Weapons/27th Marines (II)
A decision-forcing case
This is the second problem in a series drawn from the memoirs of its protagonist, Captain Earl J. Stearns, USMCR. If you have not done so already, please read (and, better yet, work through) the first post in this sequence.
Soon after the unit you command, Weapons Company, 27th Marines, landed on the island of Iwo Jima, Japanese mortars knocked out all of the heavy equipment it had brought ashore: four guns on half-tracks, eight towed anti-tank guns, and eight Weasel full-tracks. Thanks, however, to the shelter offered by an escarpment - the same twelve-foot (four meter) cliff that had prevented you from moving your guns and prime movers off the beach - most of your men survived the bombardment.
When the mortar shells stopped falling, you tell your men to retrieve the machine guns fitted to their Weasels and half-tracks, the tripods carried by those vehicles, and as much machine gun ammunition as they can carry. In other words, you have configured your regimental weapons company as a trio of machine gun platoons.
The task organization for the operation calls for the attachment of a platoon of four towed anti-tank guns to each battalion - the First Platoon to 1/27, the Second Platoon to 2/27, and the Third Platoon to 3/27. Thus, the only combatant element of your company that was to remain under your control was to be the platoon of four self-propelled guns.
As 3/27 has yet to land, the equipment of the Third Platoon escaped destruction. This leaves you with the question of how best to employ your three improvised machine gun platoons. Do you send them to the battalions to which they were supposed to be attached? Do you retain them under your control, thereby providing your regiment with a machine gun company? Do you do something else?
Note
In his memoir, Captain Stearns does not specify the caliber of machine guns retrieved from the knocked out vehicles. As the half-tracks that carried the 75mm guns were fitted with .30-caliber machine guns, I suspect that self-propelled gun platoon wielded weapons of that type. However, as the F-Series tables of organization provided each regimental weapons company with four .50-caliber machine guns, to be mounted on vehicles as the company commander saw fit, it is quite possible that as many as four of the crews of from the 37mm anti-tank gun crews equipped themselves with Brownings of the heavier sort.
If you wish to propose a solution to the problem faced by Captain Stearns, please feel free to use the comments section at the bottom of this page. If you do this, please take care to avoid spoiling the problem with information that reveals either the historical solution (what Captain Stearns actually did) or any other events that followed.
As outlined in the first scenario, my Marines have gone back to the damaged and destroyed rolling stock and retrieved everything that was salvageable. The Machine guns, ammo, water, chow, medical supplies. (Bean, bullets, band aids, etc.) Wounded and KIA will stay in the escarpment area, the most senior Corpsman setting up an improvised aid station. At some point the 3rd battalion will come ashore and best to have a good organized aid station. Issuing a frag order, the two “Machine gun” platoons will move forward to join up with each of the forward elements, the platoon commanders have orders to report to the Bn. CO of each of 1/27 and 2/27 and wait for their orders. One would guess higher command would designate the same plan, but let’s get ahead of the boss. The third platoon will establish a forward perimeter, and stay with my command, but be prepared to move forward, with the arrival of 3/27 and where the Hell is the Regimental Commander? If he is ashore he may have thoughts on further employment and the use of the remainder of my company. Logic says if he is coming ashore we are going to move forward which 3/27 and or wait for his plan. Are there any engineers around, it might be good to build a road or track so the next wave of rolling stock doesn’t get stuck on the beach, or are they going to land somewhere else since the current beach head is covered in heavy metal junk. Assuming decent radio comms, this has all been sent back the ships so they know the situation, and the CO’s of 1/27 and 2/27 know that the machine gun platoons are making haste toward their positions. When a Marine Corps unit stops moving forward in the attack, it is considered in the defense, the third platoon and my small CP are now in the defense, priority of work ensues. Place out security, place the machine guns tactically and begin to build defensive positions, aka dig in and do so smartly. The Japanese’s know where we are and we have already been mortared once, likely they have intentions to do so again. This is all of course dependent on the terrain we have inherited. That will be part of the immediate action. It’s why we have E5’s/E6’s and Gunny’s. Time is wasting, “forget the apples, slap some bacon on a biscuit and let’s get moving, we’re burning daylight!”