Kwajalein Atoll

That spacecraft is Link, 425 kilograms, three robotic arms, Hall effect thrusters, six meters across when it's deployed.

It launched on the 3rd of July this year on a Pegasus XL, air-launched out of Kwajalein Atoll.

Which was itself a story.

Pegasus hadn't flown in years.

What's his thinking, Professor?

Well, he knows that Kwajalein is the heart of this.

It's where the main Japanese base is.

And if you take the heart, if you choke that off, all the other auxiliary islands will fall by the wayside.

But the fear is not just among the Joint Chiefs, but among his own subordinate commanders, his amphibious commander, his air commander, his ground, all say, no, no, Kwajalein's too tough.

We should go to one of the outer islands first.

Look how hard Tarawa was.

He ordered that they be applied.

He turned to four very capable men who would carry out the actual operation.

three admirals who were experts in amphibious landings fast carrier strikes and shore bombardment and major-general holland m smith who was the commanding general of the marines five amphibious corps and now also would be commanding general expeditionary troops it was he who would command the troops once they got ashore original cautious plans for stepping-stone attacks starting in the eastern marshals were modified and the daring decision was made to knife through the edges and strike directly at quadrillean atoll in the heart of the marshals cluster of thirty-two atolls more than one thousand islands and eight hundred sixty seven reefs Kwajalein is the largest atoll in the world, 60 miles long and 20 miles wide, a semi-enclosed series of 80 reefs and islets around a huge lagoon of some 800 square miles.

Located 620 miles northwest of Tarawa and 2,415 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor, its capture would have far-reaching strategic significance in that it would break the outer ring of Japanese Pacific defense lines.

within the atoll itself there were two objectives roye and namur a pair of connected islands shaped like weights on a four-mile barbell in the north end and crescent-shaped quadrillean island at the south end the fourth marine division under major-general harry schmidt was to assault roi namur and the army seventh infantry division under major-general charles h corlett would attack kwajalein after these islands were taken there was one more objective in the marshals eniwatak atoll this was targeted for attack some three months later by a task force comprised of the twenty second marine regiment called in the corps the twenty second marines and most of the army's one hundred sixth infantry regiment brig general thomas e watson u s m c would be in command as a preliminary to these priority operations the occupation of another atoll in the eastern marshals was planned this objective was majiro which would serve as an advanced air and naval base and safeguard supply lines to quadrillion two hundred twenty miles to the northwest because it was believed to be very lightly defended only the marine five amphibious corps reconnaissance company and the second battalion one hundred sixth infantry seventh infantry division were assigned to capture to support all of these thrusts there would be a massive assemblage of u s navy ships carriers battleships cruisers destroyers and an astonishingly varied array of transports and landing craft these warships provided a maximum potential for intensive pre-invasion aerial bombing and ship-to-shore bombardment the increased tonnage in high explosives the lengthened duration of the softening up process and the pinpointing of priority enemy targets were all lessons sorely learned from the inadequate preparatory shelling which had contributed to the steep casualties of tarawa for the marshals there were altogether three hundred eighty ships carrying eighty five thousand men with the plans in place and a very tight schedule to meet the d-day deadline the complex task of assembling and transporting the assault troops to the target area was put in motion readying the army seventh division was the easiest part of the logistical plan it was already in hawaii after earlier operations at attu and kiska in the aleutian islands off alaska the twenty second marines however had to come from samoa where it had been on garrison duty for some eighteen months and the fourth marine division was still at camp pendleton in california where it had recently been formed on thirteen january nineteen forty four the division sailed from san diego to commence the longest shore-to-shore amphibious operation in the history of warfare forty three hundred miles life at sea soon settled down into a regular routine all hands soon became acquainted with the rituals of alerts for general quarters in the blackness of pre-dawn mess lines stretching along the passageways inspections and calisthenics on the cluttered decks the loud speaker with its shrill whistle of a boatswain's pipe and its now hear this fresh-water hours and classes and weapons cleaning every day off duty the men took advantage of the opportunity to sleep play cards stand in line for ice cream write letters and of course engage in endless speculation about the division's objective which was originally known only by the intriguing title of burlesque and camouflage on twenty one january the transports carrying the marines anchored in lahaina roads off maui hawaii and visions of shore leave raced through the minds of all the men hula girls surf swimming cooling droughts and a local bar just what was needed after the long nights in the crowded humid troop compartments during the voyage over the ship's loudspeakers sad to say came a not unexpected announcement there will be no liberty after one day filled with conferences and briefings for the senior officers the task force sailed again next stop the marshall islands en route crossing the one hundred eightieth meridian there were the traditional colorful ceremonies in which the old salts initiated the men who had never before crossed the international date line into the domain of the golden dragon on thirty january the ships threaded their way through the eastern atolls of the marshals and the following morning dawn thirty one january they halted before their objectives with the northern component off roi namur and the southern component facing kwajalein island on every transport the men crowded the ship's rails to stare at the low-lying islets which they must soon attack the twenty third twenty fourth and twenty fifth marines were assigned to the roi namur operation and the thirty second seventeenth and one hundred eighty fourth infantry regiments of the army's seventh division were to take the quadrillean island objectives meanwhile the small group assigned to majoro second battalion hundred sixth infantry plus the five amphibious corps reconnaissance company had split off from the main task force and would make its own landing on thirty one january advance intelligence estimates of minimal enemy forces proved accurate there were no american casualties and just one japanese officer was captured on the main islet three days later more than thirty u s ships lay at anchor in the mujiro lagoon forward at the main theatre an awesome pre landing saturation bombardment begun on twenty ninth january was in full swing u s navy ships moved in on roi namur with some at the unprecedented short range of nineteen hundred yards and poured in their point-blank massed fire continuing the repeated aerial strikes which had begun weeks earlier from the carriers waves of planes swept in low for bombing and strafing runs key enemy artillery and blockhouse strong points had earlier been mapped from submarine and aerial reconnaissance and individual attention was given to the destruction of each one the combined total of shells and bombs reached a staggering six thousand tons as a result of the underwater obstacles and beach mines uncovered at tarawa for the first time navy underwater demolition teams had been formed for future operations fortunately they found no mines at roynamur and were not needed at kwajalein another factor which would assist the assault troops was the configuration of the atoll

