Sgt. Kenneth 9 was scheduled to ship again to the states that Monday morning. After partying till 5 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, the twenty seventh Infantry platoon sergeant sat exhausted in entrance of Schofield Barracks.
Then Japanese planes flew overhead, strafing all the pieces in sight.
9’s commanding officer ran up and stated, “Get within the saddle since you aren’t going anyplace.”
The twenty fifth Infantry Division—simply 67 days previous—had entered World Struggle II.
The division had been activated on Oct. 1, 1941, when the Struggle Division reorganized the previous Hawaiian Division, splitting it into two separate divisions: the twenty fourth and the twenty fifth Infantry Divisions.
This newly organized unit quickly turned one of many conflict’s most aggressive combating forces. It was considered one of solely two Army divisions to expertise fight from that first chaotic morning at Pearl Harbor straight by to occupying defeated Japan nearly 4 years later. Right now, the division stays headquartered at Schofield Barracks, the identical Hawaiian submit the place its World Struggle II saga started.
Pearl Harbor: Baptism Underneath Hearth
The division’s troopers scrambled into motion that December morning. Sgt. 9 ignored his hangover to interrupt down provide room doorways and get machine weapons and ammunition onto the barracks’ rooftop.
Cpl. Bronsil Metz watched Capt. Dailey dash throughout the parade floor, firing his .45 pistol at plane with zero probability of hitting them however each intention of combating again. One officer exited his residence in his pajamas, firing his private pistol on the incoming planes. Troopers on the parade deck fired their Springfield rifles. One man by accident dropped his Browning Automated Rifle within the commotion, which discharged and wounded him.
Troopers watched as Japanese planes swooped in, their machine weapons ripping into the barracks partitions and the parade deck. Within the chaos, Personal Walter R. French was killed, turning into the primary man of the division to die within the conflict.
Troopers fired again with no matter that they had—rifles, pistols, even a swiftly assembled machine gun that allegedly managed to down not less than one enemy plane. When it was over, two males from the division have been useless and 17 have been wounded.
The 2-month-old division instantly deployed to defensive positions alongside Oahu’s seashores. For the subsequent yr, troopers dug fortifications, strung barbed wire, and educated obsessively in jungle warfare whereas expecting a possible enemy invasion. Sgt. 9 would stay with the division all through the conflict.
In Could 1942, Maj. Gen. J. Lawton Collins took command. An infantry officer who had missed World Struggle I fight, Collins introduced aggressive tactical instincts that might quickly earn him the nickname “Lightning Joe.”
In the meantime, the division wanted a 3rd infantry regiment earlier than it moved to Guadalcanal. The 161st had been en path to the Philippines when Pearl Harbor was attacked and diverted to Hawaii. These Washingtonian Nationwide Guardsmen would combat alongside the common Army’s twenty seventh and thirty fifth Infantry Regiments by the remainder of the conflict.
The Battle for Guadalcanal
Having been one of many first divisions to see WWII fight, the division additionally had the excellence of being one of many few to launch the primary offensive towards Japan. The primary parts of the twenty fifth Division landed close to Guadalcanal’s Tenaru River on Dec. 17, 1942, relieving the exhausted Marines.
Amongst them was Cpl. James Jones, a 21-year-old personal in F Firm, twenty seventh Infantry, who would later immortalize the division’s experiences in his novels.
The troopers confronted a nightmare panorama of impenetrable jungle, insufficient maps, tropical illnesses, and an enemy decided to die fairly than give up.
Collins obtained orders in early January 1943 from XIV Corps commander Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch to grab three targets close to the Matanikau River—Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse.
The twenty seventh Infantry Regiment confronted the Galloping Horse, a 900-foot ridge that resembled a working horse. The thirty fifth Infantry would deal with the Sea Horse whereas coping with the Gifu strongpoint, a seemingly impregnable Japanese place on Mount Austen.
On Jan. 10, the assault started. The thirty fifth Infantry’s assault on the Sea Horse turned disastrous when Firm Okay walked into a large ambush. Japanese machine weapons shredded the advancing People.
