Hello all... Just wondering if anyone has a TOE for 1941 USMC companies and battalions? Also does anyone know of any good sources for the defence of Wake Island that detail the defenders equipment and armaments? Many Thanks VVV
Best I could find: Wargames Journal dunno if it's really 1941 though. You may be able to extrapolate what you're after from here though: The Marine Rifle Squad The home page has a pdf copy of "Amphibious Operations, Staff Officers' Manual, USMC, Nov 1944", a large 20 meg document (240 pages of scanned original) beginning with clear organisation tables right down to the smallest detail: Amphibious Operations, Staff Officers' Manual, USMC, Nov 1944 not the right period but great stuff & they announce "More document metadata is coming soon". (their source for the above is the 'U. S. Army Military History Institute' nice website and with digging, they may have what's needed too. Cheers, Adam.
From here Wake Island Defense 1 Over and above the 1,200 civilian contract employees, the military population of Wake (almost 20 percent of whom were without arms or equipment) total 38 officer and 485 enlisted as follows: Section Officers Enlisted 1st Defense Battalion detachment 15 373 VMF-211 and attachments 12 49 U.S. Naval Air Station 10 58 (without arms) Army Air Corps 1 4 (without arms) USS Triton 1 (without arms) On the entire atoll, therefore, equipped and trained for combat, there were but 449 marines of all ranks, the sole defense of Wake against attack by land and sea and air. [4] For details as to composition and organization of the Marine defense battalion of this time, see United States Marine Corps tables of organization D-133 through D-155-D. Generally speaking, the defense battalion was an artillery unit containing three 3-inch antiaircraft batteries, three 5-inch (Navy weapons) seacoast artillery batteries, a searchlight and sound locator battery, and antiaircraft (.50 caliber) and ground (.30 caliber) machine gun batteries. In 1941, strength of a typical battalion was 43 officers and 939 enlisted, and its two most characteristic attributes were all-around, balanced structure and a high degree of strategic mobility. The latter characteristic, however, disappeared at the battalion's destination, and, once in position, a defense battalion was perpetually plagued by insufficient transportation and by the stringency of personnel deliberately written into its organization
This too. Wake Island, 7.12.1941 Wake Island Command Commanding Officer: Cdr. Winfield S. Cunningham (USN) • YCK-1 Naval Air Station Wake Island (10 officers, 59 enlisted Navy personnel) Commanding Officer: Cdr. Winfield S. Cunningham (USN) Marine Detachment, 1st Defense Battalion, Wake Island (15 officers, 373 enlisted Marines) Commanding Officer: MAJ James P.S. Devereux (USMC) • A Battery (2x 5"/51 naval guns) – 1LT C.A. Barninger – Peacock Point, Wake Island • B Battery (2x 5"/51 naval guns) – 1LT Kessler – Toki Point, Peale Island • D Battery (4x 3"/50 anti-aircraft guns, director & heightfinder) Toki Point, Peale Island • E Battery (4x 3"/50 anti-aircraft guns) – 2LT R.M. Hanna – Peacock Point, Wake Island • F Battery (4x 3"/50 anti-aircraft guns) (inactive) Kuku Point, Wilkes Island • L Battery (2x 5"/51 naval guns) – 2LT J.A. McAlister – Kuku Point, Wilkes Island • Searchlight Battery (6 lights) • Machinegun Group (18x .50cal anti-aircraft machineguns) • Machinegun Group (30x .30cal machineguns) Detachment Marine Fighter Squadron (VMF) 211 (12 officers, 49 enlisted Marines) Commanding Officer: MAJ Paul A. Putnam (USMC) [reports to MAJ Devereux] 12x F4F-3 Detachment 407th Army Air Forces Signal Company (1 officer, 5 enlisted Army personnel) Commanding Officer: CPT Henry S. Wilson (US) Resident Officer in Charge of Construction Mr. Nathan D. Teters 1146 CPAB (Contractors Pacific Naval Air Bases) civilian workers Pan American Airways Station 70 civilian employees
