Training at Camp Tarawa
The men of the 5th Marine Division made their way through San Diego, the bustling Navy town thirty-five miles south of Camp Pendleton. The Marines made their way aboard enormous gray transports where officers checked their names on embarkation rosters. They heaped their packs and equipment on laced canvas bunks five tiers high and prepared to move out. The ships slipped out of San Diego Harbor one by one down the channel past North Island and Point Loma. Rumors swirled aboard the ships that the Marines were headed to places like San Francisco or Tokyo or that there might be several women on board. But they were all just scuttlebutt. On the second day at sea, the unit commanders announced that the destination was Hawaii.
The men spent most of their time above decks as the weather turned tropical. The Marines spent their time reading novels, watching the flying fish, playing games, writing letters, assembling for calisthenics or going through inspections. Censors aboard the ships removed any forbidden words in letters home that might indicate where the men of the 5th were headed, words like "pineapple," "high mountain," and "sugar cane." At night, the Marines stayed below decks or went to movies in the messhalls which were converted into theaters.
The leading ships of the convoy made landfall in Hawaii after six days. As the ships neared the big island of Hawaii the Marines marveled at its size and beauty. As the ships neared the Hilo anchorage, hundreds of people lined the waterfront but there were no girls in grass skirts among them. While Hawaii was new to the men of the 5th Division, the Marines were nothing new to the people of Hawaii. Army units had been dispersed throughout the islands since 1941 to counter the very real threat of invasion. The troops had been concentrated near Kamuela, a village in the great Parker Ranch, the second largest cattle ranch in the world. The camp was sixty-five miles from Hilo in the north central part of Hawaii. Two years after Pearl Harbor, in December 1943, the 2nd Marine Division had been withdrawn from their bloody campaign at Tarawa and moved to the camp as replacements for the Army Units at Parker Ranch. They had named their new home Camp Tarawa. Six months later, they moved out to make assaults on Saipan and Tinian in the Marianas. Now the 5th Marine Division would occupy Camp Tarawa.
The 5th Division moved by five different routes to the camp. Some arrived by truck convoy, some marched up the Army's "Saddle" road through the lava fields of the two great volcanos, the bulk of the Marines made the trip on the island railroad, a few units landed from LSMs at Maume Beach, and a few Marine officers landed in airplanes on Bordelon Field's cinder runway. When the men arrived at Camp Tarawa they found row after row of pyramidal tents rocking in the wind on shaky wooden decks. There were also administration buildings, quonset storerooms and galleys all covered with wind-blown dust. The men of the 5th went to work right away to spruce up their new home. If nothing else, Camp Tarawa was an ideal location for training. There were areas for field maneuvers, weapons ranges and excellent observation for artillery and heavy weapons. The camp had a "wet side" and a "dry side" as it was on the line that separated the rain-soaked part of Hawaii from the arid central regions.
In August and September 1943, the 28th Marines and parts of the 13th Marines arrived from the States. By mid-October the last units of the 5th left for Hawaii to bring the whole division together once again. The 28th Marines brought with them to Camp Tarawa their lion mascot named Roscoe. Roscoe was originally a resident of the Los Angeles zoo and thrived on the life in camp as well as any other Leatherneck.
The first potential combat orders for the 5th Marine Division were for Operation Stalemate, the planned assaults against Yap and Ulithi in the Palau Islands. However, changes in the plans came rapidly. When the Japanese resistance on Peleliu finally cracked, Operation Stalemate was completely re-evaluated. The final decision was that neither time nor enough troops were available so Yap was bypassed and Ulithi fell without opposition. The "alert" status of the 5th Division was cancelled. General Rockey issued orders for a thorough review of basic small-unit landing team and combat team training as well as amphibious maneuvers. Throughout this training, commanders stressed new combat developments from the Saipan, Tinian, Guam and Peleliu operations. Men with rifles, carbines, BARs, bazookas, flame-throwers, mortar and machine gun crews and artillery units with 37s, 75s and 105s all worked together as the 5th Division gained further combat proficiency. Engineers under Lieutenant Colonel Clifford H. Shuey brought Camp Tarawa into excellent repair, worked on new construction and carried on a full training schedule with demolitions, mines and other special equipment.
