Chapter 32 Version 1
1945
“At this spot the 77th Infantry lost a buddy,
Ernie Pyle,. 18 April 1945” – inscription on the monument above the grave of the
war correspondent most respected by the fighting men of World War II as he
reported the war from their vantage point.
Pyle was heading to the front lines on the island of Ie
Shima off the northwest coast of Okinawa in a jeep with one other soldier. They
came under machine gun fire from a Japanese machine gun nest bypassed during
the fighting. Pyle and the soldier jumped into a ditch for cover. Ernie peered
over the top of the ditch and was killed by a bullet in the head.
“Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
Twas the eighteenth of April in ’75
And hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year…”
recited John to a classmate in eighth grade to complete his
assignment to memorize part of the classic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
“Listen up gentlemen! The five thirty-three has been in the
Marshalls for exactly one year. That is going to change today. We have been
given orders to report to Yontan Airfield on Okinawa. We are leaving on May 7 and
have three days to fly 2,500 miles. The 15 Hellcats will be flown in
accompanied by five R5C transports. The R5Cs will take essential spare parts
and a skeleton crew. The rest of the squadron will be transported by ship with
a transit time of approximately three weeks including the packing and loading
of our equipment and personnel. Our first leg is the flight to Saipan in the
Marianas Islands. That is just over 1,000 nautical miles. Personnel flying with
the Hellcats and those on the R5Cs are posted on the bulletin board. Any
questions?”
“Isn’t 1,000 miles out of a Hellcat’s range?”
“The Hellcats will be fitted with 150 gallon belly tanks for
added range.”
“Any other questions?”
The members of the Marine Night Fighter Squadron VMF-533(N) were
letting the news sink in and already planning what they needed to do before
leaving the Marshalls.
“What is the second leg?”
“Iwo Jima”
“Questions?”
“Pilots will be briefed on weather conditions before take
off. They will be expecting us in Saipan. We don’t want to be another VMF-422
incident. Gentlemen, you have your orders.”
As the staff sergeant in charge of ordinance and armoring,
Henry was going to be transported by ship. He was well aware of the reference
to the four twenty-two squadron as Henry was assigned to the four twenty-two
for a month in November 1944. During November,
the five thirty-three was reassigned from the airstrip at Eniwetok to the airstrip
at Engebi. Early in 1944, twenty-three planes of the four twenty-two were
reassigned from Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands to Funafuti Island and were to
fly 469 miles to the new airfield.
Disaster ensued. They did not get an escort. They flew directly into a
heavy storm. They were also not expected at the new airfield. Ten of the planes
were lost in the storm. The pilots that survived spent three days in rafts
before being spotted and picked up by a PBY. The PBY was overloaded and
couldn’t take off so they had to wait for a destroyer to take the pilots on
board. Of the remaining thirteen planes, twelve had to be ditched in the ocean
as they were not allowed to land. The four twenty-two was provided new planes
and was back in operation about six months before Henry was assigned to the
squadron. But the squadron would become infamous in aviation lore and the
incident was the basis for a documentary entitled “The Flintlock Disaster” in
2012.
The 533 flew into Yontan Airfield on the central west coast
of Okinawa on May 10th and was operational in 36 hours. The landings
at Okinawa had begun on April 1st and the Japanese had mounted
fierce resistance inland in the rugged hills. In addition, kamikaze attacks were
swarming to Okinawa from the main Japanese islands. The weather was being a
problem as it provided cover for the kamikazes and the Japanese bombers. What
was needed was a force to patrol against the Japanese air attacks at night and
in bad weather. Four squadrons of radar equipped planes were brought in to
Okinawa as soon as the ACORN units could get the captured airfields
operational. In addition to Yontan, there were ten other airfields on Okinawa with
Kadena and Yontan being the largest on the west coast of Okinawa. Yonabaru
Airfield was located about ten miles away from Yontan and six miles from
Kadena. Yonabaru Airfield was on the southeastern coast near Buckner Bay where
Joe was with ACORN 29. Another large airfield would become operational on the
small island of Ie Shima off the northwest coast of Okinawa in June. The 533
was to become the most successful of the night fighter squadrons and they took
little time to be noticed by the Japanese. The Americans would also be forced to take
notice.
On May 17th the five thirty-three suffered its
first and only loss of a plane and pilot. Undisciplined anti-aircraft shooting
from the flagship of Vice Admiral Turner downed one of the Hellcats and Colonel
Black Jack Magruder was livid. He requested a meeting with Vice Admiral Turner
who was in charge of amphibious forces and went to Turner’s flagship to state
his case. The USS Rocky Mount with Stanley on board had been Turner’s flagship
when Kwajalein was taken in the Marshalls in early 1944. Turner promised that
discipline would be maintained and that Magruder’s planes would be able to
carry out their missions over the waters around Okinawa. The next day the five
thirty-three shot down five Japanese planes. The night fighters were making an
impact and an impression on the Japanese.
