Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:55 | The Japanese were defeated for the first time by a few Marines. The battle fought at the Tenaru River marked not only the beginning of the Guadalcanal campaign but the turning point in their dominance in the Pacific. Frank Pomroy explains why they lost. (First interview)
Keywords : Frank Pomroy Guadalcanal Corpsman Japanese banzai Alexander Vandegrift Battle of Tenaru River Chesty Puller
After the Pearl Harbor attack, seventeen year old Frank Pomroy tried to enlist in the Marines but was told he was too young. Undaunted, he and another eager teen concocted a scheme to get in. (First interview)
Boot camp was compressed early in the war to get Marines ready for fighting. Frank Pomroy recalls how the drill sergeant was tough as nails but bought them beer after the graduation.Then he was off to Camp Lejeune, which was being built as the men trained. A long train ride to California gave many of the young Marines their first sight of the West. (First interview)
After a stop in New Zealand where the men made their own liberty, the Marines of the 1st Regiment went to the island of Guadalcanal. It had been chosen for the initial confrontation with the Japanese. Frank Pomroy was ordered to stay on the transport to help unload but an enemy torpedo bomber crashed into it and the crew abandoned ship. Part 1 of 2. (First interview)
Frank Pomroy was on a raft with another Marine after their troop transport was consumed by fire. They were fortunately rescued by a US destroyer just in time to witness the Battle of Savo island, a disastrous defeat for the US Navy. Part 2 of 2. (First interview)
Frank Pomroy had been rescued at sea and was at New Caledonia trying to get passage to rejoin his unit on Guadalcanal. He didn't know it yet but they been all but abandoned by the Navy and were fighting the Japanese with very few supplies. (First interview)
He was on the 37mm gun and he only had 55 rounds to last the night. Frank Pomroy chose his targets carefully and the grapeshot he was firing was really an anti-tank weapon mowing down the charging enemy. Finally the Banzai attacks ended. This was the first defeat for the Japanese in the Pacific. (First interview)
It was supposed to be an easy day. After a period of patrolling in the jungle Frank Pomroy and his buddy Jim Mangin were going to be part of a work detail at the Guadalcanal air field. When the Japanese bombers showed up, that was the end of that. (First interview)
There was little or no food for the Marines on Guadalcanal. Frank Pomroy recalls how they all ate a lot of coconuts and battled malaria and a host of other ills. Once the island was secure, they had a nice recuperation in Australia. (First interview)
Guadalcanal marked a turning point in the war in the Pacific. The Marines had proved that the Japanese could be beaten. Now the industrial output of America could rise and smother the enemy, which was already suffering attrition of men, ships and planes. Frank Pomroy contrasts the long struggle there with the highly compressed action he would face later on Peleliu. (First interview)
There was a warrant officer in charge of Frank Pomroy's platoon at Cape Gloucester. When Pomroy woke him up to tell him the Japanese were assembling in front of their position, he scoffed but got up anyway. As they stared out into the night he lit a match and held it in front of his face. No Japs out there. See? (First interview)
Guadalcanal was now a huge rear echelon area and Frank Pomroy's unit was gearing up for the next landing on Peleliu. There was a drawing to determine which men could be sent home but he didn't participate. He wanted to make one more landing. (First interview)
As he approached Peleliu, Frank Pomroy rose up a bit and looked out of the landing craft to see the entire island covered in black smoke. After going ashore under a hail of machine gun fire, the Marines began one of the toughest battles they had faced. Part 1 of 5. (First interview)
After his machine gun was crushed by a Japanese tank, Frank Pomroy had to scramble around to find another one on the battlefield. He located one but a raiding party stormed in and he took a bayonet to the knee when he shot one of them at close quarters. He got that bandaged up just in time to attack the high coral ridges above the air field. Part 2 of 5. (First interview)
During the pitched battle for the high coral ridges on Peleliu, Frank Pomroy was on an ammo run to the beach when he encountered Chesty Puller and his command group. When a shell hit nearby, the feisty commander was the only one who didn't duck. Meanwhile, the Marines had no water. It was all contaminated. All they could do was keep fighting. Part 3 of 5. (First interview)
After surviving artillery fire from US ships that had mistaken his group for Japanese, Frank Pomroy fell in with a Lieutenant who was organizing a patrol through a swamp. They were not very far along when they became completely pinned down by Japanese artillery and sniper fire. Part 4 of 5. (First interview)
He was making a lone stand on Peleliu. He had a bayonet wound, had taken three bullets and was starving and dehydrated. Frank Pomroy had seen dozens fall around him and he was all alone with plenty of ammo but no food or water. After shooting two Japanese who stumbled on his position, he was too weak to crawl over and look for a canteen. Part 5 of 5. (First interview)