The Motor Transport Battalion continued its administrative hauling between Camp Tarawa and Hilo. A Seebee unit (the 31st Naval Construction Battalion) recently attached to the 5th Division, received some military training along with its construction work. The special companies of Headquarters Battalion – Signal, Reconnaissance, MIlitary Police and Headquarters – all went through vigorous training; and the Service Battalion worked constantly to support the Division with food, ammunition, fuel, clothing, shoe repair, laundry and other services. Communications specialists perfected their radio, telephone and message center work. Cooks went through a special course on preparing dehydrated foods. And language officers and NCOs taught the men Japanese phrases useful for combat and reviewed the Japanese methods of fighting.
The next step in training was carried out at Camp Drews, the tent camp by a shallow reef-fringed cove on the northern coast of the island. Units in turn marched the 12 miles down the slopes of Mauna Kea over a road built by the engineer battalions, for combat exercises at the coastal camp. In addition to normal unit training at Camp Drews, Division set up a program of swimming instruction. In the clear, warm water non-swimmers were taught the fundamentals of staying afloat and alive in the water. In the final phases of this training period, combat units rehearsed their battle tactics, with special emphasis on the tactics of assault. Every unit practiced time and again the attack formations which the 5th would use in actual operations, until every Marine knew exactly what his job in battle would be.
Hard as the division worked at getting ready for combat, its men still had chances for recreation. Marines on liberty learned a great many things about the Hawaiian Islands and their history during visits to Hilo and to many surpassingly beautiful places which thousands of tourists had visited before them. For liberty periods too short for sightseeing there were plenty of places to relax–the Kamuela USO, the officer and NCO clubs, and camp "slop chutes." Athletics also took up a large part of off-duty time. Division and regimental baseball teams and literally scores of unit softball teams were organized, and competed in regularly scheduled games. The 5th Division baseball team played against touring teams made up of former major and minor league baseball stars, now in the armed forces. Whenever the sign, "Baseball Today," was hung up on the Kamuela athletic field, thousands of Leathernecks assembled to cheer, the "Rockey Sluggers." The Division band played in every part of the camp, while the Division orchestra gave swing concerts and furnished music for various shows.
In the midst of this program, General Rockey and key members of his staff were ordered to report to Pearl Harbor for a conference. There they were told that the 5th Division would be assigned to V Amphibious Corps and that it would fight in the next Pacific campaign. The target was Iwo Jima. These orders brought about intense activity at Camp Tarawa. A wooden building next to Division headquarters became "The Conference Room," with blacked-out windows and double locks, and barbed wire and a cordon of MPs on constant duty around it. NO one could get in without a special pass.
The intelligence summaries from the Pacific battles were constantly studied. Training orders were worked on that called for repeated attacks on a target identified to the Division simply as "Island X" – a target selected to be as much as possible like the 5th DIvision's sector of Iwo Jima. Field training continued, and Marines were given an added incentive to dig deep, safe foxholes–the renewed use of live ammunition in firing problems. Complete blackouts were also enforced during maneuvers.
At Hilo, proper combat loading of troops and their equipment onto LSTs was practiced, and the artillery battalions of the 13th Marines went to Maume Beach for special loading exercises with DUKWs, LSTs and LSMs, followed by an overnight voyage to Maui for landing practice. The artillerymen learned how to load and unload their howitzers from the big amphibian trucks, and practiced moving in and out of the great jaws of the LST bow ramps until one Marine was heard to say, "This reminds me of Jonah and the whale."
