I used to live in Baltimore, across the street from an
ex-Marine who had actually seen the hell that defined the Battle for
Guadalcanal in World War Two. He was in his late 60’s at the time, and even
visited my son’s 5th grade class with some captured enemy souvenirs
from the battle. His stories were almost unbelievable in their nature; but they
were true. I wrote about him last December; it was a little piece about his
courtship of his wife, and their eventual marriage after the war. I have never
forgotten him; he was one of those guys you never do; being, as he was, a
living link to one of the most unforgettable battles in our war against the
Japanese, waged across the Pacific Ocean for over 3 and a half years, beginning
with the attack by the Japanese on our naval Station at Pearl Harbor, in
Hawaii.
So, when I saw this book by Jim McEnery, who is from
Brooklyn, New York, at the library last week, I had to pick it up. Mr. McEnery
is in his 90’s now, but his memories of what he went through on that island, so
many years ago, are still sharp and vivid; as only the recollections of someone
who has actually seen what he is writing about can be.
There aren’t too many World War Two Veterans left anymore to
provide the firsthand accounts of that war. But, fortunately for us, Jim
McEnery, a Marine who enlisted before
Pearl Habor, is still alive and kicking, living in Ocala, Florida. Not bad for
a guy with only an 8th grade education. He is one of the last
survivors of the Battle for Guadalcanal. And the story he tells of that battle
are exactly the same as the ones I heard from Mr. Watts so many years ago.
As a member of Rifle Company K/3/5; or K Company of the 3rd
Battalion of the 5th Marines; he landed on the island August 7,
1942, a little less than a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and
only 4 months after our first victory in the pacific at Midway. That battle was
a struggle between naval forces from both sides; the Battle for Guadalcanal
would be the first real test of resolve on the part of the United States to
repel the advancing forces of the Japanese Empire. This would be the first
island invasion of the war in which the steel bayonets of our Marines clashed
with those of the Japanese Imperial Army .
For the first month the Marines of K/3/5 would hack and hike their way across the island. They were tasked with holding the line at the canal, which was really just a tributary of the larger creek which ran through the island. It was, however, the line in the sand which protected the American Base at Henderson Field from being overrun by the Japanese. The Bottom of Iron Bottom Sound, in which our Navy suffered severe losses, would set the stage for the withdrawal of the Navy’s supply ships, leaving the Marines stranded with little or no supplies.
Mr. McEnery is unstinted in his praise for his fellow
Marines, who came from all parts of the country, some the sons of immigrants.
Cultural differences and customs were cast aside in the heat of battle. All
Marines were Americans, fighting to stave off Japanese domination of the
Pacific. He is also equally unstinted in his criticism of General “Dugout”
MacArthur, who commanded his troops from a safe haven in Australia, emerging
only a few times for photo ops in safe areas which had been won by the men who
did the real fighting. MacArthur was not one of those. His opinion was that
“the Marines got all the glory of the last war, and they’re not getting any
from this one.” This attitude which was the main reason that the Marines are
not listed on the Presidential Citation given to the Army and Navy for the
battle fought mainly by the Marines, and that omission still stings the author
today, a full seven decades later.
Mr. McEnery is also very critical of President Roosevelt’s
policy of saving the European theater first, sending all the latest supplies
and weapons to England, rather than the Pacific. In Roosevelt’s defense it must
be realized that Germany was working, with Russia, to develop the world’s first
rockets, the V-2, and also the atomic bomb. Had they been successful in those
endeavors; and they were perilously close to those goals; both the war in the
Pacific, as well as the war in Europe would have been lost.
Surprisingly, Mr. McEnery lets the Navy off rather lightly
for their desertion, citing; correctly; that they had no air cover from the
Army Air Corps. This lack of air cover left our own ships vulnerable to attack
by air from the Japanese. When those ships were forced to leave the area, they
left the Marines without the materials they needed to win the battle, and the war itself.
This is a wonderfully candid book by a kid from Brooklyn who was right on the scene of one of the worst island invasions of the war. The
Battle for Guadalcanal set the tone for the island hopping which lay ahead as
the marines made landing after landing on the route to Japan. And all along
that route, it was guys like Mr. McEnery, and his comrades, that paved the way
to victory in the Pacific.
No comments:
Post a Comment