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This page last updated on Thursday, July 19, 2007
Judy and Ronald Culp
The First Black United States
Marines:  The Men of Montford
Point, 1942 - 1946
From Chapter Twenty

Fighting men, strong and fit for war

The naval gunfire had shifted to targets further inland and the 719 amtracs of the assault waves experienced little
difficulty proceeding as far as the reef. However, beginning at the coral shallows, the Japanese defenders took the
approaching LVTs under a deluge of heavy automatic weapons, artillery and mortar fire. The fire grew in intensity as
the 2d, 3d, and 4th waves hit the beaches.  The sound of shells from direct fire flat trajectory guns bursting around
the amtracs was terrifying, but worse were the high-angle shells that screamed ominously as they dropped towards
the bobbing, slow-moving LVT’s.
In the first hour, 8,000 men in LVT’s land on a beach frontage of about 8,000 yards.  When they reached the water’s
edge, the amtracs crossed a sandy beach lined by fire trenches, some sections of anti-tank trench under fire from
numerous machine gun emplacements and some dual-purpose antiaircraft and coastal defense weapons.13 At
Yellow Beach 2 in the south, the 20th Marine Depot Company, commanded by Captain William C. Adams, was
attached to 1st Battalion 25th Marines (1/25) which was brought ashore in amtracs of the U.S. Army 773d Amphibian
Tractor Battalion.  
Captain Adams told the men of his 20th Marine Depot Company soon before the landing, “You are the first Negro
troops ever to go into action in the Marine Corps.  What you do with the situation that confronts you, and how you
perform, will be the basis on which you, and your race, will be judged….”14
Met by an intense and accurate fusillade of frontal and enfilade fire the Marines of 1/25 were forced to debark from
their tractors at the water's edge. Fortunately the men landed in newer tractors, the LVT(4)’s.  Similar to the LVT(2),
the newer model had its engine moved forward to install a hand winch-operated stern ramp so men could scramble
out the back rather than expose themselves to Japanese fire by climbing over the sides and dropping almost seven
feet to the ground.  It could carry up to 30 men and their field gear or as much as 6,500 pounds of cargo.15
At the end of the first hour, the riflemen had clawed out a beachhead only 12 yards deep. Japanese artillery and
mortar fire hammering the congested beach areas caused the hasty departure of the LVT’s, many of which backed
off the beach and fled before unloading anything but the riflemen, thus leaving the battalion critically short of radios
for three days.  Worse, some mortars and machine guns, together with ammunition for them, were still aboard when
the LVT’s pulled out.
Heavy resistance from Agingan Point on their right flank and from the sparsely wooded beach area to the south,
coupled with fighting on their direct front caused extremely heavy casualties. Agingan Point was a honeycomb of
Japanese positions, originally constructed to fire out to sea but capable of traversing to bear against troops on shore.
At 0930, the enemy counterattacked from the direction of Agingan Point, and small groups of Japanese moved
across the ridge on the right front. The battalion commander immediately called for an air strike on these targets.
Within five minutes, Navy planes attacked the area although it was impossible to judge results (the only Marine
airplanes at Saipan were little OY observation planes used for artillery spotting and intelligence gathering). Fires of
the battleship Tennessee, anchored just off Agingan Point, were invaluable in keeping the Japanese off balance in
their efforts to push the 1st Battalion into the water.
The battalion commander called for tank support as well as an additional rifle company from the reserve battalion.  
Fire from at least four direct fire artillery pieces (about 75mm) emplaced on the high ground 800 yards inland beat
upon the beachhead.  The gunners made the most of their excellent observation, firing whenever groups of three or
four Marines were visible.16

First Black Marine KIA

Into that maelstrom of fire LVT’s carrying 75 men of the 20th Marine Depot Company hit the beach in the third wave
at about H+5 and ½, around 1400 (the rest of the men remained on LST’s unloading supplies as part of the ships’
platoon).  Their arrival coincided with the peak intensity of Japanese fire.  Captain Adams, said, "All hell was
breaking when we came in. It was still touch and go when we hit shore, and it took some time to establish a
foothold."  Private Kenneth J. Tibbs was hit and later that day died of his wounds, earning the distinction nobody
wanted – he was the only casualty the 20th suffered at Saipan, and the first black Marine killed in combat during the
war.17  
PFC James W. Williams rode LVT’s up to the front lines to deliver supplies and ammunition.  “Often on those trips the
men were under Japanese rifle and machinegun fire,” Adams said.  Williams was hit by a Japanese bullet, which
fortunately was deflected by his helmet.  He kept it for a souvenir. “They did a swell job,” the company commander
said of his men.18
Adams went on to describe the men’s prowess at what Marines politely called scrounging or moonlight
requisitioning, euphemisms for begging, borrowing, trading for, or when nothing else worked, stealing equipment
they needed.  “They were very provident, and by the second day had all types of arms they had never been issued,
such as…machine guns, and even .50 (caliber) machine guns.”19 Every Marine unit had its expert scrounger.
At about H+2 ½ (H-hour plus two and one half hours a platoon of Captain William M. Barr’s 18th Marine Depot
Company that was attached to 3/23 hit Blue Beach One under fire.  “Everybody was happy – it seemed kind of like a
big football game,” PFC Augustus Witcher said of the men in his LVT off Blue Beach One, adding, “When we were
near shore a Jap mortar shell landed in a nearby ‘alligator.’  The singing and joking stopped.”20   Ashore, a mortar
round burst about 25 feet from the platoon and wounded four of the black Marines (PFC Charles F. Smith, Privates
Albert W. Sims, Jeff Smith, and Hayse Stewart).21 “We dug foxholes and then started unloading ammunition,”
Witcher said.  “When the explosions got too close, we’d dive into the holes until it slackened up.  My foxhole was
only about two feet deep to start with, but it was double that depth before the first night was over.”22

Copyright © 2007 by Ronald Culp
Gun crew
Browning .30
caliber
water-cooled
machine gun at
Montford Point
Camp, 1943.
M-3 Stuart light
tank crew
at Montford Point
Camp in 1943.