The bold, black typescript of the headlines that appeared daily in American newspapers during December 1941 reflected the somberness of the opening days of the Pacific War. In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941, Japanese forces sought to capitalize on the crippling of the Pacific Fleet by attacking targets all across the Pacific, including the Philippines, Guam, Malaya, and Wake. As American protectorates since the end of the Spanish-American War, the former two territories were relatively familiar to readers, while Singapore at the tip of the Malay Peninsula was famous as a jewel of the British Empire. Less well known was the speck of land that was Wake, yet over the course of two weeks every American came to know the sandy atoll, its heroic defense as much a symbol to them as Ft. Sumter had been to the Union during the Civil War. Among the players in the unfolding drama that was the defense of Wake were a number of naval aviation personnel.
On the morning of 8 December 1941 [Wake’s location west of the International Date Line puts it one day ahead of Hawaii], when the military personnel and civilian contractors on Wake received word of the events at Pearl Harbor, the overall commander of naval activities on the atoll was Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham. A member of the Naval Academy Class of 1921, Cunningham had flown fighters and patrol boats during his naval career, service in the latter preparing him for command of Wake in that when war broke out in the Pacific, it was being developed as an advanced base for seaplanes. This was actually a natural outgrowth of civilian use of the atoll, which beginning in 1935 was a stop on Pan American Airways’ commercial flying boat service across the Pacific.
Among the defenders of Wake were the men and aircraft of Marine Fighting Squadron (VMF) 211, which as part of a plan to reinforce the defenses of Pacific island outposts with Marine squadrons, boarded the carrier Enterprise (CV 6) at Pearl Harbor in late-November 1941 for transportation to the atoll. The pilots launched from the carrier in their F4F Wildcats on 4 December 1941, landing at Wake that same day. Under the command of Major Paul Putnam, personnel of VMF-211 began taking stock of their rustic home almost immediately upon arrival, like everyone else present little realizing that the world as they knew it was about to change.
It didn’t take long for the battle joined in Hawaii to reach Wake. On 8 December, a formation of thirty-four Mitsubishi G3M2 Type 96 land attack planes appeared in the skies over the atoll and unleashed their bomb loads, the first wave of what would become numerous attacks from the air, upon the sea, and eventually on land. Among the hardest hit in the first attack was VMF-211, which lost seven of its twelve aircraft and suffered thirty-three casualties, including eighteen dead. The personnel fit for duty set to work reorganizing the squadron’s spaces, salvaging parts from the non-flyable aircraft, and preparing defensive positions around the airfield in the event of landings by Japanese troops. It would be days before the boots of Japanese sailors touched the sands of Wake, but until that time came VMF-211 defied the odds in their defense of the atoll. Squadron pilots took off from the crushed coral airstrip that was their home to intercept attacking enemy planes, shooting down nine of them. In addition, when Japanese ships approached Wake on 11 December to bombard the atoll’s defenses, VMF-211’s Wildcats executed bombing attacks that resulted in the sinking of the destroyer Kisaragi.
While the defenders anxiously held out day after day, efforts to relieve Wake were underway as the carrier Saratoga (CV 3), seaplane tender Tangier (AV 8), and escorting ships departed Pearl Harbor bound for the waters around Wake. The force never reached its objective, receiving an order to retire on its final approach to the atoll as Japanese troops landed and engaged the defenders on 23 December. Thus, the last contact the personnel on Wake had with outside forces was in the form of a PBY Catalina flying boat, which landed in the atoll’s lagoon on 20 December. It remained until the following morning, when it took off carrying letters to loved ones from some of those on Wake, official reports, and Major Walter Bayler, USMC. When the flying boat departed, it represented the last contact with the defenders of Wake for more than three and one half years. On 22 December, VMF-211’s last operational aircraft crashed on landing after an engagement with Japanese carrier planes, during which the pilot, Captain Herbert C. Freuler, splashed two of the enemy. Subsequently, in the finest tradition of the Marine Corps, the surviving members of the squadron became riflemen and reported to defensive positions. The enemy did not keep them waiting long. On 23 December, Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces came ashore, the pitched battle ultimately resulting in the surrender of the garrison.
As for naval aviation personnel, Captain Henry T. Elrod never left Wake. The executive officer of VMF-211, who was credited with shooting down two enemy bombers and dropping the bombs that sank the destroyer Kisaragi, died in ground combat. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. The survivors of VMF-211 were taken into captivity and held as prisoners of war until repatriated in 1945. So to was Commander Cunningham, for whom the battle for Wake continued the remainder of his life in the form of efforts to receive credit for his role in overall command of the defense, which was diminished by the postwar writings of Major James Devereux, USMC, the commanding officer of the detachment of Marines on the atoll. Both men received the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism during the momentous days in December.
Colonel Walter Bayler, the last man off Wake, returned in September 1945, and was present at the raising of the Stars and Stripes following the Japanese surrender of the atoll that they had captured in 1941. As for one of the pilots on board the PBY that carried him off Wake, Ensign Howard P. Ady became famous in June 1942, when in command of a PBY he spotted the Japanese carriers during the Battle of Midway, leading to one of the most important victories in the history of the U.S. Navy.
Pictured above is the Navy Cross awarded to Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham for his service in the battle for Wake and the original memorial on the atoll that consisted of the cowling of a plane flown by Captain Henry T. Elrod, who is pictured during his flight training at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida.