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Bobby Shaftoe

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This is an intermediate page for China Raider Marine Bobby Shaftoe.

Stephensonia

*Bobby Shaftoe's luck is ALL strange

"What is a Marine Raider?"

Bobby responds, "Like a Marine, only more so."*

Authored entries

Community entries: Bobby Shaftoe

I'm going on memory for this; Bobby was not the first Shaftoe we meet in Cryptonomicon, chronologically he is earliest but he is presented in one in a line of impressive individuals ... Bobby is a mirror of his precedent Bob Shaftoe, in Quicksilver, driven by duty but capable of extensive personal initiative based acts. BobbyShaftoeMW.jpg
The face of Bobby Shaftoe?
No one could blend stupid and competent as well as Anderson

More on Bobby

The Shaftoes seem to be economical on names like the Waterhouse family - Bobby has a uncle named “Jack” who visited the Pascuals in Intramuros before the formal start of hostilities.

From the prologue -- Bobby is the Haiku generating China Marine Raider and the first main character we met. We meet Amy on page 155.

The United States Marines in North China

From the history of the Fourth Marine Regiment

On 28 January 1927 the Fourth regiment received orders to proceed to China. Five days later, the regiment boarded the Naval transport Chaumont for duty in the international settlement in Shanghai China. As time passed, the word spread throughout the Corps that the choice duty was with the "China Marines." But duty in Shanghai was not without danger. On 12 December 1937 Japanese naval aircraft strafed and sank the U.S. Navy's Yangtze River patrol boat, Panay. In February 1938 the Japanese tried to provoke an "incident" by attempting to enter the American sector with armed patrols. The Marines stopped the attempts without incident. In the waning months of 1941, with world tensions growing, other foreign governments ordered their troops out of the international settlement in Shanghai. The last bit of protection left for American and U.S. interests in China was the small U. S. 7th Fleet, the Fourth Marine Regiment and the Yangtze River patrol boats that inspired the book and the movie, "THE SAND PEBBLES." The final elements of the Fourth Regiment left Shanghai on 28 November 1941. They were the last foreign troops to leave the international settlement. The Regimental band led the Marines down East Nanking Road toward the Whangpoo River and the waiting evacuation ships. It was an end of an era--the final day of one of the most desired duty stations in the history of the Corps. The China Marines had been there 14 years. Their arrival in the Philippines opened a new era for the Fourth Marines--a time of jungle warfare, starvation and deprivation. These "Leathernecks" may have been surrendered by Army command, but they refused to accept defeat.

The China Marines lived up to the proud heritage of the Corps, despite the horrors, the deprivation and barbaric treatment they were subjected to in Japanese Prisoner of War Slave labor camps. As prisoners, the marines continued the battle from behind barbed wire through sabotage and other activities designed to discomfit their captors.

Some Japanese guards, veterans of China, remembering the China Marines in Shanghai, took exceptional pleasure in singling out Marine prisoners for harsh treatment. ... the men of the Fourth Regiment of United States Marines, continued the battle from behind barbed wire through sabotage and antics designed to befuddle their captors. But in the memories of the men, no longer on combat alert, there, hidden in the dark reaches of the mind, are the memories of bloody combat in the Jungles of Bataan and Corregidor. In the tropics dead bodies bloat quickly, the odor of body excrement, released by death, lies heavy in the air mingled with the smell of blood and the odor of corpses rotting in the heat. This is the reality of war--memories that can not be erased by time; of boys who became men in combat--memories carried to the grave.

