Military | Page 25 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 6, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Giggle Hill

The “Fighting Fourth” was home-based at Camp Maui (aka “Giggle Hill”) during WWII operations in the Pacific. Camp Maui in Ha‘ikū (housing 20,000 Marines) was the main base of the 4th Marine Division.

It is said it was nicknamed “Giggle Hill” because American soldiers training there would bring their girls here to “neck”. At night, you could sometimes hear the giggles of young women.

At the outbreak of WWII, the Army rented 1,600 acres from various landowners in the Ha‘ikū area. The principal owners were: Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (490 acres,) Maui Agricultural Co. (397 acres) and the Copp Estate (220 acres). Thirteen different owners accounted for the remaining 493 acres. The rental for the site was $15,000 per year, prorated among the owners.

Buildings went up for offices, tents for living quarters; mess halls were constructed and roads carved out. Post Exchanges opened up; movie screens and stages were built and baseball diamonds were laid out.

The terrain and beaches of Maui provided excellent and rugged training ground. All the Division’s amphibious maneuvers for the Marianas and Iwo Jima operations were held off Ma‘alaea Bay. Haleakalā became a course with 13-mile hikes through its crater.

A total of 47 training areas, many of them belonging to the Army, were available to the Division. Six areas, consisting of gulches and rough terrain, near the camp, were used for non-tactical maneuvering.

On the outskirts of camp, a demolitions area, a live-grenade course, a pistol range and machine-gun range were set up. Five miles east of camp, in a gulch opening into the sea, was the Division’s bazooka area, and along the coast, east of camp for about ten miles, were combat firing ranges which permitted the maneuvering and firing of tanks and halftracks in coordination with the infantry.

The Division’s 100-target rifle range at Opana Point was also located in this area. Another area in the vicinity was used to train motor transport drivers in the movement of troops and supplies under both day and night conditions of combat.

The Ma‘alaea Bay area furnished an antitank moving-target range, a close-combat range, and a 20-point rifle range. The beach at Ma‘alaea Bay was fortified with pillboxes and emplacements modeled after the Tarawa Beach.

In addition to all this, there was a mortar and artillery impact area, a seacoast artillery range and an antiaircraft firing area. Inland were two artillery positions and maneuver areas. In the center of the island, near the Pu‘unene Air Station, were, the Division’s tank maneuver areas.

Maui was involved in the war effort as a staging center, training base and for rest and relaxation. At the 1943-44 peak, the number of troops stationed on Maui exceeded 100,000.

The 4th Marines were involved with four major battles: Kwajalein (Roi-Namur,) Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima, suffering more than 17,000 casualties.

Kwajalein (Roi-Namur) – In one historic week, from January 29 to February 4, 1944, the 4th Marine Division set three new records: it became the first division to go directly into combat from the US.

It was first to capture Japanese-mandated territory in the Pacific; and it secured its objective in a shorter time than that of any other important operation since the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Camp Maui was first occupied by the 4th Marine Division in late-February 1944 after the Roi-Namur operation in Kwahalein (Marshall Islands.)

Saipan – The 4th Marine Division landed on Saipan June 15, 1944. The severity of this battle was indicated by the 2,000 casualties suffered in the first two days of battle. The Flag was raised on Saipan after 25 grueling and bitter days of combat.

The Division sustained 5,981 casualties killed, wounded and missing (27.6 percent of the Division’s strength.) The Japanese count was 23,811 known dead and 1,810 prisoners were taken.

Tinian – The 4th Marine Division landed on Tinian 24 July 1944. The island was defended by 9000 plus Japanese troops. This battle lasted nine days. The land assault on Tinian had cost the Division 290 men killed, 1,515 wounded and 24 missing in action.

Approximately 9,000 Japanese troops were dead and 250 prisoners taken. In recognition of its work on Saipan and Tinian, the Fourth Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

The Division arrived back on Maui from the Saipan-Tinian operations in late-August 1944.

Iwo Jima – The Japanese troops on Iwo Jima numbered 23,000. The first wave of Marines hit the beach the morning of February 19, 1945.

By the end of the second day casualties totaled 2,011. On March 16th, 26 days after the first troops landed, Iwo Jima was declared secured – the greatest battle in Marine Corps history was over.

After the battle of Iwo Jima, the Division arrived back on Maui in early-April 1945.

On July 4, 1945, a parade was held on the Camp Maui airstrip, at which time 714 men of the Division were decorated. The Divisions was awarded two Presidential Unit Citations and a Navy Unit Commendation. Twelve men from the Fourth Marines were awarded the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry.”

The 4th Marine Division was deactivated November 28, 1945. In April 1946, the Camp Maui land was returned to the owners.

Today, the grounds are now a public park named “Kalapukua Playground” (“magical playground”;) Giggle Hill has a large children’s playground. The centerpiece of the park is the memorial to the Fourth Marine Division.

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Mortarmen of A-1-24, April 1944

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Marines of A-1-24 at Camp Maui, 1944

Able Company’s mess tent, Camp Maui. Spring 1944.

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A bazooka team on maneuvers with a camouflage-painted M4 Sherman tank

View of the eastern portion of Camp Maui. The 23rd Marines inhabited these tents-(BenBradshaw)

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NAS Pu`unēnē looking westward, Maalaea Bay-(Maui Historical Society-NOAA)

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April 3, 2019 by Peter T Young 5 Comments

Fort Kamehameha

From 1890 to 1905, the United States undertook a massive program to modernize its coastal defenses. Known as the Endicott era; the huge construction program resulted in all the major harbors being fortified with newly designed steel guns ranging in size from 3 to 12 inches in diameter of bore and 12-inch, breech-loading mortars.

The gun emplacements were constructed with reinforced concrete and had huge earthen or sand parapets in front. Bombproof magazines were placed far underground.

In 1908 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was in the midst of constructing O‘ahu armored fortifications in accordance with the recommendations of the joint board.

These weapons were to be emplaced within new military reservations that were eventually named Forts Armstrong, Kamehameha, DeRussy and Ruger.

Established in 1909, Fort Kamehameha played an important role within a system of coastal defenses of the Army Coast Artillery Corps that served as a key component of the national defense of the United States in the early 20th century.

In a public address on June 11, 1911, Brig. Gen. M. M. Macomb (Commander, District of Hawai‘i) stated that Oʻahu would be encircled with a ring of steel, with mortar batteries at Diamond Head, big guns at Waikīkī and Pearl Harbor, and a series of emplacements from Koko Head around the island to Waianae.

Between 1911 and 1914 the Army Corps of Engineers built four batteries at Fort Kamehameha (Selfridge, Hasbrouck, Hawkins, and Jackson), adding a fifth one (Battery Closson) in 1920.

These batteries were key sections of Oahu’s “ring of steel,” which included Forts Armstrong, DeRussy and Ruger, along with Ford Island Military Reservation.

The Army fortified O‘ahu’s harbors with a system of gun emplacements employing mortars and long-range rifled guns. Although its guns are gone, the old batteries are still there.

Battery Selfridge was 500′ x 90′, the largest of the batteries. With an earth berm concealing the makai side, the massive two-story concrete structure was built to support eight 12-inch mortars (four to a pit). The 12-inch guns could send a 1,046-lb. projectile approximately 17,000 yards.

Battery Hasbrouck was a one-story concrete structure with a total area of 470′ x 100′. Battery Hasbrouck supported eight 12-inch mortars placed in quads of four per pit; each could send a projectile approximately 15,200 yards.

Battery Hawkins was located along the water at the south-eastern edge of the Fort Kamehameha. It supported two 3-inch rapid-fire rifled cannon-mounted pedestals. Each gun had a range of 11,100 yards when firing a 15-pound projectile. These guns were meant to cover the entrance to Pearl Harbor, where submarine mines would be activated in time of war.

Battery Jackson is the smallest of these coastal batteries. This single-story concrete structure includes three magazine sections, with a total area of 73′ x 86′. It supported two 6-inch rifles mounted on disappearing carriages. These breech-loaded cannon could send a 106-lb. projectile a maximum of 14,600 yards.

Battery Closson supported two 12-inch rifles mounted on barbette carriages with a 360-degree field of fire. These guns could cover all but the northern-most Oahu beaches. These guns could be fired at elevation angles up to 35 degrees, and the range of the 12-inch guns was increased to 30,100 yards (17.1 miles) firing a 975-lb. projectile.

OK, that’s the armament part of the story, but there’s more to this than early-1900s military defenses.

The land, once the site of Queen Emma’s home, contained three shallow fishponds, groves of trees and a marsh when the Army purchased it in 1907 and built the first gun battery.

Today, the area has been recognized as an historic area. In addition to the armaments, Fort Kamehameha historic area encompasses a flagpole, chapel and 33 homes built in 1916.

The bungalow style homes are in two styles, four in a large H-shaped plan and 29 in a smaller U-shaped footprint.

When you land at Honolulu International Airport, you almost always fly over Fort Kamehameha and these homes. They are an intact residential complex with a neighborhood feel of mature trees, large expanses of grass and open space, access to the waterfront, and a children’s playground.

A proposal to dispose of Fort Kamehameha is the result of a regulation that limits the uses that can occur along the flight path of runways at nearby Honolulu International Airport, which shares the runways with the Air Force and Hawai‘i Air National Guard.

While at DLNR, I had the opportunity to visit Fort Kamehameha, both the military armament sections, as well as the residential area. (At the time, I was serving as the State Historic Preservation Officer.)

I believed then, as I believe now, that this assemblage of homes needs to be preserved – they tell an important story about Hawai‘i. I think relocation and assemblage in a different area is probably the most practical. (Destruction is not.)

In 2008, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation put Fort Kamehameha on its Most Endangered Historic Sites in Hawai‘i list. I concur with their assessment. The homes were there first, before any airfield in the area.

We need to remember, the homes were built in 1916; Luke Field on Ford Island started in 1919; Honolulu International Airport (HNL) opened in March 1927 as John Rodgers Airport and Hickam Field started in 1934.

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Fort Kamehameha 12-inch railroad mortars, 1930s

Fort Kamehameha Railways Guns, 1930s

Fort Kamehameha, 1930s

Fort Kamehameha mortars, 1930s

Fort Kamehameha 8-inch railway guns, 1930s

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Fort Kamehameha 12-inch railway mortars, 1930s

Fort Kamehameha, November 2, 1932

Fort Kamehameha Landing Strip, Oahu, September 14, 1936

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Fort Kamehameha Landing Strip, Oahu, March 9, 1938

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March 18, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Bob Crosby

Born George Robert Crosby in Spokane, Washington, on August. 25, 1913, he was the youngest of seven children: five boys, Larry, Everett, Ted, Harry and Bob; and two girls, Catherine and Mary Rose.

His parents were English-American bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby and Irish-American Catherine Harrigan, the daughter of a builder from County Mayo in Ireland.

Bob Crosby’s roller-coaster career began, like his brother’s when he came out of Gonzaga University in show business. With his big brother Bing’s (Harry) urging, he started with bandleader Anson Weeks.

“Bob’s big chance came about when established bandleader Ben Pollack began devoting more energy to romancing and building the career of his singer Doris Robbins, than to his orchestra.”

The band broke up and eventually they thought Bob – young, pleasant and connected – the most promising. The job called for him to stand out front, smile, sing and make introductions. (Gaddins)

“This, of course, can either be the makings of the younger brother, or perhaps complete anhilization of the younger crooner’s career.” (Crosby; Gaddins)

“But the idea worked like a charm. Fans came to gawk at the new Cosby and stayed to enjoy his cordial demeanor and swinging band … though Bob felt they never accepted him as his own man. ‘They wanted to see what Bing’s kid brother looked like.’” (Gaddins)

“Best known as the easygoing front man for Bob Crosby’s Bobcats, a rollicking octet that was the cornerstone of a larger Dixieland band, Crosby sought during his career to distinguish himself from his older brother.”

“While Bing Crosby made a fortune crooning, for example, Bob rarely sang and once described himself in self-deprecating humor as ‘the only guy in the business who made it without talent.’” (LA Times)

Crosby led big bands from 1935 to 1942, starting the Bob Cats, an eight-piece band-within-the-band, during that time. He sang but did not play an instrument. His bands were known for swing and Dixieland sounds.

