Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Yontan Field Raid: World War II’s 'Suicide Squad'” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/yontan-field-raid/.
Discussion: Yontan Field Raid: World War II’s "Suicide Squad"
- Thread starter Mike H.
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Bassbob
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Good article.
I just came across this very good article, written by Tom Laemlein, about that raid on Yontan airfield, on Okinawa in 1945. My father in law was a young Marine on the receiving end of that attack.
He verbally shared his experience with me before he passed away, and had written a short account of it in his memoirs. In May 1945 he was 19 year old Corporal John L. "Trigg" Perkins. He was with VMF 224, a Marine Fighter Group that was part of Marine Air Group (MAG) 31. VMF 224 Moved into Yontan as soon as it was made serviceable by the SeaBees. He thinks it was the 10th or 11th of April. Dad was only to happy to get off LST (Large Stationary Target) 221, bobbing in Hagushi Harbor. The hundreds of ships in the harbor and vicinity were tempting targets for the Japanese air attacks, (the Kikusui), and the sky was always full of anti-aircraft fire, as well as Jap bombs, bullets and Kamikaze planes. He was on the LST when the news came that the Yamato had been sunk. He had only been on the airfield a day or two when the news came that President Roosevelt had died. His unit was so busy getting into the fight that they had no time to mourn.
His job was to arm the Corsairs with rockets and bombs. The airfield was only about nine miles from the fighting. The pilots took off, expended all their ordnance within a few minutes, and then came back to reload, so that kept dad and the crews hopping. He also, all too often, got his turn to drive the "Old BombTruck" the short distance from the airfield to the harbor to load up with bombs and bring them back to his unit. It was a rough trip and he felt like a sitting duck with all that ordnance in the air. (in the attached photo, dad is at the top, next to the Marine wearing sunglasses).
He remembers the nights when the entire sky would be lit up with tracers and search lights. His unit soon had well dug, and well reinforced bomb shelters, with solid roofs and their standing order was to get straight into them when an attack was going on. That's where he was on May 24, around midnite, when the Giretsu raid occured. He said the only part they played was to have their .38 pistols pointed at the entrance, in case any enemy came in. They took turns standing watch that way until daylight. When the all clear was given they went out and surveyed the damage, and helped put the field back in order. There we a couple of dead Japanese commandos not far away, and one of the American transports that got blown up was only about 50 yards away. He got a good look at the enemy transport that crash landed on their field. By the end of the day the airfield was operational again.
Dad was still there when World War Two ended, spent a short time Occupying Japan, made Sergeant, and was back in Southwest Kansas by the Spring of '46.
He verbally shared his experience with me before he passed away, and had written a short account of it in his memoirs. In May 1945 he was 19 year old Corporal John L. "Trigg" Perkins. He was with VMF 224, a Marine Fighter Group that was part of Marine Air Group (MAG) 31. VMF 224 Moved into Yontan as soon as it was made serviceable by the SeaBees. He thinks it was the 10th or 11th of April. Dad was only to happy to get off LST (Large Stationary Target) 221, bobbing in Hagushi Harbor. The hundreds of ships in the harbor and vicinity were tempting targets for the Japanese air attacks, (the Kikusui), and the sky was always full of anti-aircraft fire, as well as Jap bombs, bullets and Kamikaze planes. He was on the LST when the news came that the Yamato had been sunk. He had only been on the airfield a day or two when the news came that President Roosevelt had died. His unit was so busy getting into the fight that they had no time to mourn.
His job was to arm the Corsairs with rockets and bombs. The airfield was only about nine miles from the fighting. The pilots took off, expended all their ordnance within a few minutes, and then came back to reload, so that kept dad and the crews hopping. He also, all too often, got his turn to drive the "Old BombTruck" the short distance from the airfield to the harbor to load up with bombs and bring them back to his unit. It was a rough trip and he felt like a sitting duck with all that ordnance in the air. (in the attached photo, dad is at the top, next to the Marine wearing sunglasses).
He remembers the nights when the entire sky would be lit up with tracers and search lights. His unit soon had well dug, and well reinforced bomb shelters, with solid roofs and their standing order was to get straight into them when an attack was going on. That's where he was on May 24, around midnite, when the Giretsu raid occured. He said the only part they played was to have their .38 pistols pointed at the entrance, in case any enemy came in. They took turns standing watch that way until daylight. When the all clear was given they went out and surveyed the damage, and helped put the field back in order. There we a couple of dead Japanese commandos not far away, and one of the American transports that got blown up was only about 50 yards away. He got a good look at the enemy transport that crash landed on their field. By the end of the day the airfield was operational again.
Dad was still there when World War Two ended, spent a short time Occupying Japan, made Sergeant, and was back in Southwest Kansas by the Spring of '46.