Craig Rothhammer's excellent resource on North China Marines: “… US Marines served in China at various times and places from the days of the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. During the 1920's and 30's Marines were stationed at the American Embassy in Peking (Beijing). They were the Embassy Guard Detachment. In 1938 a unit was sent from Peking to Tientsin (Tianjin) to take over legation guard duty from the Army. A still smaller detachment was sent to Fort Holcomb at Chinwangtao (Qinhuangdao), about 140 miles northeast of Tientsin. This was the seaport through which all shipping for the embassy and the Marines had to travel. In the late 1930's the Embassy Guard Detachment in Peking consisted of about 300 men, the Legation Guard Detachment in Tientsin about 200 men, with about 20 men at Chinwangtao. (Spellings of Chinese cities are from that time period, not current usage.)   In 1937 the Japanese invaded and conquered much of eastern China. While Japan controlled this area of China, various military units of other nations remained. The British, French, and Italians also kept forces in Peking. In November of 1941 the 1200 men of the US Fourth Marines in Shanghai were withdrawn and sent to the Philippines. This left only the men of the North China Marines in Peking, Tientsin, and Chinwangtao, by then totalling only 203 men. (There were actually 204 men. A retired major who lived in Peking had been recalled to duty. He somehow managed to get himself sent back to the States. The other 203 do not like to include the major in any references to themselves as POWs, understandably so, as they spent more than three years as POWs after the major left them.) They were to depart China on the 10th of December, 1941. In preparation for this move all but their personal gear and weapons had been crated and sent to Chinwangtao to be loaded aboard ship for the move to the Philippines.   On the morning of 8 December 1941 (7 Dec stateside time) each of the units woke to find themselves surrounded. At Peking the Japanese had mortars and machine guns mounted on the Tartar Wall bordering the US compound. Given the number of Japanese, the number of Marines, the lack of weapons, and the distance to any friendly forces,  Colonel William Ashurst had no choice but to surrender. Col Ashurst surrendered under the impression the Japanese would abide by the Boxer Protocol of 1901, which, it was assumed, contained a clause granting diplomatic status to the Marines. This meant they would be repatriated with the diplomats at the embassy in Peking and the consulate in Tientsin. (No documents seem to actually have had such a clause. Some sources say repatriation of military guard units was the norm at this time and that some nation's guard units actually were repatriated. The five men of the 4th Marines still closing up business in Shanghai were repatriated from Woosung in June 1942-McBrayer book page 97).

Upon surrender, the small unit at Chinwangtao was sent to join the men in Tientsin. (The 8 Dec 1941 evening edition of the Japan Times and Advertiser lists some 120 men captured in Peking and 63 in Tientsin).

The Marines in Peking were kept in their compound until 10 January 1942, at which time they also were sent to Tientsin. In late January the entire group of 203 Marines was sent by train to the Prisoner of War camp at Woosung, outside Shanghai. They joined there the approximately 1100 Marines and civilians captured earlier on Wake Island. From this time until their rescue in September of 1945 the Marines were used as slave labor by the Japanese. (The SS President Harrison, which was to have picked up the Marines, was run aground by its captain. The Japanese salvaged it. In Sep of 1944, then called the Kachidoki Maru,  it was torpedoed as it carried about 900 Allied POWs to Japan.)   On 1 or 2 November of 1942 a group of about 40 Marines and civilians was sent from Woosung to the northwest coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan. There they were imprisoned at Fukuoka camp 3-B. This group included at least 18 North China Marines. (This movement took place as is  described in Terence Kirk's book, The Secret Camera . None of the other North China Marine books mention it.  The American Prisoner of War Information Bureau does, although it gives the number of men transferred to Japan as about 70, and gives the date as 18 Sep 1942. The Newell diary mentions about 70 leaving in Sep and another 70 leaving in Nov. None of the North China Marines I have talked to recall this transfer, unless they were part of it. This is most likely due to the small number of men involved and what life as a POW does to your memory - meaning, unless you were specifically involved in an event it is probably not etched clearly in your memory.) The Fukuoka POW camp is known for brutal punishments upon the prisoners after the 2nd Atomic bomb was dropped.[1]

In December the camp at Woosung was closed and the entire group moved to nearby Kiangwan. In August of 1943 a group of about 500 POWs was sent from Kiangwan to camps near Tokyo. This included an unknown number of North China Marines. Later some of these POWs were sent to other camps in Japan, mostly in the general Tokyo area.

