The taking of Palalu Airfield
My name is Commander Lecky, and this the after action report for the talking of Palalu Airfield which the 6th marine division and myself took part in.
On the 25th of April 1943 the 6th marine division and I were shipped from New Jersey to the pacific island of Palalu to capture the Japanese airfield and push them back to Okinawa.
It was about 8:30am when we made it to Palalu, we were greeted by gun shots and exploding mortars, we were told it was going to be easy since the navy had been bombing the hell out of the island for 3 days straight so we weren’t expecting much. We had to crawl out of the boat so we were out of the sight of the Jap machine gunner, so it took us about 20 minutes to get a-shore. One of my men tried to gun down the jap but was killed in action, so that only left me with 10 men against 50-60 japs, but we were marines so nothing scared us. After the gruelling 1 hour it took us to make it passed the Japanese defence line it was 9:30 and we were told to move to move to an abandoned hotel that the Japanese had taken to help get the 5th marines tanks onto the airfield. So we walked for about 2 hours until we se get to the hotel. It was a nightmare the 5th marines were pinned down by M-G fire from the second floor, so I issued one of my men to grab a M1 Garand-grenade launcher from a burned out supply truck up ahead. There was silence. BOOM! THE FIRST M-G was gone; there was another 2 rounds of M-G fire and then silence again. BOOM! The second mg was gone and the 5th marine division and my battalion were clear to move up.
As we passed through the hotel we peered through a window on the second floor to get our first glimpse of the airfield. There were crashed planes, exploded tanks and dead bodies every wear, we were in for a long day.
My men and I jump down into the airfield and immediately run to the nearest trench, grab and M4 bazooka and take out all the Japanese tanks we can see. We than move up towards a Japanese controlled trench and clear that as quick as we can. Our next challenge was to destroy the AA guns that were knocking our planes right out of the sky, it wasn’t going to be easy but i knew we had to do it. We clear the first AA trench with about 20 Japs in it, and then move onto the second AA trench, they knew we were here. As I turn to face the trench I get shot through the arm, I quickly scurry away from the trench and I still remember to this day my men running into the trench 1 by 1 trying to clear that trench. My battalion lost 7 men trying to clear that bunker but the battle was won and the Japs were retreating back to Okinawa. All my men that died trying to clear that trench received the highest honour of them all, they all were knighted by the Queen of England.
I lead a brave battalion of men and now the remaining battalion and some 10 or so replacements are shipping out to Okinawa to push the japs back to their homeland and hopefully end the war in the east.
Kills-For: 30-50
Kills-Against: 8
Mission objective: complete Commanders name : Robert Lecky age: 35
