Pacific Valor – The Marines at Tarawa and Guam (WWII Documentary) - video Dailymotion

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Pacific Valor – The Marines at Tarawa and Guam (WWII Documentary) Experience the intense and heroic battles fought by U.S. Marines in the Pacific Theater during World War II. This powerful documentary captures the brutal combat at Tarawa and the strategic campaign to retake Guam, highlighting the bravery, sacrifice, and resilience of American forces. Featuring authentic wartime footage, this film serves as a historical tribute to those who served on the frontlines of the Pacific War.  🎖️ Public Domain WWII Documentary – Digitally restored for educational and historical preservation.

Transcript

00:00These are the men of the 2nd Marine Division.

00:22We're now embarking on a full-scale amphibious operation

00:26after many months of intensive training.

00:30The transports are combat loaded.

00:40The ships of the Navy and Coast Guard form our convoy.

00:44Squadrons of carrier planes cover us in the sky.

00:48Several days from our destination,

00:49the destroyer brings us sealed orders.

01:00It won't be long now before we know where we're bound.

01:13The relief map of our objective is broken out.

01:17Fortified out on the Betio and the Tarawa Atoll,

01:21a very important Jap air base on the outer fringe of their Pacific defenses.

01:24Our platoon leaders started explaining the terrain to us.

01:29By the time they were finished,

01:30we knew that island and its reefs as well as we knew our own backyards.

01:36We built more machine gun ammunition.

01:38Check and test fire all weapons.

01:55Exercise helped to relieve the tension.

01:57Navy and Coast Guard coxswains receive last-minute instructions

02:05on formations, rendezvous areas, and departure times.

02:10Services are held on the last evening before D-Day.

02:13We liked listening to Father Kelly,

02:23even with us at Guadalcanal.

02:26He had a way of seeing what we wanted to hear.

02:36Many of these men were killed the following morning.

02:43We are ready.

02:50D-Day.

02:51This is the day we attacked.

02:53Long before daylight,

02:54we were over the side into amphibian tractors and landing boats.

03:06At daylight, our naval vessels opened fire,

03:08and for four solid hours,

03:10they found Tarawa with high explosives.

03:13Everything went like clockwork.

03:29When the ships stopped firing,

03:31the Navy planes would take over.

03:33Bombing.

03:36Straping.

03:37We were a team, working together.

03:39Then, again, according to plan,

03:44the planes withdraw,

03:45and the ship's batteries open up again.

03:56H-hour, the hour we attack,

03:57is getting close.

03:59For three days before we moved in,

04:01over four million pounds of explosives

04:03have been dropped on the island.

04:04It didn't seem possible that anyone

04:07could live through that bombardment.

04:08From this Jap Hulk,

04:36machine guns constantly strafed our assault waves.

04:51We bombed them out twice,

04:52but each time,

04:53a new crew took over.

04:55One of our planes scores a direct hit.

04:57As we approach the island,

05:03we have the feeling

05:04that the show is just about over.

05:06There doesn't seem to be

05:07any organized resistance.

05:09However, we're taking no chances.

05:12Suddenly, we're met

05:13by heavy machine gun and mortar fire.

05:15Takes a heavy toll of our boats and men.

05:18It doesn't stop us.

05:19We fight our way out to the beach.

05:34Our men wade ashore

05:59from wrecked amphibians.

06:01A long pier extending across the fringing reef

06:10gives protection to a lot of our boys

06:12on the way in.

06:16We have a pretty good toehold on the beach,

06:18but Jap fire pins us down for hours.

06:21Casualties are pretty high.

06:39But as we found out later,

06:41blood plasma saves a lot of lives.

06:43When reinforcements arrive,

06:50we start moving up.

07:10It isn't easy knocking those Japs

07:12out of their positions.

07:13They're hidden in trees

07:14behind revetments,

07:16buried pillboxes,

07:17bomb roofs,

07:18bunkers.

07:19And,

07:48Ow!

08:18We use hand grenades.

08:23We use all the firepower we have to blast them out.

08:28Our rifle fire is net.

08:30So are the flamethrowers and the mortars.

08:37The enemy breaks from cover.

08:48It's tough getting them out of places like this.

08:52We can never be sure where their snipers are placed.

08:55We take it slow, easy.

09:18This bunker is giving us plenty of trouble.

09:28We have orders to clean it out.

09:48We take it slow, easy.

10:18This is what we found on the other side.

10:36They're savage fighters.

10:39Their liars mean nothing to them.

10:48One of our boys is hit.

10:58At night, the Japs would swim out to our wrecked amphibians and set up machine guns.

11:02They got a few of us before we got them.

11:14Commanding officer of the assault troops confers with his staff.

11:18One of our medium tanks remains in operation.

11:21Although at the end of the second day, D plus one, we breathe a little easier,

11:33mortar squads continue to hammer enemy points of resistance.

11:36By this time, we know the Japs are licked.

11:58They must know it, too.

12:00There's still strong resistance.

12:02Nip suicide snipers tie themselves up in the trees and take pot shots at us.

12:07We hit them, but they don't fall.

12:10Just die and hang there.

12:11It's crazy.

12:12Let's get started.

12:19Let's go.

12:49A light tank moves up the airstrip.

13:16One of our boys is wounded during the attack on the airfield.

13:20Another Marine goes out after him in a jeep under heavy machine gun fire.

13:31Back at the beach, there's constant activity.

13:34Amphibians tow in fresh supplies, food, ammunition, guns.

13:37As the battle moves across the island, the chaplains' assistants tend the dead, removing the lower identification taken, leaving the duplicate on each Marine so there'll be no mistake later on.

14:22Many of them were over 20 feet deep.

14:24Our first prisoners.

14:32The wounded are given first aid in the field and then carried by stretchers to the boats.

14:46With them always are the Navy hospital corpsmen and Navy doctors and surgeons.

14:50At the transport, the steel litters are lifted from the barges and lowered into the hold.

14:59They're taken to the ship's hospital.

15:01Not a second is lost.

15:10These are Marine dead.

15:12This is the price we have to pay for a war we didn't want.

15:20And before it's over, there'll be more dead on other battlefields.

15:22Burial aboard ship for Marines killed in action.

15:52Just to make sure they're not concealing weapons, the prisoners are lined up and their clothes cut away.

16:08We gave them new ones later from their own dumps.

16:10The rest of the island's defending force is dead.

16:23None escaped.

16:25Tokyo once boasted that it would cost 100,000 of our men to take terror.

16:29We lost less than 1,000.

16:33The Japs over 4,000.

16:37A wounded Jap soldier.

16:40We took very few of these.

16:43Most of our prisoners were Korean laborers.

16:47One of our officers captured these Japs from a disabled landing boat.

16:54Prisoners carried their own wounded to the pier for evacuation.

16:59Captured Jap water.

17:01This is the first chance the boys have had to war since they got on the island.

17:05Gunfire from our warships knocked these big guns out early in the bombardment.

17:16These were English Vickers guns captured by the Japs in Singapore.

17:19One of their many light tanks.

17:30This was the Jap command post, built of reinforced concrete several feet thick.

17:35That building was built to withstand plenty.

17:38And did.

17:40We finally took it with TNT and flamethrowers.

17:42The fighting was still going on at one end of the island

17:48when the Seabees landed with their heavy equipment.

17:51They set to work clearing the airstrip even while we were fighting for it.

17:54The first plane landed just 24 hours after the Seabees had started to work.

18:17The first plane landed just 24 hours after the Seabees had started to work.

18:17The second one lands one minute later.

18:28We welcomed the pilot to our new home.

18:30It was our first chance to thank those guys for the swell job they did for us

18:34before and during the attack.

18:38On D plus four, our relief came in.

18:42Maybe you would think we weren't glad to see them.

18:47I guess all of us knew from the first, no matter how tough the going was,

19:03that we'd take the island.

19:05Just the same, the day the colors were run up on this palm tree

19:08and flew for the first time over Terua,

19:11we got a love in our throats.

19:13We were mighty proud.

19:17These are the Marines who took Terua.

19:40We're so glad we were.

19:42We're so glad we're back.

19:43Give it to the Marines going for you.

19:44Let's go.

19:45Come on.

19:46Come on.

19:47Come on.

20:04Come on.

20:05Come on.

20:07Come on.

20:08We're off the island of Guam

20:35shelling Jap installations late one afternoon

20:38about two weeks before the landings.

20:43Suddenly we noticed strange light flashes

20:46from the peak of a nearby hill.

20:48The message in Navy code was baffling.

20:52I have information.

20:54What could this mean?

20:57We signaled the unknown party to advance to the beach.

21:01We suspected Jap trickery.

21:04Keeping our guns trained point-blank

21:07on that strip of beach

21:08the captain dispatched a boat

21:10which proceeded slowly

21:12to meet the person who had sent the signal.

21:14The End

21:19It was a white man, a strange, unkempt figure.

21:50Crying and laughing in his joy and excitement.

21:56When he was able to talk, he identified himself as radio man George Tweed, United States Navy.

22:04The only survivor of the original garrison of Guam.

22:14Slowly, a strange story came out.