The 5th Division, with nearly a year of training behind it, was now operating in three highly coordinated combat teams. These continued to assault "Island X" with different combinations of infantry, tanks, artillery and engineers. Division staff members and headquarters groups, already highly competent, continued to write combat orders, records and reports for these maneuvers, and to set up and operate command posts. Every channel of supply and agency of communications was tested time after time under conditions of simulated combat.
While this training was going on there was still time for men whose home states authorized absentee voting to cast their ballots in the November 1944 elections for every office from President of the United States to mayor of their home towns, and to argue heatedly over the merits of the various candidates. Also during November, Division headquarters again brought National Service Life Insurance to every man's attention. At the end of this drive, statistics showed that 16,821 officers and men had the full $10,000 coverage; 1,121 had partial coverage; and only 62 men had no GI Insurance at all.
In November a group of officers from Major General Harry Schmidt's V Amphibious Corps on Maui came to Camp Tarawa for a conference on the Iwo operation with the commander and staff of the 5th Division. At this time the Division learned that 125 officers and 2,500 men would soon join it as battle replacements. It was decided to move these men to Iwo with the assault echelons of the Division and to use most of them first to augment the shore party, and later on as battle replacements. Next, Rear Admiral Harry W. Hill, overall commander of the attack force, visited 5th Division Headquarters with members of his staff, and discussed with General Rockey and the Division staff the important phases of the coming operation–the ship-to-shore movements, the use of landing craft, the use of amphibious tractors as floating dumps, and the naval gunfire support. They went into further details about rehearsals soon to be held in the Hawaii area.
More Army and Marine units were attached to the Division during November. The 471st Amphibian Truck Company (Army), composed of Negro troops, brought their DUKWs into camp and were attached to the 13th Marines; the 6th Marine War Dog Platoon joined Division service troops, and the 6th Section of the 726th Signal Aircraft Warning Company (Army) arrived with portable radar sets and was attached to the Division Signal Company. Marines from the 31st Replacement Draft were placed in service troops until a shore party regiment could be formed; the 3rd Provisional Rocket Detachment was activated as part of the Division Ordnance Company; and liaison officers from V Amphibious Corps reported for duty with Division Headquarters.
The target date was a little over two months away. The infantry regiments now ran through 72-hour maneuvers with fighter and dive-bomber support, and at Camp Drews the 11th Amphibian Tractor Battalion held practice landings for the three Division combat teams. LVT companies worked with their new tractors, learned their nomenclature and maintenance, tested and checked them and practiced land and sea driving, and radio operation. One of the final checks on preparation for combat was a showdown inspection of the combat teams and other supporting groups by General Rockey and his staff. Marines stood in boat-group formation with full combat equipment while inspecting teams checked to see that every man's equipment and clothing and the equipment of his unit were complete and serviceable for combat. No Marine–officer or enlisted, including the Commanding General–was excused from this inspection.
The last training phase also saw extensive command practice given to subordinate leaders, for it was known from previous Pacific battles that officer and NCO casualties would be heavy. Therefore officers turned over platoon command to sergeants, and corporals and Pfcs operated as squad leaders. In December the 27th Replacement Draft reached Camp Tarawa, and was at once assigned to the newly organized 5th Shore Party Regiment along with the Division Pioneer Battalion and the 31st Replacement Draft. Shore party companies were trained to help load the ships of the three transport divisions of the Navy as they arrived at Hilo. The last replacements to join the Division were 400 men from the Transient Center at Pearl Harbor, and their arrival brought all units of the 5th Marine Division up to their full strength. The Division continued its CPX training and other last preparations for battle well into December. Least popular of these was typhus, cholera, and plague shots administered by the Division doctors and Corpsmen.
VMO-5 was the first unit to break camp. It left for Pearl Harbor on December 16, there to practice take-offs and landings on an LST rigged with Brodie gear and then to be loaded aboard a carrier for the voyage to Iwo Jima. Next to leave were LSTs carrying several thousand tents to Guam where V Amphibious Corps engineers were building the camp then planned as the future rehabilitation camp for the 5th Division. Movement of supplies and equipment to Hilo began on December 20, and there was a final briefing in the DIvision chapel at which key officers described the part their particular units or sections would play in the battle to come.