The War Information Bureau report on Kiangwan lists another transfer of 150 men on 11 Nov 1943. The Biggs book also mentions this. No other information is yet available as to who went where. In May of 1945 the camp at Kiangwan was closed. Most of the POWs were sent on their way to Japan. Along the way they spent time at Fengtai, near Peking, and then Pusan, Korea. They arrived in Japan at the end of June 1945.

Some of the POWs were sent to camps near Osaka. Some civilians were sent to Yamagata, others to Niigata. The majority of the remaining POWs (approximately 450) ended up on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido at the Hakodate camps #1, 2, 3, and 4. Again, exactly how many of the North China Marines were in this group is not known. …”

Some Quotes

From the “PROLOGUE Two tires fly. Two wail. A bamboo grove, all chopped down From it, warring songs

IS THE BEST THAT CORPORAL BOBBY SHAFTOE CAN DO ON short notice -- he's standing on the running board, gripping his Springfield with one hand and the rearview mirror with the other, so counting the syllables on his fingers is out of the question. Is “tires” one syllable or two? How about “wail” The truck finally makes up its mind not to tip over, and thuds back onto four wheels. The wail -- and the moment -- are lost. Bobby can still hear the coolies singing, though, and now too there's the gunlike snicking of the truck's clutch linkage as Private Wiley downshifts. Could Wiley be losing his nerve? And, in the back, under the tarps, a ton and a half of file cabinets clanking, code books slaloming, fuel spanking the tanks of Station Alpha's electrical generator. The modern world's hell on haiku writers: “Electrical generator” is, what, eight syllables? You couldn't even fit that onto the second line! …"

From Seaweed — “ … Mr. Pascual puts his cigarette in his mouth and shakes Corporal Shaftoe's hand. "Well, congratulations! I just saw your uncle Jack last week. I don't think he had any idea you were on your way back." …”

From Spearhead — "… Shaftoe has a wiry build, bulging Alley Oop forearms and hands, and blond hair in a buzz cut that makes his big blue eyes look bigger. He has a big nose and a big Adam’s apple and big acne scars and some other scars around the orbits of his eyes. The large features in the trim body give him an intense presence; it is hard not to keep looking over in his direction. …”

China Marines v. Marine Raiders

They are not the same thing. The China Marines were the Fourth Regiment, that mostly spent the rest of the war rotting and dying in the POW camps following the surrender of Correigedor. The Marine Raiders were a different type of unit entirely. Where the China Marines had cushy, luxurious duty in Shanghai, as Shaftoe notes in the evacuation, the Marine Raiders were a hard core, gung-ho bunch of rapacious commandos.

They originated in the mind of Franklin Roosevelt's son James, who was a marine Captain, OSS founder Wild Bill Donovan, and marine Captain Evans F. Carlson, but proved themselves as a spin-off battalion of the 5th Marines Regiment, the 1st APD Battalion, commanded by Lt. Colonel "Red Mike" Edson, which eventually became the 1st Raiders on 16 February, 1942; Carlson's outfit, the 2nd Separate Battalion which was created out of whole cloth in on the West Coast, was redesignated to the 2d Raiders three days later.

The Raiders specialised in commando tactics with rubber boats, launched from destroyer transports, and heavily armed rifle platoons bearing Browning Automatic Rifls (BARs), Thompson Submachine Guns, M-1 Garand machine rifles, 1903 Springfields and the occasional sniper rifle.

The 2nd Raiders on the West Coast developed markedly different from Edsons unit in the east. Carlson and Roosevelt soon broke the shackles that their commander, Holcomb, had attempted to impose on them. They rejected most of the men whom Edson sent them, and they adjusted the organization of their battalion to suit their purposes. They also inculcated the unit with an unconventional military philosophy that was an admixture of Chinese culture, Communist egalitarianism, and New England town hall democracy. Every man would have the right to say what he thought, and their battle cry would be "Gung Ho!" Chinese for "work together". Officers would have no greater privileges than the men, and would lead by consensus rather than rank. There also would be "ethical indoctrination," which Carlson described as "giving conviction through persuasion " That process supposedly ensured that each man knew what he was fighting for and why.