22:17How he took to the hills during the original Jap attack.

22:21How he lived alone in the jungle, changing his hiding place daily, sometimes hourly, for 31 months.

22:30While endless Jap patrols hunted him like an animal.

22:34How courageous natives smuggled him food and news and warnings of danger.

22:39Here was a Robinson Crusoe who had stood up alone against the whole Japanese empire.

22:46When the destroyer with Tweed aboard rejoined the main task force, he was amazed by the size of the fleet.

22:57Larger even than he'd hoped for during his 31 months of hiding.

23:00Battleships, cruisers, destroyers, carriers, so many of them.

23:05And assault troop ships and assault cargo ships of a kind that didn't even exist when Tweed became a fugitive.

23:11The fleet has come to this staging base, itself so recently in Japan, loaded and powered for the attack on Guam.

23:19Now, while a band swings out, heavy shells are taken aboard.

23:25The finishing touch, the seal that will sting.

23:29The big claws, these 14-inch shells, will rip out shore installations.

23:34Make the landing less costly in American lives.

23:38Cans of 40-millimeter ammunition pile up in great mounds on deck.

23:42A curtain of fire waiting to be raised if needed.

23:45There, across the water, lies Guam.

23:50It means much to all Americans.

23:53But most to these sailors.

23:56They're Guamanians.

23:57Americans, too.

24:00Americans known as Chamorros, whose families have been captives of the Japs for 31 bitter months.

24:06Soon we will find out what those Japs have done to our island.

24:11Beautiful it was then.

24:13And living there made us happy.

24:16There were 21,000 of us, and we knew each other as friends.

24:21Although we were far out in the Pacific, we were proud to be under the American flag.

24:27We were content.

24:28It was a good life.

24:29The Navy ran the island like a great ship.

24:43Gave us doctors and hospitals, and there was care for everyone and free schooling.

24:47With many of us younger boys, our big ambition was to grow up and join the Navy.

24:54Our older men learned about self-government from the captain who was in charge of the island.

25:08We organized our own militia.

25:17And our heroes were the Marines.

25:20But there were not many of them, the Marines of Guam.

25:26You, they were indeed the Marines of Guam.

25:40Japan would consider any move to strengthen Guam an unfriendly act.

25:46It would be by pointing a gun at a neighbor's door.

25:50But behind this neighbor's door, the masters of Japan were pointing guns of their own.

25:57And they saw in Guam a key to their dream of empire.

26:00Their agents among us were busy.

26:06Guam was not to be an obstacle to the plans of Tokyo.

26:10Then on a certain day in December 1941, the masters of Japan were ready.

26:16The war was on.

26:30The garrison on Guam, it was over almost before it began.

26:46The Navy Department announces that it is unable to communicate with Guam, either by radio or cable.

26:55The island has been bombed repeatedly, and Japanese troops have landed at several points.

27:03A small force of less than 400 naval personnel and 155 Marines were stationed in Guam.

27:14The capture of the island is probable.

27:18Guam now will be around to Japan forever.

27:22Never, never again, will America touch its door.

27:27The return to Guam, we knew, would take many ships.

27:31In the months that followed, we built such fleets that we were able to start the march back at Guadalcanal.

27:38At this ridiculous rate of advance, America might recover its lost territory in perhaps 200 years.

27:46Then we made enough planes to begin whittling down the Jap fleet.

27:49We grew strong enough to attack New Guinea.

27:53Our axes arise are pinning America down in Europe.

27:57We shall be very much stronger before America is ready to move in the Pacific.

28:02We built our way out of the sea.

28:05With amphibious operations, we blasted Chirawa and the Marshals.

28:08We are willing to sell you land at 1,000 lives per acre.

28:15At such a price, we will sell you a million square miles if you wish.

28:21Then we were ready for the great adventure, an attack on Japanese territory.

28:26We conquered Saipan.

28:28But not Guam.

28:30Guam is secure.

28:33Guam is Japan.

28:34Guam is Japanese forever.

28:40Today, our guns thunder their answer.

28:44Our guns are on target.

28:46The target is Guam.

28:50New planes come up to meet ours.

28:52The island has been plastered for weeks in the air.

29:18The island has been plastered for weeks in the air.

29:19The island has been plastered for years in the air.

29:42Good luck, fellas.

29:44Stay out of the именно.

29:46All right.

29:47Watch it far.

29:48Watch it every.

