Marine Rifleman in the Toughest Battle of The Pacific | Sugar Loaf Hill | Okinawa | Kenneth Wells

You had to seal up the caves. You would see a certain entrance, you know, to it. And so you'd lay down the rifle fire to it, and then you advance with your flamethrower, and you'd shoot the flame in, in that respect. Then, demolition packs would come in, and you'd seal the cave up so that there was no more coming out of that cave. There was a mass destruction of human beings from that. You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade to meet this mounting aggression. And make no mistake about it, good will prevail. Born in a little town called Continental, Ohio. At that time, in 42, I was still an immature kid, you might say. And I had heard of Hitler and what was going on in Europe. So you had some preparation of what it was like, you know. When did you join the Marine Corps? When? Yes, sir. Well, this big old sergeant walked in the room, and he said, Son, I know you were supposed to go to the Navy, but you have just volunteered for the Marine Corps. So you wanted to join the Navy. Yes. And so he picked two of us. He said, you and you. That's how I got into the Marines. I had always been an active kid. High school, you know, and throughout. Athletics, in shape, a farm kid, you know. I had all type of muscles from shoveling corn and doing farm work. What happened to me in boot training was just a normal process of life, you know. And I was able to handle it, handle most everything that they threw at me. But I survived all the boot training, and it was awakening. It was to take this young boy and grow him up to a man real quick. Now, you were originally supposed to be part of a Marine replacement unit that headed to Iwo Jima, but plans got changed. You now believe that if you had gone there, you probably would have been killed there. Explain what happened and explain why you believe that. Well, the whole thing started out in North Carolina at Camp Lejeune, you know. Early in that morning, when everybody was shipping out, why, this corporal came along and he said, I need you and you, and we'll put you in as a super duper. And there were 12 of us, and they put us in the parade ground and sat us down by a big tree and said, you stay there till we call you. And never really understood exactly why this happened, but apparently because of certain outfits that might need one else or something, you know, they would grab one of us at the time. Well, the whole thing was that when the train left, there were three of us still there. And so we were then recycled with a new group coming in from Parris Island and for retraining. And because of that, that group that I had trained with, had been with all this time, they ended up going to Iwo Jima. And Earhart, who was a friend, as soon as he walked on the island of Iwo Jima, he received a bullet right square in the head, they tell me. And he was killed almost immediately. I just know that I would be in that same group and walk those same steps that they did. And very few of the platoon that I traveled with and trained with on Parris Island never left the island, you know, at that time. So you're witnessing me here today, but I'm sure that I would have not made it. Sir, instead of going to Iwo Jima, you were sent to Guadalcanal for additional training. What kind of training did you do there? Well, just before we went to Guadalcanal, we went to another little island called the Russell, one of the Russell Islands. And we continued the basic training, the same as we did somewhat later when we went to Guadalcanal. And that was more of, shall we say, finding in the M1 rifle and then continuing on with, we'll say, what we thought at that time more like jungle warfare and learning different tactics along that line, not knowing that Okinawa was going to be more of a flat area and trees, but not the dense jungle, of course. It was just a few days before we actually got to Okinawa that we were told. And we were in groups, and they informed us, you know, that there was an island out there that we were going to take that was closer to the homeland of Japan. It would be a stepping stone after we secured this island. And then on that April 1st, Easter Sunday, woke up very early in the morning, of course, and it was still dark, and called in for breakfast, steak and all that stuff, the last big meal, you know. And then as the sun comes up, and we look out, and I never saw so many ships in my whole life, all over the horizon. And you just say, you've got to be kidding, you know. The next thing, of course, is wave after wave, and I think if I reflect properly on it, it was about two hours later that finally we climbed over the side of the ship, down the rope ladder, you know, and got in the Higgins boat, and went ashore, you know. And by this time, we were informed, you know, that there was not a vast amount of enemy resistance that time, and that they had already advanced farther than what they planned, you know. It was different than what you had mentally planned, that you expected to be pinned down on the beach, and it just didn't happen. You walked in there like as if it's a Sunday walk, you know. And it was a beautiful day, no doubt about it, April 1st, 1945, you know. So were you relieved, or did you wonder what they really had planned? No, we were smart enough to know that the enemy was there someplace, and it was just a matter of time. But we went in straight through to the airport, turned left north, and we then secured the northern portion of the island. And we ran into resistance a certain amount, you know, within a few days, and wiped that out. And then continued on to the end of the island, the north part, and then started back towards the south. So we saw very little resistance, but we didn't see massive group. You didn't see what we felt like. You would see a bonsai attack or anything like that. But there was just light resistance. How do you fight an enemy you can't see? When you're fired upon, you have some idea where that is coming from. We just sprayed the areas, you know, that we felt possibly might be coming from, you know. And that's what we did, you know. At the time on Sugarloaf, you know, when we were right up there on top, you know, and the next thing you know is they're lobbing grenades back up over the hill. They come out the side of the hill, and then they would throw grenades up over. And you still never saw the enemy. All you did was finally understand the explosion that happened, or you felt it did real close