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The First Attempt
By the 10th of December, Wake had endured at least three air raids, and the feeling on the island was more were to come. What they didn’t and could not know was that the Japanese had something far larger than an air raid planned for the island.
The opening phase began late on the evening of the 10th when Marine lookouts sighted what they thought was ship movements out to sea from the southeast. Considering no one on the island had gotten much sleep in the past few days, many of the lookouts were convinced that their eyes were playing tricks on them. Suffice to say, their eyes were fine, and what they spotted was a Japanese landing force. At 2:45 AM, Captain Wesley Platt, the commander on Wilkes Islet, definitively identified something was out there and reported it to Major Deveraux, who had been receiving similar reports and had a good idea something was up.
Meanwhile, two hours before, the American submarine Triton had a run-in with the Japanese invasion force and had encountered one of the escorts. Convinced they had been detected, Triton’s commander let loose a full spread of four torpedoes from her stern at the Japanese destroyer. It was the U.S. Silent Service’s first “war shot” and was fired off completely by sonar, as there was no visual to the target. One explosion was heard, and the crew of the Triton assumed they had hit the Japanese destroyer. Meanwhile, the rest of the Japanese force passed unmolested while Triton was unable to radio Wake and warn them for at least twelve hours.
The Japanese force was led by Rear Admiral Sandamichi Kajoika, who flew his flag from the light cruiser, Yubari, and led a force of 14 other ships, including two more light cruisers - the Tatsuta and Tenryu - and six destroyers - the Mutsuki, Kisaragi, Yayoi, Mochizuki, Oite, and the Hayate - as well as two converted destroyers - Patrol Boat 32 and Patrol Boat 33 - and two armed merchantmen - the Kongo Maru and the Kinryu Maru. On paper, Kajoikja outgunned the defenses of Wake Island, Yubari alone had six 5.5” guns, and the other two cruisers had four 5.5” guns each. Wake had a total of six 5” guns, divided into three batteries of two guns - one battery on each of the islets. The defenders of Wake were on the wrong end of a horrible mismatch, and, in theory, the Japanese could have stood off Wake and pounded it to dust.
The Japanese weren’t coming in blind, or at least not completely, as Kajoika’s commanders had warned him to not sail directly for Wake to disguise the force’s target. They were told to expect heavy resistance (Japanese intelligence was reporting that there was 1,000 US Marines on Wake), but Guam had fallen earlier that day despite the larger American garrison (424 Marines and ~300 native levies). The Japanese had also sent a force of 4 heavy cruisers and 6,000 men. Kajoika had cause to hope that the intelligence was wrong. He was also worried about reports of American PT boats lurking in the area, a report that proved to be baseless, and bad weather did little to lift the landing force’s spirits, which was another problem. Kajoika’s commanders had only allotted him some 450 men with which to seize the island. If more troops were needed, Kajoika had a desperate, if innovative solution: He would run his destroyers aground and use their crews to reinforce the landing force.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the proverbial hill, Deveraux consulted with Cunningham over the island’s field phone system and laid out a simple plan. The island’s defenses would play dead and lure the Japanese into range of their shore batteries. As Deveraux put it:
“It seemed to me that our one slim chance was to draw the enemy close enough for our five-inch guns to hit him crippling blows at the start of the attack.” (Given Up for Dead, Bill Sloan, p.153)
Arrangements were also made to scramble the island’s tiny air force to see what could be done with them as well. But there was one worry - What if the Japanese had brought an aircraft carrier, or worse, two?
So, the Marines and civilian volunteers manned their positions. (Only the Marines had any small arms, the civilian volunteers, as well as the army and navy personnel, had to make do with grenades or nothing at all.) They waited, and sweated over their guns, and waited some more as the Japanese force hove into view.
Meanwhile, Kajoika began landing operations around 3:00 AM, and immediately, things went wrong, ith some landing craft capsizing as troops were being loaded into them, and Kajoika’s initial plan to land troops under cover of the cruisers and destroyers standing off to sea was thrown away. Instead, Kajoika decided he would move in closer to shore and land the troops from the calmer waters there. His commanders had assured him that the air raids had taken care of Wake’s shore batteries and its aircraft. This was exactly the opportunity Deveraux had sought. The Japanese closed with the island, everything was quiet, and Kajoika had begun to believe that perhaps he had caught the Americans napping. At 5:30 AM, Kajoika’s van was 6500 yards from the shore. Kajoika gave the order to begin preparations to land the landing force, and Yubari opened fire with all of her 5.5” guns. The Americans were still, frustratingly silent.
