a camp with a company area. Our company had two streets about 100 yards long. Remember that we were still in our pup tents, two men to a tent. They were about 30 inches high when set up properly. Corpier and I were able to get some new shelter halves. It rained a lot so we had mucho trouble keeping things dry. The Seabees had set up a shower not far away (cold water only) and that helped. Our main gathering place was the “Lister Bag”. This was a large (probably 30-gallon) canvas bag with spigots around the bottom for drinking water. We put up a bulletin board there.
We all had to go to sick bay where the Navy doctors and pharmacists gave us a comprehensive inspection. This resulted in a trip back to the states for some, but not me.
We received many young replacements and, as always, I was delighted with the quality. Maybe I can remember which ones I got before I finish writing this. They were in awe of us and we had no discipline problems at all. This might be a good time to mention that I had a little Gideon New Testament with me all during my war. It had a paperback and I still have it. More about it later.
There was never any doubt that Tinian would have to conquered and there was not much doubt who would be doing it. There was a while when planes from Tinian would strafe us on Saipan. A pretty short bombing mission!
Our ships had been shelling Tinian ever since we started the Saipan invasion. After the Saipan operation was finished, our 155’s turned around and bombarded Tinian from the few miles away.
Some of my men, including Bill (“Killer”) Kearns and others I can’t remember, maybe Barney Coudayre, accompanied Major James Jones in a submarine to actually go ashore at night and look over the landing situation on the beaches.
It didn’t look bad to me and it turned out that it wasn’t a rough battle.
The Fourth Marine Division was to make the initial assault. The Eighth Marines and the Second Marines were in transports and our Sixth Marines would board LST’s at Garapan. The Fourth Division had established a beachhead without too many casualties,and had dug in and put out barbed wire. They expected a banzai attack and after midnight it came. The Japs were so disorganized and the Marines were so well prepared that about 1500 Japs were uselessly sacrificed.

THE TIME HAS COME

The next day, July 25, the Second Division began to come ashore. We landed on wooden docks from our LST’s during the night. What heroes. I walked from our boat up dock and saw a scene I will never forget. I looked to my right and saw a Marine 2 ½ ton truck. In it were the driver and one passenger. The passenger was nearest me. He was horribly burned. All the regular skin had been burned off his face and neck. He looked like what I thought a leper would look like. Our eyes met and I had to turn mine away. Immediately I thought, “What a coward!” How it must have hurt him when I looked away.
We landed on the extreme north part of the island and we could see the Ushi Airdrome just over our left and right ahead.
We got ashore, didn’t have to worry too much about attacks since we had a division and a half of Marines between us and the Japs. I was pretty experienced by this time and just saw to it that we were in place to get ready for the next morning.
Everything went well the next day. We just walked through the grass and the cane fields with no opposition to speak of. Noticed that we were going through some watermelons. This was a big treat for a farm boy from Oklahoma.
I haven’t mentioned this as yet but my communication platoon had received a brand new radio Jeep. Most of the time, later, I put a private or a Corporal in the Jeep to be the Battalion Command Post operator, but this time, the Colonel expected me to accompany him. So I did. I had a transmitter key strapped to my leg and I tapped out messages to the Sixth Marine Regimental Headquarters. I used voice to talk to our companies. Out of two divisions, we lost two men that day. Fourteen wounded.
That night we got another attack. We didn’t lose anyone and 137 Japs were killed.
The next day we just walked across good terrain with almost no opposition and covered about 2000 yards. The terrain here was so much different than at Saipan or Guadalcanal. It was just fairly level cultivated fields. We could see cliffs ahead of us but they were no threat yet.
One thing bad was it was so hot. I was in the Jeep a good part of the day and in the shade, but our outfit was an infantry battalion and everyone walked. I offered Colonel Jones a ride but he never took it.
The next day we got in range of the cliffs. We were right out in the open with absolutely no cover. Our rifle companies ahead of us began taking fire. We were not getting any yet. Jones would call me Langston most of the time, but in times of stress he always called me Jack. He ran the few feet to where I was in the Jeep. “Langston, call for some tanks!” I did. In about a minute three Sherman tanks were pulling up right beside my Jeep. They began firing at the cliffs. Immediately we began getting fire right on our heads. They were firing at the tanks. Jones shouted, “Jack, Get those damned tanks out of here!” I did. This made for some amusing conversations after the battle was over and we reminisced.
The Shermans cleared those cliffs completely. We never heard from them again. Later we walked over machine gun emplacements and mortar pits and dead Japs.
We were having our way with the Japs but then it began to rain. We were in a typhoon, I think. I have never seen it rain harder and longer. We tried completely unsuccessfully to keep dry.
The battle was not very tough for me the rest of the time. The Japs made three or four more counter attacks but not real close to me. The one thing that I remember very well was that about August 1st after the island had been declared “secured”, a bunch of Japs who had been bypassed attacked the Command Post of 3/6 and Lt Col John Easley was killed. We watched him die when the Jeep that was taking him back stopped so Col. Jones could speak to him. Easley was a fine, qualified officer and a good man. I wonder how old he was when he was killed. I thought of him as an older man.
Our Second Division only lost 104 men at Tinian. For those 104 and their loved ones that “easy” campaign was the worst of the war.
As we got near the end of the island the Japs began
committing “harikari”. They jumped off the cliffs at
Marpi Point.(They had jumped off at Marpo Point on
Saipan.)
Back to Saipan
After Tinian was over, we moved back to the same camp
area on Saipan where we were before. This time there
were 6 man squad tents set up and waiting for us.
We made lots of patrols up in th Tapotchau area. We
built a pretty chapel with bleached sandbags for seats
a canvas tarp for a roof. I began to enjoy going to
chapel. We had a Presbyterian Minister for a Protestant
chaplain. He was very good and Betty and I met him in
Kansas City forty years later. He was still a good man.
We had a movie and we had some USO troupes visit us.
There was Betty Hutton and Gene Autry. There was big
mouth Joe E. Brown. I think his son was a Marine nd
with us.
We finally got some rotation going. Around 64 officers
and 1200 enlisted men got furlough back in the states.
You had to have 50 points to go back. But you had to
have a replacement. My replacement broke his leg
when he landed on Saipan and and I waited. I was Staff
Sergeant, doing the work of a Tech Sergeant and was
considered indispensable. I didn’t worry about it.
Somehow I thought I would have to stay until it was over.
We built a Staff NCO Mess. This was somewhat between the regulation mess hall and the Officer’s Mess. We had regular chow and augmented it with various goodies for which we paid a monthly fee. We ate on china dishes and had cloth tablecloths. I guess the main reason we had it was that it served liquor. I never ever drank hard liquor didn’t drink beer but very little.

We saw the intense buildup and knew that our warfare was not over. We were still a ways from Japan and there would probably be more islands and then we would have to invade Japan.


END OF THE THINGS I WANT TO WRITE ABOUT TINIAN