As the corporate fell again, Sgt. William Fournier and Tech. fifth Grade Lewis Corridor rushed to an deserted machine gun. With one other soldier holding up the weapon by its tripod to extend its subject of fireplace, they turned the gun on advancing Japanese infantry. Each males obtained mortal wounds, however their actions earned posthumous Medals of Honor and saved Firm Okay from full annihilation.
The twenty seventh Infantry hit snags in its transfer on the Galloping Horse, however saved pushing towards the enemy. By Jan. 12, the regiment held Hills 51 and 52 however wanted Hill 53—the horse’s head—to finish the target. Water had run out. Males licked moisture from leaves; many have been near warmth exhaustion.
Capt. Charles Davis, govt officer of the 2nd Battalion, volunteered to hold directions to the businesses caught in crossfire from Japanese machine weapons. The Alabama native and College of Alabama regulation pupil navigated 800 yards of sniper-infested terrain, dodging bullets to succeed in Firm E pinned down on a ridge.
Davis discovered the trapped troopers, pinned by a Japanese machine gun nest blocking the advance. Grabbing a number of rifles and pistols, Davis led a direct assault on the place, killing its crew. Firm E swept up the ridge.
Minutes after Davis’s assault, heavy rain broke the drought. Troopers tilted their helmets or held them out to catch water. It was a welcome second as they ready for the ultimate push.
Col. William McCulloch ordered his three artillery battalions to pound Hill 53. On Jan. 13, coordinated assaults from two instructions swept by the weakened Japanese defenders. By the tip of the day, your entire Galloping Horse belonged to the twenty seventh Infantry.
Davis later obtained the Medal of Honor for his actions. Years afterward, attending Command and Common Workers School, he sat in for an examination on infantry ways. One query described an assault on an enemy place.
“The motion described within the take a look at was the identical one I fought by on Guadalcanal,” Davis stated later, noting the irony.
In the meantime, the 161st Infantry cleared the Matanikau River Pocket, a dense jungle redoubt between a steep hillside and a cliff holding an estimated 500 Japanese troops. The mix of frequent assaults, heavy artillery bombardment, and hunger finally eradicated this strongpoint.
The division’s 31-day Guadalcanal marketing campaign ended Feb. 5, 1943, when parts linked with the Americal Division close to Cape Esperance. The pace and aggression displayed by Collins’s troops was praised, although his division suffered a number of hundred casualties.
Lightning Strikes the Solomons
After 5 months garrisoning Guadalcanal, the division jumped again into fight in July 1943, touchdown on New Georgia to seize Munda airfield.
Col. James Dalton commanded the 161st, a West Level graduate who would turn out to be legendary for his management. The regiment moved for 9 brutal days simply to succeed in their assault positions towards fierce resistance and monsoon climate. On July 22, after lastly linking with different American forces at Bairoko, Dalton reportedly greeted the commander with an enthusiastic, “Boy, am I glad to see you!”
The twenty seventh Infantry executed a powerful however harsh 19-day march by jungle mud to seize Bairoko Harbor. Troopers slogged by waist-deep swamps, hacked by vegetation, and fought off nighttime infiltration makes an attempt whereas advancing inch by bloody inch towards their goal.
The division cleared Arundel Island on Sept. 24 and seized Kolombangara with its very important Vila Airport on Oct. 6. Organized resistance on New Georgia ended on Aug. 25.
After nearly a yr in tropical fight zones, the division sailed for New Zealand in December 1943 for relaxation and coaching. The final parts arrived Dec. 5, exhausted however victorious. Following months of recuperation and substitute, the division moved to New Caledonia in February 1944 for intensive amphibious coaching in preparation for the American return to the Philippines.
The Liberation of the Philippines
The division landed at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon on Jan. 11, 1945. Maj. Gen. Charles Mullins Jr. had changed Collins when he transferred to Europe to command VII Corps within the Normandy invasion. Troopers have been rested, re-equipped, and prepared. They instantly drove throughout the Luzon Central Plain towards Binalonan, assembly Japanese forces there on Jan. 17.
