The Battle of Wake Island was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on Wake Island. The assault was one of five simultaneous assaults on American naval and air bases in the Pacific on the morning of 8 December 1941 (7 December in Hawaii), with the Battle of Wake Island ending on 23 December, with the surrender of American forces to the Empire of Japan. It was fought on and around the atoll formed by Wake Island and its minor islets of Peale and Wilkes Islands by the air, land, and naval forces of the Japanese Empire against those of the United States, with marines playing a prominent role on both sides.
The battle started with a surprise bombing raid on 8 December 1941, within hours of Pearl Harbor, and the air raids continued almost every day for the duration of the battle. There were two amphibious assaults, one on 11 December 1941 (which was rebuffed) and another on 23 December, that led to the Japanese capture of the atoll. In addition, there were several air battles above and around Wake and an encounter between two naval vessels. The U.S. lost control of the island and 12 fighter aircraft; in addition to the garrison being taken as prisoners of war, nearly 1,200 civilian contractors were also captured by the Japanese. The Japanese lost about two dozen aircraft of different types, four surface vessels, and two submarines as part of the operation, in addition to at least 600 armed forces. It is typically noted that 98 civilian POWs captured in this battle were used for slave labor and then executed on Wake Island in October 1943. The other POWs were deported and sent to prisoner of war camps in Asia, with five executed on the sea voyage.
The island was held by the Japanese for the duration of the Pacific War; the remaining Japanese garrison on the island surrendered to a detachment of United States Marines on 4 September 1945, after the earlier surrender on 2 September 1945 on the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay to General Douglas MacArthur.
Prelude
In January 1941, the United States Navy began construction of a military base on the atoll. On 19 August, the first permanent military garrison, elements of the 1st Marine Defense Battalion deployed to Wake Island under the command of Major J.P.S. Devereux, USMC with a force of 450 officers and men. Despite the relatively small size of the atoll, the Marines could not man all their defensive positions nor did they arrive with all their equipment, notably their air search radar units. The Marine Detachment was supplemented by Marine Corps Fighter Squadron VMF-211, consisting of 12 F4F-3 Wildcat fighters, commanded by Marine aviator Major Paul A. Putnam, USMC. Also present on the island were 68 U.S. Navy personnel.
About 1,221 civilian workers for the Morrison-Knudsen Civil Engineering Company were present on the island for the construction of the military facilities. Most of these men were veterans of previous construction programs for the Boulder Dam, Bonneville Dam, or Grand Coulee Dam projects. Others were men who were in desperate situations and great need for money. The construction plans included an airfield, a seaplane base, a submarine base, and a channel cut through Wilkes Island for submarines to be able to reach the lagoon. The 326-foot dredge Columbia arrived in April 1941 and immediately set about her task.
Pan American Airways also had facilities on the island, which served as one of the stops on the Pan Am Clipper trans-Pacific amphibious air service initiated in 1935. The civilian facility was part of a string of seaplane bases that opened the first commercial air route across the Pacific, and other stops were at islands across the Pacific. The flying boats were some of the largest fixed-wing aircraft of the day, and the tickets were very expensive but did allow a much faster trip to Asia and Australia. A couple dozen or so Pan-American employees, plus 45 Chamorro men (native Micronesians from the Mariana Islands and Guam) were employed at the company's facilities on Wake Island, which included a seaplane base and a hotel. Pan Am remained in operation up to the day of the first Japanese air raid in December 1941.
The Marines were armed with six 5-inch (127 mm)/51 cal pieces, originating from the old battleship Texas; twelve 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal anti-aircraft guns (with only a single working anti-aircraft director among them); eighteen .50 in (12.7 mm) Browning heavy machine guns; and thirty .30 in (7.62 mm) heavy, medium, and light water- and air-cooled machine guns.
The Marines were still equipped with the bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifle (firing 30-06), as they had yet to switch over to the semi-automatic M1 Garand rifle. Other small arms included Thompson submachine guns and pistols in .45 caliber, as well as hand grenades.
One of the tasks of the newly built air base was resupplying B-17 bombers transiting the Pacific Ocean.
On 28 November, naval aviator Commander Winfield S. Cunningham, USN reported to Wake to assume overall command of U.S. forces on the island. He had ten days to examine the defenses and assess his men before war broke out. The United States had two Tambor-class U.S. submarines operating around Wake Island.
On 6 December, Japanese Submarine Division 27 (Ro-65, Ro-66, Ro-67) was dispatched from Kwajalein Atoll to patrol and blockade the pending operation. The attack would start with air raids from Japanese island bases at Kwajalein to the south. The invasion fleet for the amphibious assault was also being assembled. The date of the coming attack on Wake would be 8 December 1941, but it was the same time as the 7 December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack because it was on the other side of the date line.
Initial airstrike and bombings
Sunday 7 December 1941 was a clear day on Wake Island. The day before, Devereux ordered a practice drill for his Marines, which was the first one done because of the great need to focus on the island's defenses. The drill went well enough that Devereux commanded the men to rest and take their time relaxing, doing laundry, writing letters, thinking, cleaning, or doing whatever they wished.
On Monday, 8 December 1941, the day started normally enough, a China Clipper Martin M-130 had left and was on its way to Guam with passengers, when it received a radio message about the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was told to return to Wake. Wake was on the other side of the date line, so though just hours away in time from Pearl Harbor, the massive attacks by Japan came on Monday, not Sunday.