THE FINAL ATTACK.

ANIWA TALK.

With Kwajalein Atoll now in American hands, a review of the next operation immediately took place.

Admiral Nimitz flew there from Pearl Harbor and met with his top commanders.

February 1st, so 1942, she was at the Marshall Island raid.

She launched the first American offensive airstrikes of the war against Tarawa, and I can't even pronounce this, Kwajalein.

She survived her first direct coordinated counterattack by Japanese twin-engine bombers, and...

So the bombers, the twin-engine ones, weren't like dive bombers.

So we still have an outsized voice in how those key island nations conduct their foreign and defense policy.

And those are absolutely vital areas with names that I think for a lot of this audience in particular should still evoke memories, right? Kwajalein, Tarawa.

Saipan, Tinian.

In the Solomons, interestingly, you know, Guadalcanal, that has been more of a political battleground, along with Papua New Guinea, where the Chinese have been trying to push very hard into establishing explicitly security, but also economic set of ties.

He turned to four very capable men who would carry out the actual operation.

three admirals who were experts in amphibious landings fast carrier strikes and shore bombardment and major-general holland m smith who was the commanding general of the marines five amphibious corps and now also would be commanding general expeditionary troops it was he who would command the troops once they got ashore original cautious plans for stepping-stone attacks starting in the eastern marshals were modified and the daring decision was made to knife through the edges and strike directly at quadrillean atoll in the heart of the marshals cluster of thirty-two atolls more than one thousand islands and eight hundred sixty seven reefs Kwajalein is the largest atoll in the world, 60 miles long and 20 miles wide, a semi-enclosed series of 80 reefs and islets around a huge lagoon of some 800 square miles.

Located 620 miles northwest of Tarawa and 2,415 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor, its capture would have far-reaching strategic significance in that it would break the outer ring of Japanese Pacific defense lines.