Deveraux was waiting for the right opportunity and was happy to let the range drop. He kept a tight hold on all of his battery commanders and told them to wait for express orders to open fire. This had the Marines questioning Deveraux’s sanity and his parentage as the Japanese ships closed the range. Finally, at 6:10 AM, when Yubari was 4500 yards from Battery A’s position at Peacock Point on Wake itself, Hayate was just as close to Wilkes, and Battery L. Deveraux spoke two words to his battery commanders over his field phones. “Commence Firing.”
The effect was near immediate. Battery A’s shots on Yubari missed, impacting behind but close to the light cruiser, who heeled over and sped away from the beach, firing her main batteries as fast as she could manage. Yubari’s return fire landed around Battery A, doing little if any damage, but getting perilously close. Battery A’s second salvo also missed Yubari but managed to straddle her as she fled. But it was the third salvo that struck amidships, both rounds striking home, and the cruiser was clearly damaged, belching smoke and acquiring a bit of a list as she tried to get out of range. Another two shells from Battery A hit the cruiser again, and Yubari tried to flee into her own smoke, as well as smoke laid down by an escorting destroyer. More hits occurred, her forward turret was silenced, and she looked destined to sink - if the civilian shell handlers didn’t bring practice ammunition by mistake! Thus, Yubari limped away to fight another day.
Meanwhile, Battery L was about to have its own impressive day. They had the Japanese destroyer Hayate, and while the first two salvos were not on, the third was, and a pair of 5” shells. Before long, Hayate exploded and sank within seconds. Battery L then switched their attention to Oite and scored a pair of hits on her, as well as hits on Kongo Maru, and one of the other light cruisers. Battery B on Peale then engaged the Japanese and got the worst of it, losing their rangefinder, and one of the guns was put out of action as the Japanese sailed away.
But the Japanese ordeal wasn’t quite over yet, as Wake’s diminutive air force of four Wildcats joined the fray. Led by their squadron leader, Major Paul Putnam, he had three of his best pilots with him, Captains Henry Elrod, Herb Freuler, and Frank Tharin. The four aircraft had jury-rigged mounts for a pair of 500lb bombs, and the pilots were to a man, eager to get their own back from the Japanese. They quickly caught up with the withdrawing Japanese fleet and proceeded to bomb and strafe the Japanese every opportunity they got. They shot up the Tenryu, knocking out a deckside torpedo mount and her radio shack. Freuler put a bomb into the stern of the Kongo Maru and set her aflame. But the worst came for the Japanese destroyer Kirsaragi. Captain Hank Elrod, USMC, in an act that earned him the Medal of Honor, put a bomb into the destroyer that doomed her. The bomb hit amidships, penetrated several decks, and the ship was left damaged and crawling back to the Japanese anchorage at Truk, or so the American pilots thought. But the fire spread, and at 8:00 AM, Kirasagi blew up.
However, the Americans didn’t have it completely their way, as two of the Wildcats were so badly shot up from their battle, that they crashed upon landing and were total losses. The remaining two aircraft intercepted another Japanese air raid later in the day, this time, consisting of 18 bombers, of which the Wildcats got two more, and the island anti-aircraft guns polished off another one. All in all, it had been a good day for Wake Island.
The news of Wake’s gallant resistance traveled fast and became something of a rallying cry for an American public who, up until that point, had heard nothing but news of disaster. This time, it was the Japanese getting a bloody nose.
Psywarrior
To add insult to injury for the Japanese, another Wildcat on patrol happened upon and sank the Japanese submarine RO-66. All in all, the loss of two destroyers, a submarine, and damage to at least five other ships was nothing short of a minor disaster for the Japanese. But, the defenders of Wake had only encouraged the Japanese to redouble their efforts. They would not underestimate the defenders of Wake again.
The Relief Expedition Sets Out, and the Beginning of the End
The 12th of December dawned, and for the defenders of Wake, days blended, as it seemed no help was coming, with every day under Japanese attack seemed like the death of a thousand cuts. The Japanese had all the time in the world, and this time, they made good use of it. The Japanese tried a new technique, sending a pair of H6K4 “Mavis” Flying Boats to bomb Wake, but weather conspired to make the Japanese bombing accuracy and Wake’s anti-aircraft fire useless.