In the midst of this activity came one day of peace–Christmas. A mountain of packages, cards and letters arrived by way of the Fleet Post Office in San Francisco. Thousands of Marines attended Christmas religious services, and them moved on to parties and turkey dinners in every unit mess hall and in the officer, staff, NCO, and enlisted clubs. Work did not stop entirely, however. On Christmas Day, the AKA Athene, the first ship assigned to lift the 5th Division, began loading at Hilo. From then on, hundreds of trucks moved night and day across the "Saddle" road or down the coastal highway to the railhead. Men and equipment streamed steadily into the embarkation points at the Hilo docks and the LST beaches. The 27th Marines began to embark on December 27 aboard the ships of Transport Division 47, and on New Year's Eve reported "all aboard" to General Rockey.
It was hardly possible to conceal completely the movement of a reinforced Marine division. For security, the Hilo port area was restricted to military personnel and civilian dock employees, but on January 2 a suspected attempt at sabotage was discovered. The striking surfaces of five boxes of safety matches had been placed inside of the boxes so that the heads of the matches would rub against them. The boxes had been rolled up in newspapers and stuffed inside a cargo pallet. However, a minute search of the whole dock area and the ships already loaded disclosed no other sabotage attempt.
Early on New Year's Day the 26th Marines and their support group began to load Transport Division 46. On January 4, 1945 the 5th Division command post closed at Camp Tarawa and opened aboard the USS Cecil. Next day the outline of the big island slipped below the horizon and on January 6 the convoy reached Pearl Harbor and there joined Transport Division 47 in anchorage. Four days later Transport Division 48, carrying the 28th Marines arrived at Pearl, and the entire 5th Marine Division was water-borne and assembled. It had completed its battle training; its physical condition was excellent and its morale was high. The 5th was ready for combat.
The men spent most of their time above decks as the weather turned tropical. The Marines spent their time reading novels, watching the flying fish, playing games, writing letters, assembling for calisthenics or going through inspections. Censors aboard the ships removed any forbidden words in letters home that might indicate where the men of the 5th were headed, words like "pineapple," "high mountain," and "sugar cane." At night, the Marines stayed below decks or went to movies in the messhalls which were converted into theaters.
The leading ships of the convoy made landfall in Hawaii after six days. As the ships neared the big island of Hawaii the Marines marveled at its size and beauty. As the ships neared the Hilo anchorage, hundreds of people lined the waterfront but there were no girls in grass skirts among them. While Hawaii was new to the men of the 5th Division, the Marines were nothing new to the people of Hawaii. Army units had been dispersed throughout the islands since 1941 to counter the very real threat of invasion. The troops had been concentrated near Kamuela, a village in the great Parker Ranch, the second largest cattle ranch in the world. The camp was sixty-five miles from Hilo in the north central part of Hawaii. Two years after Pearl Harbor, in December 1943, the 2nd Marine Division had been withdrawn from their bloody campaign at Tarawa and moved to the camp as replacements for the Army Units at Parker Ranch. They had named their new home Camp Tarawa. Six months later, they moved out to make assaults on Saipan and Tinian in the Marianas. Now the 5th Marine Division would occupy Camp Tarawa.
The 5th Division moved by five different routes to the camp. Some arrived by truck convoy, some marched up the Army's "Saddle" road through the lava fields of the two great volcanos, the bulk of the Marines made the trip on the island railroad, a few units landed from LSMs at Maume Beach, and a few Marine officers landed in airplanes on Bordelon Field's cinder runway. When the men arrived at Camp Tarawa they found row after row of pyramidal tents rocking in the wind on shaky wooden decks. There were also administration buildings, quonset storerooms and galleys all covered with wind-blown dust. The men of the 5th went to work right away to spruce up their new home. If nothing else, Camp Tarawa was an ideal location for training. There were areas for field maneuvers, weapons ranges and excellent observation for artillery and heavy weapons. The camp had a "wet side" and a "dry side" as it was on the line that separated the rain-soaked part of Hawaii from the arid central regions.