The 161st Infantry Regiment encountered heavy resistance, turning again Japanese tanks and infantry to safe Binalonan the next day. The boys found that the majority of Japan’s 2nd Tank Division had dug in its tanks, changing them into stationary pillboxes in a determined final stand.
Brig. Gen. Dalton, now the division’s assistant commander, personally led forces into the savage five-day Battle of San Manuel, the place each constructing was a fortress and the tanks served as hardened bunkers. On Jan. 28, the 161st captured San Manuel after brutal house-to-house city fight.
Through the combating, Tech. 4th Grade Laverne Parrish, a medic with the 161st Infantry, earned a Medal of Honor for repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fireplace to rescue wounded males. Within the early hours of Jan. 24, when his firm withdrew underneath intense fireplace, Parrish noticed two wounded males nonetheless within the subject and crawled ahead underneath enemy fireplace to deliver each to security in two successive journeys. He was killed by enemy fireplace whereas evacuating further casualties.
Shifting by the rice paddies, the division occupied Umingan, Lupao, and San Jose, destroying Japanese armor with infantry assault weapons. Close to Lupao on Feb. 7, Grasp Sgt. Charles L. McGaha of Firm G, thirty fifth Infantry, earned a Medal of Honor. When his platoon was pinned down by 5 Japanese tanks supported by ten machine weapons and riflemen, he crossed 40 yards of open floor underneath heavy fireplace to maneuver a wounded man to security.
Regardless of struggling a extreme arm wound, he returned to his submit, assumed command when the platoon chief was wounded, and confronted enemy fireplace a number of instances to assist wounded troopers. By the marketing campaign’s finish, the twenty fifth had knocked out greater than 250 Japanese tanks—a staggering toll achieved largely by soldiers utilizing bazookas, rifle grenades, and satchel fees in shut fight, whereas killing greater than 6,500 enemy troopers.
On Feb. 21, the division started operations within the Caraballo Mountains alongside Freeway 5. The terrain featured steep ridges, thick jungle, and well-prepared Japanese defensive positions commanded by Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita himself.
The division pushed ahead towards fierce counterattacks, taking Digdig, Putlan, and Kapintalan. The combat for Balete Cross turned a months-long battle of attrition. Japanese forces used the mountainous terrain brilliantly, creating layered defenses that blunted American firepower and mobility.
Whereas serving as a platoon information with Co. B, twenty seventh Infantry, Workers Sgt. Raymond H. Cooley led an assault towards a number of hid enemy positions. When machine weapons pinned his platoon down, Cooley superior to one of many weapons and lobbed a grenade. The enemy threw it again as he armed and tossed one other; the blast didn’t injure him.
After destroying the primary gun, he charged one other one, throwing extra grenades into enemy positions alongside the way in which. As he armed one other grenade, a number of Japanese troops charged him simply as his males superior behind him to satisfy them. To keep away from hurting his personal males within the blast, he dropped onto the grenade to defend them. He was severely wounded by the explosion, however his males managed to save lots of him and destroy the final enemy place, incomes Cooley a Medal of Honor for his heroic deeds.
On Could 16, 1945, tragedy hit the division laborious. Brig. Gen. Dalton, the day after his forces captured Balete Cross, was shot within the head by a Japanese sniper whereas inspecting the conquered defenses. In a letter despatched weeks earlier to a good friend, Dalton had written, “It goes okay out right here, Pete, like another nook of the conflict males stay laborious and scramble and scratch to beat the opposite man — and a few do not come again.”
Dalton was considered one of solely 11 U.S. basic officers killed in motion throughout World Struggle II. The Filipino authorities later renamed the go in his honor—it is nonetheless referred to as Dalton Cross at present.
The seize of Santa Fe on Could 27 opened the gateway to the Cagayan Valley. The division continued mopping up operations till June 30, having suffered roughly 650 killed and 1,920 wounded in the course of the mountain marketing campaign—the very best fight demise toll of any division within the Sixth Army in the course of the Luzon marketing campaign.