When World War II began, the band broke up; Crosby joined the Marines. Lt. Bob Crosby and other Marines in his band put on shows in Hawaii that were seen as morale boosters.

The Marine Corps organized a 5th Marine Division Show for a tour of a Pacific bases in the war zone Crosby spent 18-months with the Marines, touring with bands throughout the Pacific. (NY Times)

“They would respond to anything,” Marine corporal Max Berg (and comedian/impersonator who traveled with Crosby). “We all just got so much back from the crowds. They were so happy to have people come out there and play to them.”

“We went to islands where they wouldn’t let the regulars go, half-occupied by Japanese. They were not even secure. We had to be careful we didn’t get knocked off by snipers.”

At the tour’s end, arriving at Honolulu, the entertainers discovered that their unit shipped out without them. “We were all sad we couldn’t go but it was too late,” Berg recalls.

The 5th Marine Division was off to invade one of Japan’s last island bastions in the Pacific, heavily fortified Iwo Jima. It proves to be one of America’s costliest victories of the war. Navy corpsmen are in vital demand.

“We had four Navy corpsmen they took,” Berg says. “They flew them out special, and within (a few) weeks they were dead. I lost so many of my buddies in my division. I don’t like to think about it. I wouldn’t be here talking to you. I always wondered why did I get to come back, when so many other people lost their lives?” (Berg)

For a time Crosby appeared in such films as the 1944 “The Singing Sheriff,” before joining the U.S. Marines, where he served with distinction, leading a service band in the Pacific.

After the war, he worked mainly as a daytime radio host, moving in the 1950s to daytime television. He headlined an Australian nighttime talk show, tried the car-rental business in Hawaii. (LA Times) “I went into the car rental business in Hawaii, managed to lose $75,000 and go broke in eight months.” (Crosby)

Crosby enjoyed popularity as a daytime radio entertainer for several years. But he was unable to attract a nighttime sponsor and retired to Hawai‘i where he took occasional assignments as a disc jockey. (UPI)

On heading back to Las Vegas, Crosby to the Commanding Officer of the USS Providence, “Have to go to hell so I can afford to live in paradise” [Hawaii]. (Crosby)

But Crosby’s career was often overshadowed by his older brother’s and he readily acknowledged that he had no special talent. His warm personality and natural flair for leadership, however, helped him attract excellent musicians. (UPI) Bob Crosby was inducted to the Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960 with 2 stars (television & radio). He died March 3, 1993.

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Al Caiola, Bob Crosby and Tubby Oliver

Lt. Bob Crosby signs autographs while visiting with patients

March 16, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Camp Tarawa

Camp Tarawa trained over 50,000 servicemen between 1942 and 1945.

Originally an Army camp named Camp Waimea, when the population in town was about 400, it became the largest Marine training facility in the Pacific following the battle of Tarawa.

There were three ways to get to Camp Tarawa – by narrow-gage sugarcane freight train; by hard-axle truck or on foot.

Many arrived to sleep outdoors on rough lava beds until Seabee construction could catch up with the surge – all were appreciative of the shelter and the respite from war.

Pyramid tent cities and streets of long convoys of jeeps, trucks, half-tracks, tanks, artillery, amphibious ducks made up the formidable, but top secret, Camp Tarawa.

The town warmly received the Marines who:
• Bought all the goods from the farmers and storekeepers
• Brought in Bob Crosby’s (Bing’s brother) Band
• Set up outdoor movie theaters
• Played baseball with the locals
• Ate Thanksgiving dinner in Kohala homes
• Conducted live fire training

Marines and Sailors trained for what has been referred to as the toughest marine offensive of WWII.

1300 miles northeast of Guadalcanal, the Japanese had constructed a centralized stronghold force in a 20-island group called Tarawa.

RADM Shibasaki, the Japanese commander there, proclaimed, “a million men cannot take Tarawa in a hundred years.” Ultimately, the objective took 9,000 marines only four days – but not without a staggering 37% casualties.

The victories at Tarawa, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands marked a turning point in the war. The Marines would reconstitute at the Camp Tarawa camp site.

At Iwo Jima, Lt General Kuribayashi, Japanese ground forces commander, concentrated his forces in the northern two-thirds of the island. The miles of interlocking caves, concrete blockhouses and pillboxes proved to be one of the most impenetrable defenses in the Pacific.