Wikipedia
However, one of the Japanese flying boats ran afoul of Wake’s pair of Wildcats and was shot down into the ocean. This brought Wake’s total of Japanese aircraft to seven. On the evening of the 12th, Pearl Harbor cabled Cunningham with questions about the situation on Wake, especially with regards to ammunition and other consumables. Cunningham was left thinking, is help coming?
Meanwhile, the Wildcats that remained were having all sorts of mechanical difficulties, and another crash-landed due to a mechanical fault, and another forced Major Putnam to make a dead-stick landing in the aircraft. Wake was fast nearing the end of her rope. She needed help, and soon.
Three more flying boats came on the night of the 13th, again the bombing accuracy was horrible, but it served to deny the Wake garrison any sleep. But at noon on the 14th, between 30-40 Japanese G3M “Nell” bombers hit Wake in one of the largest air raids of the battle. The airfield was again hammered, and a Wildcat that was being used for parts was blown to pieces. Three men died, and Deveraux had to move his command post to the old powder magazines, which were, in the views of some of Deveraux’s officers, a much better position.
Meanwhile, at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Kimmel ordered a relief expedition to land more Marines and fighters and take off wounded and civilians from Wake. The relief force was centered around the carrier Saratoga, while Lexington was to launch diversionary raids against Japanese bases in the Marshall Islands. The problem was, whatever was to happen, it had to happen fast before the Japanese could get their act together. Thus, on the evening of the 15th of December, Saratoga, along with the seaplane tender Tangier, the oiler Neches, and three destroyers, set out from Pearl Harbor. They soon met up with three heavy cruisers and nine additional destroyers and set out for Wake Island.
Meanwhile, the Japanese were ensuring that any second attempt to take Wake would be successful, Admiral Yamamoto ordered the detachment of the carriers Hiryu and Soryu, as well as heavy cruisers Tone and Chikuma, and two more destroyers to bolster a second landing attempt on Wake. This time, the Japanese weren’t going to underestimate Wake.
The Japanese continued to bomb the island for the next five days, and the days were just a waking nightmare for the defenders of Wake. On the 20th, the last outside physical contact with the United States arrived on Wake in the form of a PBY flying boat that had slipped past the Japanese and landed in the lagoon that afternoon. The PBY brought news that a relief force was on its way and to prepare to receive them. The PBY left early the next morning with Major Walter Bayler, a radio expert whose orders had only supposed to have him present at Wake for a week or two. He was supposed to proceed on to Midway. With him aboard and some letters from loved ones, the PBY left early on the morning of the 21st for Pearl, and so with it, the last physical contact from any of the U.S. Military for the next four years.
The PBY had picked a good time to leave as the Japanese launched the first raid from Hiryu and Soryu. 49 carrier-based aircraft, with 18 of them being A6M2 Zero fighters. Against the sole remaining Wildcat, this was a horrible mismatch. The Japanese came in at less than 1,000 feet, rendering the 3” AA guns useless, and the machine guns could only do so much. The Japanese bombed and strafed the island at will, but the Japanese, surprisingly, only achieved some light damage. The only Wildcat available managed to get off the ground as the raiders departed but failed to catch the departing raid. Another bombing raid came at 12:30, this time, the more familiar G3M Nells. The Japanese, this time, plastered Battery D and it’s 3” gun battery on Peale islet. Worse, they took out most of the battery’s anti-aircraft gun director gear. The remaining gear was moved with one of the guns to Wake, the remainder emplaced in various positions to help bolster the beach defenses. Some good news came in that the Marines did manage to get another Wildcat up and running.
daveswarbirds.com
The morning of the 22nd found the last two Marine fighters, upon a normal patrol, when they intercepted yet another carrier-based raid bound for Wake. This time it was 33 aircraft, with only six Zeros along as an escort. The Japanese were confident that “this time,” they had dealt with the American fighters for good. The two Wildcats made a pass on a formation of six B5N Kate torpedo bombers and downed one in the initial pass. The two fighters made an additional pass, shooting down another Kate before being embroiled with the fighter escorts and forced to split up. One Wildcat crash-landed, the other was never seen again and presumed lost. And with that, Wake no longer had an air force.
The 22nd ended with the relief expedition 425 miles away and Deveraux doing all he could. The remains of VMF-211 had offered themselves as infantry, and with the loss of Battery D, Deveraux had no real anti-aircraft defenses. As the 22nd ended, the stage was set for the final fight. One that in the words of one Japanese officer “…would make the gods weep.”
We’ll pick that up in the final article in the series, along with options to wargame the battle next week. See you then!
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(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)