In August and September 1943, the 28th Marines and parts of the 13th Marines arrived from the States. By mid-October the last units of the 5th left for Hawaii to bring the whole division together once again. The 28th Marines brought with them to Camp Tarawa their lion mascot named Roscoe. Roscoe was originally a resident of the Los Angeles zoo and thrived on the life in camp as well as any other Leatherneck.
The first potential combat orders for the 5th Marine Division were for Operation Stalemate, the planned assaults against Yap and Ulithi in the Palau Islands. However, changes in the plans came rapidly. When the Japanese resistance on Peleliu finally cracked, Operation Stalemate was completely re-evaluated. The final decision was that neither time nor enough troops were available so Yap was bypassed and Ulithi fell without opposition. The "alert" status of the 5th Division was cancelled. General Rockey issued orders for a thorough review of basic small-unit landing team and combat team training as well as amphibious maneuvers. Throughout this training, commanders stressed new combat developments from the Saipan, Tinian, Guam and Peleliu operations. Men with rifles, carbines, BARs, bazookas, flame-throwers, mortar and machine gun crews and artillery units with 37s, 75s and 105s all worked together as the 5th Division gained further combat proficiency. Engineers under Lieutenant Colonel Clifford H. Shuey brought Camp Tarawa into excellent repair, worked on new construction and carried on a full training schedule with demolitions, mines and other special equipment.
The Motor Transport Battalion continued its administrative hauling between Camp Tarawa and Hilo. A Seebee unit (the 31st Naval Construction Battalion) recently attached to the 5th Division, received some military training along with its construction work. The special companies of Headquarters Battalion – Signal, Reconnaissance, MIlitary Police and Headquarters – all went through vigorous training; and the Service Battalion worked constantly to support the Division with food, ammunition, fuel, clothing, shoe repair, laundry and other services. Communications specialists perfected their radio, telephone and message center work. Cooks went through a special course on preparing dehydrated foods. And language officers and NCOs taught the men Japanese phrases useful for combat and reviewed the Japanese methods of fighting.
The next step in training was carried out at Camp Drews, the tent camp by a shallow reef-fringed cove on the northern coast of the island. Units in turn marched the 12 miles down the slopes of Mauna Kea over a road built by the engineer battalions, for combat exercises at the coastal camp. In addition to normal unit training at Camp Drews, Division set up a program of swimming instruction. In the clear, warm water non-swimmers were taught the fundamentals of staying afloat and alive in the water. In the final phases of this training period, combat units rehearsed their battle tactics, with special emphasis on the tactics of assault. Every unit practiced time and again the attack formations which the 5th would use in actual operations, until every Marine knew exactly what his job in battle would be.
Hard as the division worked at getting ready for combat, its men still had chances for recreation. Marines on liberty learned a great many things about the Hawaiian Islands and their history during visits to Hilo and to many surpassingly beautiful places which thousands of tourists had visited before them. For liberty periods too short for sightseeing there were plenty of places to relax–the Kamuela USO, the officer and NCO clubs, and camp "slop chutes." Athletics also took up a large part of off-duty time. Division and regimental baseball teams and literally scores of unit softball teams were organized, and competed in regularly scheduled games. The 5th Division baseball team played against touring teams made up of former major and minor league baseball stars, now in the armed forces. Whenever the sign, "Baseball Today," was hung up on the Kamuela athletic field, thousands of Leathernecks assembled to cheer, the "Rockey Sluggers." The Division band played in every part of the camp, while the Division orchestra gave swing concerts and furnished music for various shows.