within the atoll itself there were two objectives roye and namur a pair of connected islands shaped like weights on a four-mile barbell in the north end and crescent-shaped quadrillean island at the south end the fourth marine division under major-general harry schmidt was to assault roi namur and the army seventh infantry division under major-general charles h corlett would attack kwajalein after these islands were taken there was one more objective in the marshals eniwatak atoll this was targeted for attack some three months later by a task force comprised of the twenty second marine regiment called in the corps the twenty second marines and most of the army's one hundred sixth infantry regiment brig general thomas e watson u s m c would be in command as a preliminary to these priority operations the occupation of another atoll in the eastern marshals was planned this objective was majiro which would serve as an advanced air and naval base and safeguard supply lines to quadrillion two hundred twenty miles to the northwest because it was believed to be very lightly defended only the marine five amphibious corps reconnaissance company and the second battalion one hundred sixth infantry seventh infantry division were assigned to capture to support all of these thrusts there would be a massive assemblage of u s navy ships carriers battleships cruisers destroyers and an astonishingly varied array of transports and landing craft these warships provided a maximum potential for intensive pre-invasion aerial bombing and ship-to-shore bombardment the increased tonnage in high explosives the lengthened duration of the softening up process and the pinpointing of priority enemy targets were all lessons sorely learned from the inadequate preparatory shelling which had contributed to the steep casualties of tarawa for the marshals there were altogether three hundred eighty ships carrying eighty five thousand men with the plans in place and a very tight schedule to meet the d-day deadline the complex task of assembling and transporting the assault troops to the target area was put in motion readying the army seventh division was the easiest part of the logistical plan it was already in hawaii after earlier operations at attu and kiska in the aleutian islands off alaska the twenty second marines however had to come from samoa where it had been on garrison duty for some eighteen months and the fourth marine division was still at camp pendleton in california where it had recently been formed on thirteen january nineteen forty four the division sailed from san diego to commence the longest shore-to-shore amphibious operation in the history of warfare forty three hundred miles life at sea soon settled down into a regular routine all hands soon became acquainted with the rituals of alerts for general quarters in the blackness of pre-dawn mess lines stretching along the passageways inspections and calisthenics on the cluttered decks the loud speaker with its shrill whistle of a boatswain's pipe and its now hear this fresh-water hours and classes and weapons cleaning every day off duty the men took advantage of the opportunity to sleep play cards stand in line for ice cream write letters and of course engage in endless speculation about the division's objective which was originally known only by the intriguing title of burlesque and camouflage on twenty one january the transports carrying the marines anchored in lahaina roads off maui hawaii and visions of shore leave raced through the minds of all the men hula girls surf swimming cooling droughts and a local bar just what was needed after the long nights in the crowded humid troop compartments during the voyage over the ship's loudspeakers sad to say came a not unexpected announcement there will be no liberty after one day filled with conferences and briefings for the senior officers the task force sailed again next stop the marshall islands en route crossing the one hundred eighty meridian there were the traditional colorful ceremonies in which the old salts initiated the men who had never before crossed the international date line into the domain of the golden dragon on thirty january the ships threaded their way through the eastern atolls of the marshals and the following morning dawn thirty one january they halted before their objectives with the northern component off roi namur and the southern component facing kwajalein island on every transport the men crowded the ships rails to stare at the low-lying islets which they must soon attack the twenty third twenty fourth and twenty fifth marines were assigned to the roi namur operation and the thirty second seventeenth and one hundred eighty fourth infantry regiments of the army's seventh division were to take the quadrillean island objectives meanwhile the small group assigned to majoro second battalion hundred sixth infantry plus the five amphibious corps reconnaissance company had split off from the main task force and would make its own landing on thirty one january advance intelligence estimates of minimal enemy forces proved accurate there were no american casualties and just one japanese officer was captured on the main islet three days later more than thirty u s ships lay at anchor in the mujiro lagoon forward at the main theatre an awesome pre landing saturation bombardment begun on twenty ninth january was in full swing u s navy ships moved in on roinaumur with some at the unprecedented short range of nineteen hundred yards and poured in their point-blank massed fire continuing the repeated aerial strikes which had begun weeks earlier from the carriers waves of planes swept in low for bombing and strafing runs key enemy artillery and blockhouse strong points had earlier been mapped from submarine and aerial reconnaissance and individual attention was given to the destruction of each one the combined total of shells and bombs reached a staggering six thousand tons as a result of the underwater obstacles and beach mines uncovered at tarawa for the first time navy underwater demolition teams had been formed for future operations fortunately they found no mines at roynamur and were not needed at kwajalein another factor which would assist the assault troops was the configuration of the atoll the two main objectives at the north end and at the south were each adjoined by islets and these neighboring locations were to be seized on d day thirty one january as bases to provide close-in artillery support for the infantry landing on either side of roinaumur the fourteenth marines would bring in its seventy five millimeter and one hundred five millimeter howitzers and dig them in to support the main landing from islets which carried the exotic names of enubing melu enuber enuminet and enugarit as is always the case in war there were problems the task was assigned to the twenty fifth marines and because of communications difficulties the different units going ashore on different islets could not coordinate their landings their radios went dead from drenching sea-swells that swept over the gunwales of the amtrak's lvt's landing vehicles tracked or amphibian tractors nevertheless by nightfall the beach heads had been secured and for the first time u s marines had landed on a japanese mandate on board the transports outside the lagoon the men of the twenty third and twenty fourth marines spent the afternoon of d day transferring to l s t s landing ships tank that night saw a muddled picture of amphibian tractors stranded or out of gas inside the lagoon with many others wandering in the blackout as they sought to find their own lst mothership while this scramble was going on the assault troops on board the lsts were facing each in his own way the prospect of intensive combat on the following morning one rifleman private first class robert f graff remembered As I thought of the landing that I would be making on the morrow, I was both excited and anxious.