While the 4th Marine Division defeated heavy opposition to take a Japanese strong-point called the quarry, the 28th Marines of 5th Marine Division seized Mount Suribachi.

The 36-day assault on Iwo Jima cost America more than 26,000 casualties, including 6,800 dead. Of the 20,000 Japanese defenders, only 1,083 survived.

Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded to Marines and Sailors, many posthumously – more than for any other single operation during the war.

The camp closed in November 1945 as 5th Marine Division was transferred to Japan for occupation. The Army took over the camp and auctioned off the remaining assets.

Camp Tarawa memorial was erected on July 3rd 1984 – the large rock is symbolic of Mt Suribachi on Iwo Jima; the brass plaque is made from shell casings. The memorial has three panels.

The left panel is dedicated to 2nd Marine Division for the battle of Tarawa and their training here until they departed for Saipan and Tinian.

The center panel honors Richard Smart, Parker Ranch, the community of Waimea and the Big Island.

The right panel commemorates 5th Marine Division through the battle of Iwo Jima and occupation of Japan.

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Mt. Suribachi, the most prominent geological feature on the island of Iwo Jima

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Marines and Navy Corpsman from Easy Company 2nd Battalion 28th Marines after raising the flags on Mt. Suribachi-Iwo Jima February 23, 1945

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Battle of Tarawa Memorial

March 3, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kāne‘ohe Bay Dredging

The earliest modifications to the natural marine environment of Kāne‘ohe Bay were those made by the ancient Hawaiians.

The construction of walled fishponds along the shore was perhaps the most obvious innovation.

The development of terraces and a complex irrigation network for the cultivation of taro no doubt had an effect on stream flow, reducing total runoff into the Bay.

In general, however, it can be stated that these early changes did not greatly modify the marine environment that existed when man first arrived in the area.

However, dredging in the Bay did.

Records of dredging permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers began in 1915.

Almost all of the early permits were for boat landings, piers and wharves, including the 1,200-foot wharf at Kokokahi and the 500-ft wharf at Moku-o-Loe (Coconut Island) for Hawaiian Tuna Packers (in 1934.)

Although some dredging was involved in the construction of piers and small boat basins, probably the first extensive dredging was done in 1937 when 56,000 cubic yards were dredged “from the coral reef in Kāne‘ohe Bay” by the Mokapu Land Co., Ltd.

The great bulk of all reef material dredged in Kāne‘ohe Bay was removed in connection with the construction at Mokapu of the Kāne‘ohe Naval Air Station (now Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i) between 1939 and 1945.

Dredging for the base began on September 27, 1939, and continued throughout World War II. A bulkhead was constructed on the west side of Mokapu Peninsula, and initial dredged material from the adjacent reef flat was used as fill behind it.

In November 1939, the patch reefs in the seaplane take-off area in the main Bay basin were dredged to 10-feet (later most were taken down to 30-feet.)

Other early dredging was just off the northwest tip of the peninsula, near the site of the “landing mat” (runway.) The runway was about half complete at the time of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941.

It appears that a fairly reliable total of dredged material is 15,193,000 cubic yards.

(Do the Math … Let’s say the common dump truck load is 10 cubic yards … that’s a million and an half truckloads of dredge material.)

During the war there had been some modifications of the ponds on Mokapu Peninsula, but the shore ponds around the perimeter of the Bay were spared.

However, from 1946 to 1948 (mostly in 1947) nine fishponds with a total area of nearly 60 acres, were filled, eight of them located in Kāne‘ohe ahupua‘a in the southern portion of the Bay.

In the Great Māhele, Hawaiian fishponds were considered private property by landowners and by the Hawaiian government.

This was confirmed in subsequent Court cases that noted “titles to fishponds are recognized to the same extent and in the same manner as rights recognized in fast land.”

Many of the filled fishponds were developed into residential uses (I’ll have more on fishponds in general and some specific ones in future posts.)

There are now only 12 walled fishponds remaining of the 30 known to have once existed in Kāne‘ohe Bay and a number of these have only partial remains and are not immediately recognizable as fishponds.

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