here too Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island - Questia Online Library Appendix I ORGANIZATION AND DEFENSE INSTALLATIONS OF THE WAKE ISLAND DETACHMENT, FIRST DEFENSE BATTALION, 6 DECEMBER 1941 Wake Island 1ST DEFENSE BATTALION HEADQUARTERS (CAMP 1) Commanding Officer: Maj. James P. S. Devereux Executive Officer: Maj. George H. Potter Jr. Munitions Officer: Marine Gunner John Hamas Ordnance Officer: Marine Gunner Harold C. Borth Communications Officer: T. Sgt. Randolph M. June Medical Officer: Lt. (j.g.) G. Mason Kahn, USNR Battery H: 2d Lt. Robert M. Hanna (eighteen .50-caliber antiaircraft machine guns deployed around the atoll) Battery I: 2d Lt. Arthur A. Poindexter (thirty .30-caliber machine guns. Poindexter emplaced twenty-six guns around the atoll, keeping four at Camp 1 for the Mobile Reserve.) Mobile Reserve: 2d Lt. Arthur A. Poindexter (four .30-caliber machine guns) Sources: Lt. (Col. James P. S. Devereux, USMC, "Wake Island Report, Marine Detachment First Defense Battalion, 18 March 1946", 2-3, MCHA; Lt. Col. Arthur A. Poindexter, USMC, "Informal Report on the Operations of the .30 caliber MG Battery and the Mobile Reserve during the Defense of Wake Island", 4 April 1947, 1-3, MCHA
This is the carrier movements for the first year in the Pacific and the early intentions and activities for Wake after the fall. Movement of Carriers in 1942
My father was Captain D.L.Weiler USMCR, B Company Commander, 1st. Battalion, 3rd Marines. He made the landing on Bougainville, Solomon Islands, on 1 November 1943. Would Battalion records still be accessible for that time period? Did Battalions keep detailed daily diaries during those campaigns? I'm researching his Silver Star for that landing, and other incidents shortly thereafter. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction if possible. Semper Fi, Don
In the early stages of the war, Wake Island fell to the Japanese, but in the later stages, America managed to re capture the island, and defeat the enemy
The pictures I've of the Wake Island sailors and Marines typically show 1903 and 1903A3 Springfields rifles and water cooled 1917 .30 and 1919 .50 machine guns. I haven't seen any M1s, air cooled Browning or BARs, but that doesn't mean they weren't there, of course . They also had the prewar helmets patterned after the British helmet Dave
Wake's defense and the inability (or failure, depending on your point of view) of the Navy to come to their relief is a tragic story. You may also find interesting the story of the Americans kept on Wake by the Japanese forces, 98 men ultimately executed by the Japanese. Copied from my book's chapter notes, this includes more references: One was executed in July for stealing food. The rest survived to work for the Japanese until October when, just after a shelling by the U.S. Navy, their captors brought the Americans to a sandy ditch on the north side of the island and gunned them down, all but one. (see "Massacre on Wake Island," Naval Institute Proceedings, February 2001, 30). Some sources disagree regarding the number of Americans executed, but "Without a Hangman, Without a Rope: Navy War Crimes Trials after World War II" in International Journal of Naval History, April 2002 indicates 98, and 98 is consistent with a carving on a coral rock inscribed by a prisoner who escaped the mass execution, carved the rock, and was later recaptured and beheaded by Wake’s Japanese commander, Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara. "The 98 Rock" is now a Wake Island landmark.
Off topic slightly, but A japanese soldier was able to evade the US forces for a considerable time after surrender 2-5 years from memory, must have plenty of nooks & cranneys regards
Off topic slightly, but A japanese soldier was able to evade the US forces for a considerable time after surrender 2-5 years from memory, must have plenty of nooks & cranneys regards Wasn't aware of this on Wake, but Guam's last Japanese soldier finally surrendered in 1972.