The 2d Raiders set up their pup tents at Jacques Farm in the hills of Camp Elliot, where they remained largely segregated from civilization Carlson rarely granted liberty, and sometimes held musters in the middle of the night to catch anyone who slipped away for an evening on the town. He even tried to convince men to forego leave for family emergencies, though he did not altogether prohibit it.

Training focused heavily on weapons practice, hand-to-hand fighting, demolitions, and physical conditioning, to include an emphasis on long hikes. As the men grew tougher and acquired field skills, the focus shifted to more night work. Carlson also implemented an important change to the raider organization promulgated from Washington. Instead of a unitary eight-man squad, he created a 10-man unit composed of a squad leader and three fire teams of three men each. Each fire team boasted a Thompson submachine gun, a Browning automatic rifle (BAR), and one of the new Garand M-1 semiautomatic rifles. To keep manpower within the constraints of the carrying capacity of an APD, each rifle company had just two rifle platoons and a weapons platoon. Carlson's system of organization and training was designed to create a force suited "for infiltration and the attainment of objectives by unorthodox and unexpected methods." He and Roosevelt were developing the guerrilla unit they had envisioned.

Edson's battalion retained the table of organization he had designed. It was based on an eight-man squad, with a leader, two BAR men, four riflemen armed with the M-1903 Springfield bolt-operated rifle, and a sniper carrying a Springfield mounting a telescopic sight. (Later in the war he would champion the four man fire team that became the standard for all Marine infantry.) With smaller squads, his companies contained three rifle platoons and a weapons platoon. His weapons company provided additional light machine' guns and 60mm mortars. (The 81mm mortar platoon, added to the headquarters company by the Commandant, would not deploy overseas with the battalion.)

Training was similar to that in the 2d Raiders, except for more rubber boat work due to the convenient location of Quantico on the Potomac River. The lst Raiders also strove to reach a pace of seven miles per hour on hikes, more than twice the normal speed of infantry. They did so by alternating periods of double-timing with fast walking. Although Red Mike emphasized light infantry tactics, his men were not guerrillas. Instead, they formed a highly trained battalion prepared for special operations as well as more conventional employment.

Edson's style of leadership contrasted starkly with that of his counterpart. He encouraged initiative in his subordinates, but rank carried both responsibility and authority for decision-making. He was a quiet man who impressed his troops with his ability on the march and on the firing ranges, not with speeches. His raiders received regular liberty, and he even organized battalion dances attended by bus loads of secretaries from nearby Washington.

The two raider battalions bore the same name, but they could hardly have been more dissimilar. What they did have in common was excellent training and a desire to excel in battle.

Carlson's Philosophy of Leadership: Gung Ho!

"From Makin To Bougainville: Marine Raiders In The Pacific War," By Maj Jon T. Hoffman USMCR, Marines In World War II Commemorative Series:

"Evans F. Carlson got an early start in his career as a maverick. He ran away from his home in Vermont at the age of 14 and two years later bluffed his way past the recruiters to enlist in the Army. When war broke out in 1917, he already had five years of service under his belt. Like Merritt A. Edson, he soon won a commission, but arrived at the front too late to see combat. After the war he tried to make it as a salesman, but gave that up in 1922 and enlisted in the Marine Corps. In a few months he earned a commission again. Other than a failed attempt at flight school, his first several years as a Marine lieutenant were unremarkable.

In 1927 Carlson deployed to Shanghai with 4th Marines. There he became regimental intelligence officer and developed a deep interest in China that would shape the remainder of his days. Three years later, commanding an outpost of the Guardia National in Nicaragua, he had his first brush with guerilla warfare. That became the second guiding star of his career. In his only battle, he successfully engaged and dispersed an enemy unit in a daring night attack. There followed a tour with the Legation Guard in Peking, and a stint as executive officer of the presidential guard detachment at Warm Springs, Georgia. In the latter job Carlson came to know Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Captain Carlson arrived in Shanghai for his third China tour in July 1937. Again like Edson, he watched the Japanese seize control of the city. Detailed to duty as an observer, Carlson sought and received permission to accompany the Chinese Communist Party's 8th Route Army, which was fighting against the Japanese. For the next year he divided his time between the front lines and the temporary Chinese capital of Hangkow. During that time he developed his ideas on guerilla warfare and ethical indoctrination. When a senior naval officer censured him for granting newspaper interviews, Carlson returned to the states and resigned so that he could speak out about the situation in China. He believed passionately that the United States should do more to help the Chinese in their war with Japan.

