War and Remembrance: Wake

70 years ago, at about the same time that Pearl Harbor was being pummeled by a Japanese sneak attack, a Japanese air attack was also launched against the small atoll of Wake Island, in the central Pacific, roughly between Hawaii and the Philippines. The island was home to a Pan American air service operation, a small military airstrip, about 500 USMC and Navy personnel, along with 1220 assorted civilian contractors.

The air attack on Wake achieved surprise: land-based bombers from the Marianas succeeded in destroying 8 of the 12 F4F Wildcat fighters of VMF-211 on the ground, and costing the squadron almost half of it's personnel.

War had come to Wake.

Three days later -- December 11 -- a small Japanese invasion fleet approached Wake, consisting of three light cruisers, six destroyers, two patrol boats, and two transports, carrying 450 Japanese Marines. The Japanese anticipated no problem with taking Wake Island from the garrison known to be on the island, such was their confidence in themselves and arrogance in their belittling view of Americans.

The Marines and Navy personnel on Wake gave the Japanese a wake-up call.

A key part of the Wake defense system were six 5" guns, positioned strategically around the three islets that made up Wake (Wake, Peale, and Wilkes islets). Supported by 399 Marines, the remaining four F4Fs of VMF-211, and commanded by US Navy Cmdr Winfield Cunningham and Marine Major James Devereux, defenders was ready when the Japanese task force was sighted in the pre-dawn hours of December 11. Gunners of the 5" batteries withheld their fire until the task force was well within range, and then unleashed deadly accurate fire upon the task force: one Japanese light cruiser was badly damaged, and one destroyer was lost with all hands; equipped with aerial bombs, the four Wildcat fighters attacked, sinking a second destroyer. With that, the Japanese landing attempt was aborted, and the bloodied task force withdrew.

After a string of early victories, Japan had received her first 'check' in the Pacific.

In reporting the repulse -- and requesting supplies and reinforcements -- Cmdr. Cunningham is reputed to have included in his message, "Send us more Japs". It was heady stuff in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, and in view of the bleak news from other areas of the Pacific. At Pearl Harbor, Admiral Kimmel immediately arranged for reinforcements and supplies, and dispatched them on a task group centered around the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga.

The Japanese -- chastened by their spirited repulse -- reorganized their attack, and set off to not make the same mistakes twice. Besides land-based air attacks to neutralize Wake's "fangs" (the 5" batteries and remaining aircraft), the Japanese reinforced their task force with two of the carriers that had successfully attacked Pearl Harbor (the Hiryu and Soryu), as well as reinforced their invasion force with over 1,000 additional troops.

Sadly, with the relief of Admiral Kimmel by Admiral William Pye, the Saratoga force was recalled; Pye wasn't willing to take the risk of additional ship losses after Pearl Harbor. Cunningham and Devereux were advised that they were on their own; knowing what that meant, they prepared their meager force as best as they could, and waited.

On the early morning of December 23, 1941, the Japanese task force returned and attacked. The battle ashore was fierce -- two Japanese patrol boats used to land troops, were shot up and destroyed, and Japanese troop casualties were heavy, with the Marine contingent on Wilkes islet, counterattacking and wiping out the Japanese troops that had landed there -- but the Marines, badly outnumbered and out-gunned, were forced back, and by mid-afternoon, were forced to surrender. Survivors -- combatants and all but 99 of the civilian contractors -- were fated to almost four harsh years as POWs, transported to work camps deep within the Empire, where a number of them perished due to abuse, disease and starvation. The 99 retained on Wake were kept as slave labor, only to face a barbaric end.

After an attack by a US naval task force in October, 1943, the Japanese brutally executed the 99 civilian contractors they had kept on Wake. Retribution for this atrocity would come after the war.

The island was returned to American control when the Japanese garrison surrendered on September 4, 1945; Cmdr Cunningham and Major Devereux survived imprisonment, and returned to witness the Japanese surrender.

Wake Island, December 7-23, 1941. Remembered here, 70 years later.