Dug in amidst all this debris, the Japanese fought resolutely.

This kind of close combat usually forced the issue down to the individual level.

an army officer lieutenant-colonel s l a marshall who later interviewed the troops gave this account of how they dealt with the deadly japanese spider-holes they encountered the holes were everywhere each one had to be searched from close up every spot where a man might be hiding had to be stabbed out so greatly was the beach littered with broken foliage that it was like looking through a haystack for a few poisoned needles the fire which cut the men down came from the spider holes farther up the line it was the kind of bitter going that made it necessary for the junior leaders to prod their men constantly the leader of the third squad had been trying to get his men forward against the fire private first class john treger got up rushed forward about ten yards hit the dirt fired a few shots with his bar browning automatic rifle and crumpled with a bullet in his head somewhat farther along a bayonet was seen sticking up through a patch of fronds the jap crouched within it hadn't room to draw in the whole length of the weapon private first class edward fiske fired his bar at the hole the dried fronds caught fire from the tracers at that point fiske ran out of ammunition private first class julian gutierrez then took up the fire from his m one rifle he stood directly above the hole and fired down into it then the hole exploded the jap inside had turned a grenade on himself a man's shattered arm came flying out of the hole and hit gutierrez on the shoulder splattering blood all over his face and clothing the arm bounced off and fell to the side as guterres looked at it fascinated and horror-stricken he saw another bayonet rising out of a patch of fronds just beyond the outstretched hand and still quivering fingers he yelled to a man behind him the man relayed a grenade and guterres pitched it with all his might into the patch of fronds it erupted in a shower of palm leaves and blood and flesh gutierrez reeled over toward the lagoon to cleanse himself of the blood before he could reach the water in sight of all the other men he vomited all over the beach minutes passed before he could gather himself together again as the two army regiments began their third day of combat it was dirty and dangerous work one marine historical summary of the marshal's operation told their story resistance during the day was continually stiffer as the enemy took advantage of every possible uncertainty of the terrain and concentrated the fire of such mortars and artillery as were left to them despite the havoc wrought by the bombardments there was still much cover available and positions were concealed with great adroitness many of the concrete installations still stood in partial ruin even though they had received direct hits from heavy naval guns and the fire from seventy five millimeter cannon had little effect on them it was necessary to employ heavy demolition charges to break emplacements sufficiently for the employment of flamethrowers and grenades in the utter turmoil it was nearly impossible to maintain contact nothing was any longer recognizable the situation was made doubly uncertain from the fact that fire might come from almost any direction at the flanks frontally or from the rear the going was tough weird things can and do happen in such fighting a japanese officer charged a u s tank with just his bare sabre in the dusk one evening japanese riflemen tried to walk into the american lines carrying palm branches in front of their bodies so they would not be seen a u s infantryman carrying a flamethrower approached a pill-box and out through its door bolted a japanese officer in counter-attack he was squirting a fire extinguisher towards the flame gun the liquid doused the american soldier as he let the flame go the japanese officer dropped dead at his feet burned to a crisp and so it went for four long days until the far tip of kwajalein had been reached and the island was declared secured the successful battle for both ends of kwajalein atoll had been concluded and a series of conclusions were drawn from it japanese deaths reached a total of eight thousand one hundred twenty two some twenty seven times the number of americans killed the relatively small scale of u s casualties gave admiral chester w nimitz the ready forces he needed to push forward rapidly with plans for further action first one more atoll in the marshals and then quickly on to the vital mariana islands the linchpin of japan's inner line of defense Kwajalein would provide the air base from which the B-29 bombers would conduct their raids on the Marianas, and the Army 7th Infantry Division and the 4th Marine Division would play key roles in those future operations.

Tactically, there were a variety of innovations in the twin battles at Kwajalein, and these would continue to prove valuable in the future.

My journey took me from London through Los Angeles to Hawaii.

And then from Hawaii, the little island hopper that stops a few times on the way through Maduro and eventually to Kwajalein.

Kwajalein Island has a cool dive center on its base.

But it's a US military installation.

So the entire island, just like Guam, is a US military base.

But the people who actually make everything happen are the local people.

And the local people are from an island just across the way called Ebike, which is where we were ferried to.

So we were ferried from Kwajalein over to Ebay.

It, it ended up being a colossal failure.

They left nine Marines behind on Makin Atoll, all of whom were eventually beheaded on Kwajalein.

There was a surrender note written.

I mean, think about it.