During the next two years Carlson spoke and wrote on the subject, to include two books (The Chinese Army and Twin Stars of China), and made another trip to China. With the war looming for the United States, he sought to rejoin the Corps in April 1941. The Commandant granted his request, made him a major in the reserves, and promptly brought him onto active duty. Ten months later he created the 2d Raider Battalion.

After his departure from the raiders in 1943, Carlson served as operations officer of the 4th Marine Division. He made the Tarawa landing as an observer and participated with his division in the assaults on Kwajalein and Saipan. In the latter battle he received severe wounds in the arm and leg while trying to pull his wounded radio operator out of the line of enemy fire of an enemy machine gun. After the war Carlson retired from the Marine Corps and made a brief run in the 1946 California Senate race before a heart attack forced him out of the campaign. He died in May 1947.

The basis of Carlson's thinking was what he called Gung Ho, basically, "work together." But his concept of this was not merely a battle cry, a slogan or a motto, etc.; it is an ideal that goes to the very root and core of leadership and the social structure of the military unit. He held open " Gung Ho Talks" with his troops with all hands having a say in the matters at hand. Leaders were those who were recognized by their ability to lead, rather than being appointed to rank. Of course, this all came from his experience with the Chinese 8th Route Army, where he had first recognized that the true basis of leadership was ethics itself (something he had pondered upon all his life to that point). Thus he attempted to teach and guide his raiders in what he referred to as Ethical Indoctrination. Some thought that he carried this too far, but not his own men. He did not carry his ideals of leadership and organization beyond the confines of Marine Corps regulations, but others feared that he would. Carlson insisted on officers and enlisted alike eating the same food, being provided the same quarters, etc. They sang hymns and patriotic songs together, often with Carlson playing his harmonica. He not only allowed, he insisted each of his own men make decisions on their own.

Carlson had a grasp of what it is that makes men fight. His long and varied service plus his constant study and reflection upon the subject left him with beliefs and theories that he had been developing for many years. These he used in establishing his 2d Raider Battalion. He knew it was necessary for men to know why and for what they were fighting. He taught his Marines the implications involved between the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific. And every man could ask questions and state his views. They also discussed matters such as what kind of society they wanted after the war, etc.

Interviewed by Robert Sherrod aboard ship just prior to the Tarawa invasion Carlson said, "You spoke about espirit de corps...the Marine Corps has it to a high degree. But when the going gets toughest, when it takes a little more drive to stay sane and to keep going, and a man is hungry and tired, then he needs more than espirit de corps. It takes conviction....Our greatest weakness is the caliber of our officers, and that, of course, is a reflection of our system of education." Carlson went on to state that the best officers were enlisted men after they had proven themselves in battle.

Within a few days after the battle for Tarawa, Carlson was flown home. He spoke before a meeting of one thousand officers at Camp Pendleton. "Tarawa was won," Carlson told them, "because a few enlisted men of great courage called out simply to their comrades, 'Come on, fellows. Follow me!' And then went on, followed by men who took heart at their example, to knock out, at great sacrifice, one Jap position after another, slowly, until there were no more. Tarawa is a victory because some enlisted men, unaffected by the loss of their officers, many of whom were casualties in the first hour, became great and heroic commanders in their own right.

"But--" He paused for a long time. "But with all that courage and fortitude and willingness to die on the part of some of the men, too many others lacked initiative and resourcefulness. They were not trained to understand the need for sacrifice. Too many men waited for orders--and while they waited they died. What if they had been trained not to wait for orders?"

