PhM1c JOHN HARLAN WILLIS

By D-Day + 9 on Iwo Jima, intense fighting was raging in several acres of low hills and gullies that would come to be known as the “meat grinder” just west of the central airfield.  Here a complex system of tunnels and bunkers gave the enemy the ability to pop up unexpectedly, sometimes behind surprised Marines.  The line of advance fluctuated hourly, Marines in the lead often found themselves suddenly cut off from their comrades, only to be re-united as the “front” shifted again.  Fighting was very close, at times foes were separated only by the crest of a hill or by the space between adjoining shell craters.  Canteens indifferently placed on the edges of fighting holes sometimes disappeared to thirsty Japanese hiding just a few feet away.  This day the Marines of Company H, 3^rd Battalion, 27^th Marines, 5^th MarDiv found themselves spearheading the advance on Hill 362A.

Like most corpsmen on Iwo, Pharmacist’s Mate First Class John H. Willis had been fighting a nine-day battle to save countless wounded Marines.  Exposing himself repeatedly to enemy fire, Willis had too often watched too many of his friends die.  This morning, while working to save a wounded comrade on the slope of Hill 362A, Willis himself was hit with shrapnel.

He had to be ordered out of the field, and Willis tarried at the battalion aid station only long enough to be bandaged.  Then without permission he returned to his company.  He found the Marines gradually falling back in the face of overwhelming mortar, grenade, and hand-to-hand fighting.  When two Marines were observed to fall in a nearby shell crater, Willis ran to their aid.  The corpsman began setting up a plasma infusion as the rest of his company continued to fall back.  The enemy quickly surrounded his shell crater, and a grenade thudded onto the ground at his knees.  Willis picked up the bomb reflexively and hurled it back in the direction from which it had come.  He turned again to his work–and another grenade landed at his feet.  Again, Willis threw it back.  Another, and yet another grenade landed, and each time Willis sent them arching.  The frustrated enemy now threw multiple grenades at once.  From a distance PhM3c Prince watched as his best friend began hurling these, incredibly launching eight grenades from the crater.  Then with his arm poised to throw the ninth, Willis and the Marines he was fighting to save disappeared in a violent explosion.

Third Battalion surgeon LCDR James Vedder recommended Willis for the Medal of Honor, which was accepted by his wife and the newborn child John Willis never saw.  He has been remembered with USS John Willis (DE-1027) and the Willis Gate on NSA Mid-South in Millington, TN.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  5 MAR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 553.

Site visit.  Rose Hill Cemetery, Columbia, Tennessee, 14 May 2003.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, pp. 478-79.

Vedder, James S.  Surgeon on Iwo:  Up Front with the 27^th Marines.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1984, pp. 112-13.

Wheeler, Richard.  Iwo. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1980, pp. 182-83.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Witnessing the bravery of their corpsman inspired the Marines of How Company to renewed ferocity and rallied them to re-advance across the same territory (“How” was the WWII phonetic alphabet representation for “H”).  Willis’ body was recovered and buried in the 5^th Division cemetery on Iwo Jima.  The remains from all the temporary American cemeteries on Iwo Jima were re-interred after the war in Arlington, the Punchbowl, and other stateside cemeteries.  PhM1c Willis’ body was removed to Rose Hill Cemetery in his native Columbia, Tennessee.  Today the frequent earthquakes on Iwo Jima continue to expose lost remains of both Japanese and Americans.  Indeed, the Japanese government considers Iwo Jima to be an open grave.

Even more heroic than the actions of Navy corpsmen on Iwo Jima were the efforts of the stretcher bearer teams.  These combat Marines, usually junior PFC’s and privates, bore countless wounded comrades to safety, but the necessity to stand and walk to do so made them easy targets.  Mortality rates among stretcher bearers on Iwo Jima were higher than for any other combat specialists, as high as 80%.

Hill 362A was named for the height of its crest above sea level.  There were three hills of the same height in the area, designated 362A, 362B and 362C.  “Hotel” is the representation for “H” in our current NATO phonetic alphabet.

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                   TWO CARRIERS IN HARM’S WAY

As the third day of the battle for Iwo Jima began, the ships of Task Force 58 kept up their shore bombardment and their efforts against Japanese sea and air defenses.  Indeed, on this morning, USS SARATOGA (CV-3) and three destroyers were detached from Task Group 58.5 to provide combat air patrol over the amphibious landing zones from a position 35 miles to the northwest of the island.  But just as SARATOGA arrived on station at 1628, an inbound flight of aircraft was seen on radar.  Initially identified as “friendlies,” it was not for 20 minutes that the inbounds were revealed to be 25 enemy kamikazes.  In only ten more minutes the planes were upon SARATOGA!  The first two fell ablaze from anti-aircraft fire, but bounced into the carrier at the waterline, releasing bombs that penetrated and exploded.  Another crashed the anchor windlass on the bow, taking out of action most of the forward flight deck and a plane about to launch.  All within a span of three minutes, yet another kamikaze struck the port catapult, and a fifth took out the starboard crane and gun gallery.  The carrier got up headway and turned away from the wind while damage control parties fought the fires.  The situation gradually improved, but at 1846 a final suicide plane slammed unseen out of the darkness onto the flight deck.  The bomb it dropped blew a 25-foot hole in the deck and started new fires.  Despite losing 36 planes to fires and water landings, 123 sailors killed, and 192 injured, SARATOGA was not crippled.  She ultimately steamed under her own power to Eniwetok for repairs.

But at that same 1845 moment, 45 miles east of Iwo Jima, the escort carrier BISMARCK SEA (CVE-95) was approached on her port bow.  All eyes turned in that direction as anti-aircraft guns blasted the onrushing manned missile.  Quietly from the opposite side a G4M3 “Betty” bomber glided in low.  She wasn’t spotted until only 1000 yards out.  The guns couldn’t be depressed sufficiently, and she struck the after aircraft elevator.  Debris and flaming gasoline shotgunned through the hangar, and the elevator platform crashed to the deck, cutting the fire mains.  Fully gassed planes and bomb and torpedo lockers were engulfed.  That same moment from above, another kamikaze carrying two bombs struck vertically at the same spot on the flight deck.  Exploding aircraft and ordnance spread uncontrollable fires throughout the ship.  Moments after CAPT J.L. Pratt called “Abandon Ship!” and stepped off, a tremendous explosion blew off most of the carrier’s stern.  BISMARCK SEA burned for three hours, rolled, then sank.  Some 218 sailors went down with the carrier.  Six destroyers crisscrossing the area through the night rescued the rest of her 943 crewmen.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  28 FEB 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, p. 126.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol XIV  Victory in the Pacific.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1960, pp. 52-55.

Poolman, Kenneth.  Allied Escort Carriers of World War Two in Action.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1988, pp. 239-40.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 185.

Wheeler, Richard.  Iwo. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1980, p. 145.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  As above, by the Iwo Jima campaign the kamikaze was proving to be Japan’s most effective weapon against our Navy.  During the course of WWII more sailors and ships were lost to kamikazes than to Japanese submarines, surface actions, conventional air attacks, mines, or manned torpedoes.

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