In late 1944, the Japanese main islands were being hurt
badly from bombings carried out by long range B-29 bombers from Saipan, Tinian
and Guam in the Marianas Islands. In order to stop the bombers, the Japanese
devised a plan to create a special forces unit called the Giretsu Airborne Unit
to raid the new bases and destroy many B-29s while mounting a counter attacks
from the ground to retake the airfields that had been captured by the
Americans. This raid was to be launched from Iwo Jima on January 17th
1945. American intelligence identified the plan and bombers were sent to Iwo
Jima to disrupt the plan by bombing the staging areas of the Giretsu Unit. This
bought enough time as Japanese planes and pilots needed to be replaced so that
the Marianas Islands were secured and the raid was cancelled. When Iwo Jima
itself was attacked, the raid was to be made on the captured airfields there
but the garrison of Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima fell too soon for the attack
to be carried out. Meanwhile, Okinawa was now under attack and on May 16th,
the Japanese Sixth Army requested that the Giretsu Unit attack the Yontan and
Kadina airfields on Okinawa.
For the Giretsu Raid twelve “Sally” medium bombers manned
with 136 commandos were sent from Kumamoto in Japan for a night raid. Four of
the Sallys were to hit Kadena under the command of Captain Okuyama and eight
were to hit Yontan under the command of Captain Watanabe. Other bombers were to
attack decoy locations such as Ie Shima while there was to be some softening up
of the defenses of Yontan and Kadina before the Sallys arrived with the
commandos. The Sallys were to belly land with wheels up to stop short and block
the runway. The commandoes then were to destroy aircraft, mainly B-29s and
Hellcats, and also blow up fuel dumps and airfield support buildings.
Reinforcement soldiers were to arrive in the morning.
On May 24th the Giretsu struck. Only one Sally
belly landed at Yontan and dispatched its commandos. The five thirty-three shot
down five of the invaders while another night fighter squadron shot down one other.
None of the Sallys made it to Kardena. Marine anti-aircraft units protecting
Yontan shot down the six remaining Sallys. One of the Sallys crashed into an
anti-aircraft battery killing two marines. The commandos destroyed nine
airplanes, none being B-29s or Hellcats, and damaged 24. A 70,000 gallon
gasoline storage tank was set on fire and a number of buildings were damaged.
In the back pocket of Captain Watanabe was a map of Yontan with sixteen red x
marks on it. They were the usual spots where the fifteen Hellcats were parked.
The other x was the tent location of Black Mac himself. None of the Hellcats or
the squadron commander were destroyed. Aside from the marines killed in the
anti-aircraft battery, one pilot from the five thirty-three was killed manning
a searchlight on the control tower. He was killed by a stray .5mm round from
friendly fire. Japanese reinforcements never arrived and Yontan Airfield was
back in service by mid-morning on May 25th.
On May 30th, Henry and the rest of the squadron
arrived by LST. His record of service includes the statement “Participated in
Action against the enemy at Okinawa 30 May 1945 to 8 June 45”. The ship
actually landed at Ie Shima and the arriving squadron members set up shop on Ie
Shima with the Hellcats and the skeleton crew moved to their new location on Ie
Shima on June 15th.
On June 22, Lt Col Magruder logged a kill. The final total
for the squadron was 35 kills and 1 probable. This included six kills for
Captain Robert Baird, the only night fighter ace in WWII. Eighteen pilots had
at least one kill. Only two pilots were lost and these were killed due to
friendly fire. The squadron received the Presidential Unit Citation for their
heroics, safety record, and combat readiness.
On July 30 the last of the five Japanese planes to be shot
down in July by the 533 was west of Zampa Misaki near Yontan Airfield.
The victors usually write the history surrounding the events
of battles. The Japanese wrote of the valor of their Giretsu attack and built
shrines throughout Japan commemorating the raid.
In eighth grade John recited from memory, as best as he
could remember, the poem by John McCrae, a Canadian medic in the Second Battle
of Ypres in Belgium from World War I in 1915:
“In Flanders fields the poppies grow,
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place and in the sky,
The larks still bravely singing fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead.
Short days ago we lived,
Felt dawn,
Saw sunset glow.
Loved and were loved and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe,
To you from failing hands we throw,
The torch be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith in us who died,
We shall not sleep,
Though poppies grow,
In Flanders fields.”
The Japanese considered the Giretsu raid a success and a
second special forces commando raid, much larger than the first, was planned.
Training was underway for the scheduled August 18th attack on
Okinawa’s eleven airfields.