He was deeply angry. Lives could have been saved. It was this very matter he had mentioned to Robert Sherrod of Time...."What if they had been trained not to wait for orders?" Carlson had asked. And how extraordinary was the resourcefulness of the few!...But if all had been trained to act by themselves...."Our leaders did not give them that chance," Carlson told the thousand Marine officers at Camp Pendleton."

The problem with this philosophy is that while it makes for great warriors, it makes it equally difficult to bring them home. The Marines turns men into killing machines, which is not what normal persons want to be. A killing machine that only kills when ordered to can be returned to society safely. A killing machine that is trained to not wait for orders before he kills cannot.

Tactics

(As described by Gen. Twining in No Bended Knee) "....He used the main body as his enveloping force, striking momentarily at a right angle to his permanent line of advance in what I described in the final report as an eccentric form of attack, 'eccentric' being used in the mechanical, not the psychological sense of the word. Carlson used this maneuver several times in the course of his pursuit, always to good effect. It was clearly recognizable from his dispatches. Carlson's companies moved separately and fluidly through the jungle. When one of them was confronted with an enemy delaying position, it would maintain contact throughout the remainder of the day and sometimes the entire next day, continuously making a show of great activity all along the hostile front by fire and movement, suggesting but not making an attack.

Meanwhile Carlson would deliberately assemble all his uncommitted forces, weapons, and supplies at a point well off the main line of advance but near the enemy flank chosen as the object of his assault. The assault came on the following day, well planned, fully supported, and delivered by an overwheming force of rested troops. Furthermore, he had not exposed his base; he had simply moved it behind him momentarily.

The Japanese were never able to comprehend what Carlson was doing and at each confrontation showed a steadily diminishing capacity for effective resistance..."

(From The Big Yankee, The Raiders Tell Their Story) "...Day after day we followed the Old Man's jungle-guerrilla tactics, putting into practice his theory of the mobile fire team. The team worked wonders. Toward evening we'd make a base; then next morning fan out patrols to find the enemy as well as the site of a forward base. The Old Man would okay it, and we'd all move up to it. The next day would be the same....the Old Man led the whole battalion over the ridge...Carlson called out, Let's sing, 'Onward, Christian Soldiers.' It was right. That's what we wanted...we sang...We didn't care whether or not the Japs heard us. We felt good singing...The old Man ordered a double envelopment with a squad on each flank of the enemy...soon our flanks were outflanked, The Old Man ordered a platoon to flank the enemy flankers, but not being satisfied with that, he told them to move to the rear of the enemy and surround them. As the battle report put it: 'This was accomplished in due course'....

...We had spent a month in the jungle, and marched one hundred and fifty miles, met the enemy daily, captured and destroyed his guns and ammunition and food and medical supplies; we reassured the command that nothing important was going on in the interior; we mapped out his exit-west route; we destroyed 'Pistol Pete,' and finally we killed officially 488 Japs, but the Seabees who went in later to bury them said we killed 700. For all this, we lost 17 men, and 17 wounded.

And that's why we loved Carlson--because we could kill the enemy 40 to 1."

(From the book, The Island: A History of the First Marine Division on Guadalcanal, by Capt H.L. Merillat USMCR) "...Most significant, though, was the demonstration of the ability of American troops, properly trained and indoctrinated, to operate independent of established supply lines in the jungle. In the thirty engagements it fought, the battalion had been surprised only twice. On the other occasions it gained complete surprise over the enemy. This fact, plus its skill in jungle fighting and its tremendous fire power, explain the low casualties we sustained in comparison to those of the enemy. The heroes of Makin Island had added another exceptional feat of arms to their history."

War Dogs With the Raiders

(1-4 Chapt. 13 p187-199)

Dogs crossed the Alps with Hannibal, they marched with Ceasar's Legions and even the Crusaders had their Mastiffs!