Operation Downfall: The Invasion of Mainland Japan
On July 1, the division moved to Tarlac for coaching, making ready for Operation Downfall—the deliberate invasion of Japan. The twenty fifth was assigned to I Corps of Common Walter Krueger’s Sixth Army for Operation Olympic, scheduled for Nov. 1, 1945.
The division would kind a part of the Japanese Assault Pressure, touchdown at Twine Seaside south of the Oyodo River close to Miyazaki on the jap coast of Kyushu. Their goal was to seize Miyazaki metropolis and its close by airfield, then drive westward towards Miyakonojo to hyperlink up with the forty third Infantry Division.
The troopers knew what awaited them. Navy planners estimated between 200,000 to 500,000 American casualties only for Kyushu, with doubtlessly 1,000,000 complete to overcome all of Japan. The Japanese had assembled 700,000 defenders on Kyushu alone, with hundreds of kamikaze plane ready to strike the invasion fleet.
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in addition to the Soviet entry into the Pacific Struggle in August eradicated that grim necessity.
From Enemies to Allies
As an alternative, the division departed for Japan on Sept. 20, 1945, arriving to function occupation forces. They established headquarters in Nagoya on Honshu’s important island, later shifting to Osaka in January 1946 to increase their occupation space.
On Nov. 1, 1945, the 161st Infantry was inactivated and changed by the 4th Infantry Regiment. What adopted represented an sudden second within the unit’s historical past. Troopers who had fought viciously towards Japanese forces throughout the Pacific now helped rebuild the shattered nation.
The native Holy Household orphanage in Osaka confronted extreme struggles in 1949, with lots of the youngsters being conflict orphans who misplaced their mother and father in fight or American bombings. Males from the twenty seventh Infantry Regiment and eighth Area Artillery supplied hundreds of {dollars} in donations through the years.
They finally adopted the orphanage to assist look after the youngsters, receiving worldwide recognition for his or her generosity. The connection continues at present—the regiment has hosted youngsters from the orphanage for visits to Hawaii yearly since 1957, a 75-year custom that the troopers proudly preserve.
Most Japanese civilians responded with amazement and gratitude to the kindness displayed by American troops. When a critical typhus epidemic hit Osaka, the 4th Infantry Regiment deployed 300 groups to work with Japanese authorities, serving to get rid of the illness utilizing DDT and inoculations.
The division remained in Japan till July 1950—almost 5 years serving to remodel former enemies into democratic allies. However the occupation ended abruptly when North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. The division deployed to Korea from its bases in Japan, starting one other chapter in its storied historical past. The troopers poured hundreds of {dollars} from their final paychecks in-country to the orphanage as they shipped out.
The Tropic Lightning Legacy
The twenty fifth Infantry Division participated in 4 World Struggle II campaigns: Central Pacific, Guadalcanal, Northern Solomons, and Luzon. Six troopers earned the Medal of Honor for actions in the course of the conflict. It had fought for 165 steady days in fight, struggling roughly 5,423 casualties in the course of the conflict.
In 1953, it adopted the nickname “Tropic Lightening” for its quick, aggressive fights from Hawaii, throughout the complete Pacific, to mainland Japan itself.
James Jones’s novels introduced lasting literary fame to the division. “The Skinny Crimson Line” turned required studying for understanding Pacific Struggle fight earlier than the work was tailored to movie in 1964 and famously in 1998. Jones’s earlier work, “From Right here to Eternity,” captured the pre-war Army life at Schofield Barracks and earned each important acclaim and a 1953 Academy Award-winning movie adaptation.
From that chaotic morning at Schofield Barracks to occupation responsibility in Osaka, the brand-new division earned its place as probably the most storied models within the U.S. Army. The lightning bolt superimposed on a Taro leaf stays one of many Army’s most recognizable shoulder patches.
Whereas troopers jokingly name it the “Electrical Strawberry,” the patch honors the division’s Hawaiian roots and its WWII experiences. Solely the twenty fifth and its sister division, the twenty fourth, can declare they have been the primary to combat towards the Japanese in the course of the conflict and occupy the enemy nation years later.
Story Continues