Frank Pomroy had left a man for dead on the Guadalcanal battlefield. Everyone agreed that he was dead and they pressed on. But he wasn't and, after almost being buried alive because he could not speak, the two encountered each other in the rear area. This was only the beginning of his sad story. (First interview)
Frank Pomroy was painting his sister's house when someone drove up and said Pearl Harbor had been attacked. He and another seventeen year old boy hitchhiked to the recruiter who told them they were too young. A ruse was required.(Second interview)
It was tough but boot camp would turn out to be easiest part of Frank Pomroy's time in the Marine Corps. After that, there was six weeks of training at New River and then straight to the Pacific. He and a buddy had volunteered to crew the 37mm anti-tank gun but it didn't work out the way they wanted. (Second interview)
It was an old tub the Marines boarded for the trip to the Pacific. In New Zealand they unpacked the ship and repacked it for combat though they didn't know yet where it would be. Frank Pomroy recalls that the locals were ready to party. (Second interview)
Frank Pomroy remained on the transport while his unit made the unopposed landing on Guadalcanal. He was helping unload the weapons and supplies but, before they could get much off the ship, a Japanese air raid bore down on them. Part 1 of 2. (Second interview)
After being adrift on a raft and then witnessing the stunning US Navy defeat at the Battle of Savo Island, Frank Pomroy was at New Caledonia trying to find passage back to his unit on Guadalcanal. Some sailors helped him out and then cleaned him out. Part 2 of 2. (Second interview)
Frank Pomroy was late for the battle on Guadalcanal so he volunteered for a lot of patrols. He and a pal went on a lot of them, then they decided to take it easy for a day. That day turned out to be anything but easy. (Second interview)
The Japanese had another battalion on the way but they attacked the Marines at Tenaru River without waiting for them. They should have waited. Frank Pomroy was manning a 37mm gun and that was a big reason that Banzai charge after Banzai charge failed. (Second interview)
In combat, you have tunnel vision. Frank Pomroy experienced that when he faced waves of Banzai charges on Guadalcanal. They were intended to frighten you enough that you turned and ran but it didn't work on the young Marines. (Second interview)
Frank Pomroy and his fellow Marines were so tired and wracked with malaria that, when they shipped out, they were unable to climb the cargo net. Frank has a novel theory that there were three fronts in the war, the German Front, the Japanese Front and the Douglas MacArthur Front. (Second interview)
After recuperating for a while in Australia, Frank Pomroy's next engagement was at Cape Gloucester. There was a new platoon leader who was a mean Warrant Officer with little respect from the men. The battle kicked off when Frank woke him up because he heard the Japanese setting up in front of his position. Part 1 of 2. (Second interview)
It was called the Battle of Coffin Corner because of all the Japanese dead left in the aftermath. Frank Pomroy recalls how a friend of his died after the battle and how he actually made friends with a couple of Japanese prisoners. Part 2 of 2. (Second interview)
The next landing will be quick and easy. That's what Frank Pomroy was told in the run up to Peleliu. It was anything but easy from the moment he stepped on the beach. At the airfield he found himself staring down a Japanese tank coming straight for him. Part 1 of 4. (Second interview)
The Japanese had given up on the Banzai charges by the time of the Peleliu landing. Instead they would send raiding parties toward the beach and it was during one of these attacks that Frank Pomroy took a bayonet wound to his knee. It only slowed him down a little, he was not out of the fight. Part 2 of 4. (Second interview)
In an artillery barrage, if you're out in the open, you have to lay flat. Frank Pomroy tried to tell his friend that but the man was on his knees and got hit with shrapnel. This battle on Peleliu was the end of the line for a lot of Marines but not Frank. He joined in a patrol hastily organized by a lieutenant he encountered and they set out through a swamp. Part 3 of 4. (Second interview)
Frank Pomroy prepared his last stand. He had a bayonet wound and three machine gun bullets in his leg but he was still ready to fight. He lined up his hand grenades on the coral ridge in front of him and waited. At daybreak he heard Japanese voices coming. Part 4 of 4. (Second interview)
It went without saying. Frank Pomroy explains why returning World War II veterans quietly went on with their lives and didn't talk much about the war. That would change as the years went by and he now feels that it's important to preserve the memories and the history of it. (Second interview)
During the battle on Peleliu, Frank Pomroy encountered a group of Marines who asked him if he knew how to operate a flamethrower. Why yes, I do. (Second interview)
Chesty Puller was a legendary Marine leader. Frank Pomroy describes his encounters with the man, from getting caught fermenting Jungle Juice to holding court at reunions. (Second interview)