The first appearance of the Devil Dogs, as the Raiders were wont to call them, was during the Bougainville operation, 1 November 1943. Here the 1st Marine War Dog Platoon was attached to H & S Company, 2nd Marine Raider Regiment (provisional). This platoon was composed of 24 dogs (21 Doberman Pinschers, 1 Belgian and 2 German Shepherds).

The Platoon Commander Lt. Clyde A. Henderson stated: "To facilitate training and control in the field for every 5-6 dogs there was a Marine responsible for their well being." When you view the fact that each dog had two handlers it is seen that the squad organization consisted of thirteen men-as were the rifle squads at that time.

The Devil Dogs are a spiritual ancestor of The Rat Thing.

In a bit of synchronicity, there was a Private Laurence Stevenson who was a War Dog handler at Guadalcanal....

Odder Still: Guadalcanal

The abortive raid described in Shaftoe's lizard incident, was likely a description of the ill-run but successful first operation of the 2nd Raiders at Makin Atoll, at which the first Medal of Honor winner of WWII, Sgt Clyde Thomason died defending his men in the face of enemy fire. Otherwise, it is reflective of the aborted raid by the 1st Raiders at Matinakau on Guadalcanal, with the legendary "Chesty" Puller's 1st of the 7th Marines.

It was the Marine Raiders who first utilized the Navaho codetalkers for the first time in combat in the battle of Guadalcanal. The invasion of Guadalcanal, Operation Watchtower, by sixteen thousand United States troops began on 7 August 1942 and was the first American offensive of the Pacific War. Additional amphibious attacks simultaneously assaulted the islands of Florida, Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo.

Initially, only unarmed Japanese construction and support personnel occupied Guadalcanal itself, allowing the Americans to come ashore almost unhindered. But Japanese reinforcements arrived on the island from Rabaul to destroy the Americans (Operation Ka-Go).

These convoys and the land battle on Guadalcanal became magnets for naval activity on both sides. This resulted in seven naval battles: 1. Savo Island on 9 August 2. Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August 3. Battle of Cape Esperance on 11 & 12 October 4. Battle of Santa Cruz Island on 26 & 27 October 5. First Battle of Guadalcanal on 11 & 12 November 6. Second Battle of Guadalcanal on 14 November & 15 November; and finally: 7. Battle of Tassafaronga on 30 November.

These naval battles did not produce a victor, but the Japanese were unable to replace their losses.

The land battle hinged around the airfield which the Americans named Henderson Field, a muddy airstrip hanging onto the edge of the island, and considered "an unsinkable aircraft carrier". The Japanese suffered 24,000 casualties, the Americans 6,000.

Extreme desperation characterized the ground fighting; only three of the defenders surrendered. American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure on 9 February, 1943, after more than six months of combat.

Codetalkers

Codetalkers were Native American soldiers who transmitted secret messages over radio or telephone using codes based on their native languages. The name refers chiefly to Navajo speakers in special units in the Pacific Theatre of WWII. However, Choctaw, Comanche, and other languages were also used, beginning in WWI. In WWII the military (particularly the US Marines) used Navajo language speakers for the first time.

Contary to popular conception, the Navajo 'code' did not consist of merely speaking Navajo over a battlefield radio or wired link. The code talkers developed several letter substitution codes in which each letter of an English message was converted to an English word starting with that letter, and then the Navajo translation of that word would be transmitted. In this way, anything expressible in English could, if necessary, be spelled out. For efficiency, a 'codebook' was also developed for many relevant words and concepts. So a codetalker message would consist of some plain Navajo language, some code words (also in Navajo, but with special coded meaning), and, if necessary, some spelled out English words (with each letter being represented by a preselected Navajo word). To an ordinary Navajo speaker, the entire 'conversation' would been quite incomprehensible. See the link at the end of the article to see the now-declassified codebook. The codetalkers memorized all these variations, and practiced their rapid use under stressful conditions.

The Japanese never cracked the spoken code, and high military officers have stated that the United States would never have won the Battle of Iwo Jima without the secrecy afforded by the code talkers. Yet the codetalkers received no recognition until the declassification of the operation in 1968. In 1982, the code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by President Reagan, who also named August 14th National Code Talkers Day.