Just hours after receiving word of the attack on Pearl Harbor, 36 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M3 medium bombers flown from bases on the Marshall Islands attacked Wake Island, destroying eight of the 12 F4F-3 Wildcats on the ground and sinking the Nisqually, a former Design 1023 cargo ship converted into a scow. The remaining four F4F Wildcats were in the air patrolling, but because of poor visibility, failed to see the attacking Japanese bombers. These Wildcats shot down two bombers on the following day. All of the Marine garrison's defensive emplacements were left intact by the first raid, which primarily targeted the aircraft. Of the 55 Marine aviation personnel, 23 were killed and 11 were wounded. The Japanese bombing raid killed nine Pan Am employees and destroyed many of the buildings.
Following this attack, the Pan Am employees were evacuated, along with the passengers of the Philippine Clipper, as the Martin 130 had survived the attack unscathed, save a few bullet holes. The surviving Chamorro workers did not board the plane and were left behind. The aircraft was stripped down to hold as many as possible, and about 40 passengers could fit but they had to sit on the bare floor. The Philippine Clipper took three take-off attempts to get airborne and then flew to Midway, then Honolulu, and finally San Francisco over three days, and the passengers provided first-hand accounts of the attack. The passengers not only experienced the Wake air raid, but also had seen damage at Midway and Pearl Harbor on the way back to San Francisco. Midway was also attacked that day along with Wake and Pearl; it was shelled by two Japanese destroyers that withdrew after being hit by Midway's shore batteries. The attack destroyed a PBY Catalina and there were several casualties, along with damage to the facilities there.
Of the 45 Chamorros, five were killed and five wounded in the initial airstrikes on 8 December, and the five in the hospital died the next day when the hospital was bombed. The military commander of Wake asked the surviving Chamorros if they would help defend the island; they agreed and helped fortify the island. They were taken POW, with 33 surviving the war, and in 1982 they were granted veteran status for their contributions during the battle.
Two more air raids followed in the following days. The main camp was targeted on 9 December, destroying the civilian hospital and the Pan Am air facility. The next day, enemy bombers focused on outlying Wilkes Island. Following the raid on 9 December, the four antiaircraft guns had been relocated in case the Japanese had photographed the positions. Wooden replicas were erected in their place, and the Japanese bombers attacked the decoy positions. A lucky strike on a civilian dynamite supply set off a chain reaction and destroyed the munitions for the guns on Wilkes.
Late on the night of 10 December 1941 the submarine USS Triton, operating south of Wake, fired four torpedoes at what it thought to be a Japanese destroyer in the landing invasion fleet destroyer picket line, that was going to arrive at Wake that morning of the 11th.
After an unsuccessful Japanese landing attempt on 11 December, there would be air raids most days by G3M "Nells" and/or flying boats, with the F4F Wildcats and anti-aircraft batteries trying to defend. Meanwhile, back at Pearl Harbor a plan was developed to resupply Wake and evacuate the civilian contractors.
First landing attempt (11 December)
Early on the morning of 11 December, the garrison, with the support of the four remaining Wildcats, repelled the first Japanese landing attempt by the South Seas Force.
The Japanese invasion fleet for the 11 December assault included the light cruisers Yūbari, Tenryū, and Tatsuta; the older Mutsuki and Kamikaze-class destroyers Yayoi, Mutsuki, Kisaragi, Hayate, Mochizuki and Oite, submarine tender Jingei, two armed merchantmen (Kinryu Maru and Kongō Maru), and two Momi-class destroyers converted to patrol boats that were reconfigured in 1941 to launch a landing craft over a stern ramp (Patrol Boat No. 32 and Patrol Boat No. 33) containing 450 Special Naval Landing Force troops. Submarines Ro-65, Ro-66, and Ro-67 patrolled nearby to secure the perimeter.
In the early morning hours of 11 December the Japanese fleet moved within range and began shelling the island around 06:00. The island was already on alert by morning because Cunningham had been informed the Japanese were trying to jam radio communication during the night. Prior to the landing assault, Cunningham had been working to get the civilians away, but Pearl Harbor had lost so many ships in the December 7 attack that there were fewer resources available for a relief mission. Because of the concern over radio jamming, Wake was able to send up four serviceable F4F Wildcats on patrol before the invasion fleet arrived.
After Japanese ships were spotted Cunningham ordered that the guns hold fire until they got into closer range. The US Marines began firing at the invasion fleet with their six 5-inch (127 mm) coast-defense guns as they approached the island.
"Battery L", on Peale islet, sank Hayate at a distance of 4,000 yd (3,700 m) with at least two direct hits to her magazines, causing her to explode and sink within two minutes, in full view of the defenders on shore. Battery A claimed to have hit Yubari several times, but her action report makes no mention of any damage. The four Wildcats also succeeded in sinking the destroyer Kisaragi by dropping a bomb on her stern, where the depth charges were stored, although some also suggest the bomb hitting elsewhere and an explosion amidships. Two destroyers were thus lost with nearly all hands (there was only one survivor, from Hayate), with Hayate becoming the first Japanese surface warship to be sunk in the war. The Japanese recorded 407 casualties during the first attempt. The Japanese force withdrew without landing, suffering their first setback of the war against the Americans.
Later in the day, the Japanese conducted an air raid of 17 G3M2 "Nell" bombers, of which, between the defending F4F Wildcats and anti-aircraft, they claimed two shot down and 11 damaged. The invasion fleet returned to the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands, and preparations for the Wake relief mission continued in Hawaii. During the battle, one Wildcat had been hit by fire, which, although landing safely, rendered it unserviceable. This left three Wildcats available for air patrols.
After the initial raid was fought off, American news media reported that, when queried about reinforcement and resupply, Cunningham was reported to have quipped, "Send us more Japs!" In fact, Cunningham sent a long list of critical equipment—including gunsights, spare parts, and fire-control radar—to his immediate superior: Commandant, 14th Naval District. The siege and frequent Japanese air attacks on the Wake garrison continued, without resupply for the Americans, even though progress was being made on how to accomplish this.