to you. And it was, you know, a weak feeling to know that, you know, come on, I'll fight like a man, shall we say, you know. And so you had this depressed feeling somewhat that, hey, maybe the time will come when we'll corner this sucker and then we'll find out exactly how you really are fighting, you know. So I guess that's the best way to explain it, that it's just an unknown feeling. It's like years before that, I used to go pheasant hunting back on the farm, and you didn't see any pheasants. And you just kept advancing until the pheasant would go up, you know. Okay, so that's about what happened, is that you advanced so much on this island, and you cornered them more and more that they had to somewhat come out, you know. Sugarloaf was the predominant one that mostly hand-to-hand. And it was like a certain amount of that because they would come out of the hole and go back in, you know. And you'd say, they came out of some place, you know. But all you did was just got the effect of the explosion of grenades or mortar being fired, you know, and explosions of that. Did you chase them into the caves? Yes. Basically, when carrying a flamethrower, you know, you had to seal up the caves, and you would see a certain entrance, you know, to it. And so you'd lay down the rifle fire to it, and then you'd advance with your flamethrower, and you'd shoot the flame in, in that respect. And so then demolition packs would come in, and you'd seal the cave up so that there was no more coming out of that cave unless they dug themselves out, if they survived, you know, of the penetration. But up to this time, you know, you have ships out there firing, and you have your own artillery, and there was a mass destruction of human beings from that. The destruction of mankind on Sugarloaf was unheard of, you know. Someone would be replaced in the morning, and by nightfall, you'd settle down a little bit then and say, hey, remember those two guys that came in this morning? Where are they now? What happened? And someone would say a couple words to you in foul language and say, well, they got killed, you know. Tell me about your friend Daniel Torrey. Daniel was, shall we say, a sweet guy. So Daniel and I were finally in front of Sugarloaf, and we had, later in the afternoon, I and the whole company had come around Sugarloaf and dug into this position, kind of like a ravine. It was more like a ditch, you know. And that's where we began to get fired upon from Sugarloaf. They had gone back into Sugarloaf and assumed their old position from another part, another hill, and started firing at us, you know. So we started firing back, and we did a lot of shooting, I remember. And as a result of that, we got a lot of response because of that. They knew where it was coming from. And so it wasn't very much longer. The next thing I know is Torrey says, hey, I'm hit. And he said, I'm hit right here. I said, okay, so open up his shirt and everything and get this Band-Aid out to put on that, you know. And give him a shot of morphine, a little ample. And the next thing I know is he just passes out. And not knowing medically anything at that time to speak of, I thought he was dead, you know. But actually he just, he went into shock. And because of lack of medical facilities right there or something, he passed out and he died, you know. And after that, we just sort of pushed him aside and we continued to fire back at that unseen enemy in front, you know. Before we knew it, this corporal comes along and he's now trying to tell us where the enemy is firing from, you know. And because we already knew exactly approximately where. And next thing you know, he gets shot in the leg, you know. And he went down, you know. The bullet went through there and fractured the fever. And he was bleeding. And so I cut off his pants to put a tourniquet on. And he passes out or he goes into shock. And there again, you know, no knowledge, you know. So you just throw him aside and go on because you've got other things to take care of. You've got your own life to protect, you know. And so you continue to go back to firing at unknown enemy again. Quite a day. Well, another day that I know you won't forget is June 11, 1945. That's the day that you were wounded. Explain what was happening and how you were injured. Oh, we were advancing towards another hill which we didn't know the name of it or too much geographical, except another hill. And we just keep going, you know. All I know is that an explosion took place and I was thrown in the air and eventually came out of it. After I was knocked out and then came back to life, shall we say, and all. And by this time, everybody else had left, you know. The whole company had continued on for their objective, you know, and left me there. And to this day, I say to some of the guys that have survived Oklahoma, I say, you know, you son of bitches, you left me. You didn't stop and wonder what happened. Well, when you're knocked out laying there, you're dead as far as it goes. And they got their war to fight so they continue on. So eventually I wake up to a portion that I shake off the problem that I have, you know. You have shrapnel all over you and you're bleeding. Not that you have to put tourniquets on it, but just a flesh taken out, you know. And so you go back to the people down here. You see somebody doing something, you know. And so you go to those people. And those people, what they were, they were a medical outfit and they had set up a temporary surgical, basically, or first aid type of thing, you know. And I went back to them and I said, hey, can you take care of some of my problems? And they said, buddy, forget it. We got other problems, a lot worse than yours. So they just pushed me aside, you know. And this sergeant comes along that I had seen him before and he always carried this .45 automatic. And you wondered, what did he ever do, you know. But somehow he appeared in this picture. And the next thing I know is he gets shot. And this cave has a large opening and he gets shot. And I immediately say, what is this medical group doing, setting up a portable thing here right in front of a big cave when you know that the Japs would come out and all that. And I thought, you know, I should take this machine gun and I should go back into that cave myself. But no, my day is slowly coming to an end. I don't want anything to do with anything else. That was the end of my battle. Basically, I'm done. My war is over, you know. What are you most proud of about your service? Most proud of? I survived.