Native American languages were chosen for several reasons. Most importantly, speakers of these languages were available inside the United States, and unavailable outside. In addition, the languages were virtually unknown outside the US. Hitler did know about the successful use of codetalkers during World War I, and sent a team of some thirty anthropologists to learn native American languages before the outbreak of World War II. However it was impossible to learn all the many languages and dialects that existed.

Furthermore, an unfamiliar spoken human language is harder to "crack" than a code based on a familiar language. The languages chosen had little written literature, so that even researching them was difficult for nonspeakers. In addition, nonspeakers would find it extremely difficult to accurately duistinguish unfamiliar sounds used in these languages. Finally, the additional layer of an alphabet cypher was added to prevent interception by native speakers not trained as codetalkers, in the event of their capture by the Japanese.

The Navajo spoken code is not very complex by cryptographic standards, and would likely have been broken if a native speaker and trained cryptographers worked together effectively. The Japanese had an opportunity to do so when they captured Joe Kieyoomia in the Philippines in 1942. Kieyoomia, a Navajo Seargeant in the U.S. Army, was ordered to interpret the radio messages. They made no sense to him, and when he reported that he could not understand the messages, his captors tortured him. Given the simplicity of the alphabet code involved, it is probable that the code could have been broken easily if Kieyoomia's knowledge had been exploited more effectively by Japanese cryptographers.

Last WWII Comanche 'code talker' dies

Charles_Chibitty.jpg
Charles Chibitty Charles Chibitty, the last surviving member of the group of 17 who served in World War II as the Comanche "code talkers" died in a Tulsa, Oklahoma nursing home July 20. He was 83.

Chibitty was among the 14 Comanches who landed with the D-Day invasion of Normandy Beaches where they reported by radio to division headquarters on the progress of the landings. The Comanche were dubbed code talkers because the American Indian language has no written record, and it was never broken by the Germans during the war.

One of the first messages transmitted in Comanche language during the landings was "right beach, wrong place". It warned soldiers they landed about a half mile from their intended target. Chibitty served with a unit that landed on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944.

Mr. Chibitty served with the rank of a Corporal in the 4th Infantry Division that engaged in the breakthrough of the Siegfried line in Hurtgen Forest. His division also saw action in the Battle of the Bulge and the rescue of the "Lost Battalion". His division was among the first to undertake the liberation of Paris. Then later, the 4th Infantry was the first to enter Germany.

The Comanches, who came from the Lawton area in Oklahoma, heard rumors of a military plan to organize a native speaking unit. He enlisted in 1941, and along with 19 others, they were trained for special duty by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. All were sent to Fort Benning, but three remained state-side because they had dependents and deployment in the mission was dangerous.

The U.S. declassified the code talker program in 1968. Only three remained living at the time. The French Government gave special honors to the Comanches by bestowing them with the Chevalier of the National Order of Merit in 1989. Mr. Chibitty was honored in 1999 when the Pentagon bestowed on him the Knowlton Award.

In a 1999 interview with the Armed Forces Information Center, Chibitty said: "The Navajo did the same thing. The Navajos became code talkers about a year after the Comanches, but there were over a hundred of them because they had so much territory [in the Pacific Theater] to cover."

Joe Holley of the Washington Post recalled this quote from Mr. Chibitty in 2002:

"It’s strange, but growing up as a child I was forbidden speak my native language at school. Later my country asked me to. My language helped win the war, and that makes me very proud. Very proud."

The funeral service was held Tuesday at 10 a.m. He has three surviving grandchildren.

Oddest Still

The US Armed Forces were not integrated in WW2; although the French used American Blacks as soldiers in the first World War. When some greener or more sheltered soldiers would meet a codetalker for the first time - some of them thought they were enemy soldiers. This led to codetalkers having bodyguards. From reading through Cryptonomicon — I think Bobby was wounded and out before the codetalkers got implemented. The First 29 were still undergoing special training in San Diego or bootcamp at Pendleton.