29:49out we go

29:54spread out

30:04spread out

30:05oh it's pretty good over here

30:14yeah

30:21yeah

30:26yeah

30:29yeah

30:34yeah

30:37yeah

30:42yeah

30:49yeah

30:51yeah

30:53yeah

30:56yeah

31:01yeah

31:05yeah

31:12yeah

31:16mopping up

31:27the phrase sounds tame and unexciting

31:30actually mopping up is one of the most gruesome and dangerous jobs of the war

31:37the last hysterical fanatics must be captured or destroyed before victory is complete

31:44we've returned to Guam

31:51it's ours again

31:53but the cost has been high

31:54but the cost has been high

32:00and the acho is done

32:03the last two years

32:07I'm not sure

32:08I'm not sure

32:09but I feel like I'm not sure

32:10I'm not sure

32:11but I have to say

32:12but I'm not sure

32:13for the entire history of the world

32:14I don't know

32:15but I'm not sure

32:16that's what I'm not sure

32:17that's what I'm not sure

32:18I'm not sure

32:19I'm not sure

32:20I'm not sure

32:21One thousand, two hundred and twenty-six Americans have died.

32:41In dying, each man disposed of ten Japs.

32:45But one thousand, two hundred and twenty-six fellow Americans have died, and here are the

32:59sons of heaven.

33:04These are the members of the divine race.

33:08These are the men who set out to conquer the earth.

33:10Where now is the imperial arrogance which went forth to bestride the world?

33:25The loudspeaker calls,

33:27Geneva Convention, we will not hurt you.

33:30Out of the hills where they'd hidden come a throng of Japanese civilians.

33:35They're bewildered, not so much by the bombardment.

33:39Well, that was severe enough.

33:41Their emperor has failed them.

33:44Not so long ago, they turned their backs on their sacred mountain and sailed to Guam.

33:49This was to be their colony, their promised land, and the tomorrows would be their slaves.

33:56They came to stay forever.

33:58Now the plans of empire lie in ruin.

34:02Guam's destiny as a fortress of Japan has been smashed.

34:05Now a new marine garrison takes up the watch on Guam.

34:18Today, an American task force controls the waters off Guam.

34:22Two months after his rescue, George Tweed, now warrant officer and holder of the Legion of Merit for his aid in the recovery of Guam,

34:35returned to the island to prepare a final report on his strange adventure.

34:39I came close to dying a hundred times during the last two and a half years.

34:44But when those American planes and ships came over, I almost died of joy.

34:50All that power, that was a sight for sore eyes.

34:54The Navy sure had the stuff.

34:56I didn't have to wonder anymore what the folks back home had been doing while I was playing hide-and-seek with the Japs.

35:03But the Japs did a few other things besides chase me around.

35:07When they started fortifying, they built up their defenses like mad.

35:12They were racing against time.

35:14A lot of Chamorro blood was mixed up in that concrete.

35:19The Japs forced them to work for practically nothing.

35:23And the ones who couldn't stand the gaff were beaten and tortured.

35:28I'll bet they were a little too busy to mistreat the Natives when we started coming over.

35:34Not the Japs, sir.

35:36They always find time for that.

35:38When they got worried about the Americans coming back, they treated the Chamorros even worse.

35:43When the Natives could get together in groups, it wasn't for celebration.

35:48Not at first.

35:50They prayed for their dead.

35:53Some of these were victims of terrible butchery.

35:56This one had his head cut off for turning it up to a sky filled with American bombers.

36:04This one couldn't hide his joy when a zero crashed into the sea.

36:10This one tried to help one of our pilots.

36:16This is Jap justice, as I saw it.

36:19The Japs brought slavery and misery and death to the Natives of Guam.

36:27These people are my friends.

36:30They saved my life.

36:31When I returned, the Chamorros were getting their first good meals in a long time.

36:37And their first decent medical care.

36:40Some of it for babies born during the occupation.

36:44I would like to visit them again when the war is over.

36:48Until then, I want to do everything I can to knock the hell out of those Japs.

36:53I was there in the beginning, and I want to be there to finish.

37:01People of Guam, the government of the United States.

37:05Your government promises your homes will rise again.

37:08Your losses will be restored.

37:12What is done for Guam is only part of what Guam will do for the people of America and the peace of the world.

37:18Guam will now become everything that a powerful American base should be.

37:24Great installations will rise as sentinels of our security and the peace of the world.

37:29From Guam, the attack goes forward.

37:31From here, the winning blow may be struck against Japan.

37:35On to Guam.

37:37On to every other place we win.

37:39We must pour the power that will clear the path to Tokyo.

37:44This base, which was lost and is now redeemed,

37:48may now fulfill its destiny

37:50and launch the action that will help win the war.

38:01To be continued...

38:15To be continued...

38:22THE END

38:52THE END

Pacific Valor – The Marines at Tarawa and Guam (WWII Documentary)

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