In the midst of this program, General Rockey and key members of his staff were ordered to report to Pearl Harbor for a conference. There they were told that the 5th Division would be assigned to V Amphibious Corps and that it would fight in the next Pacific campaign. The target was Iwo Jima. These orders brought about intense activity at Camp Tarawa. A wooden building next to Division headquarters became "The Conference Room," with blacked-out windows and double locks, and barbed wire and a cordon of MPs on constant duty around it. NO one could get in without a special pass.
The intelligence summaries from the Pacific battles were constantly studied. Training orders were worked on that called for repeated attacks on a target identified to the Division simply as "Island X" – a target selected to be as much as possible like the 5th DIvision's sector of Iwo Jima. Field training continued, and Marines were given an added incentive to dig deep, safe foxholes–the renewed use of live ammunition in firing problems. Complete blackouts were also enforced during maneuvers.
At Hilo, proper combat loading of troops and their equipment onto LSTs was practiced, and the artillery battalions of the 13th Marines went to Maume Beach for special loading exercises with DUKWs, LSTs and LSMs, followed by an overnight voyage to Maui for landing practice. The artillerymen learned how to load and unload their howitzers from the big amphibian trucks, and practiced moving in and out of the great jaws of the LST bow ramps until one Marine was heard to say, "This reminds me of Jonah and the whale."
The 5th Division, with nearly a year of training behind it, was now operating in three highly coordinated combat teams. These continued to assault "Island X" with different combinations of infantry, tanks, artillery and engineers. Division staff members and headquarters groups, already highly competent, continued to write combat orders, records and reports for these maneuvers, and to set up and operate command posts. Every channel of supply and agency of communications was tested time after time under conditions of simulated combat.
While this training was going on there was still time for men whose home states authorized absentee voting to cast their ballots in the November 1944 elections for every office from President of the United States to mayor of their home towns, and to argue heatedly over the merits of the various candidates. Also during November, Division headquarters again brought National Service Life Insurance to every man's attention. At the end of this drive, statistics showed that 16,821 officers and men had the full $10,000 coverage; 1,121 had partial coverage; and only 62 men had no GI Insurance at all.
In November a group of officers from Major General Harry Schmidt's V Amphibious Corps on Maui came to Camp Tarawa for a conference on the Iwo operation with the commander and staff of the 5th Division. At this time the Division learned that 125 officers and 2,500 men would soon join it as battle replacements. It was decided to move these men to Iwo with the assault echelons of the Division and to use most of them first to augment the shore party, and later on as battle replacements. Next, Rear Admiral Harry W. Hill, overall commander of the attack force, visited 5th Division Headquarters with members of his staff, and discussed with General Rockey and the Division staff the important phases of the coming operation–the ship-to-shore movements, the use of landing craft, the use of amphibious tractors as floating dumps, and the naval gunfire support. They went into further details about rehearsals soon to be held in the Hawaii area.
More Army and Marine units were attached to the Division during November. The 471st Amphibian Truck Company (Army), composed of Negro troops, brought their DUKWs into camp and were attached to the 13th Marines; the 6th Marine War Dog Platoon joined Division service troops, and the 6th Section of the 726th Signal Aircraft Warning Company (Army) arrived with portable radar sets and was attached to the Division Signal Company. Marines from the 31st Replacement Draft were placed in service troops until a shore party regiment could be formed; the 3rd Provisional Rocket Detachment was activated as part of the Division Ordnance Company; and liaison officers from V Amphibious Corps reported for duty with Division Headquarters.
The target date was a little over two months away. The infantry regiments now ran through 72-hour maneuvers with fighter and dive-bomber support, and at Camp Drews the 11th Amphibian Tractor Battalion held practice landings for the three Division combat teams. LVT companies worked with their new tractors, learned their nomenclature and maintenance, tested and checked them and practiced land and sea driving, and radio operation. One of the final checks on preparation for combat was a showdown inspection of the combat teams and other supporting groups by General Rockey and his staff. Marines stood in boat-group formation with full combat equipment while inspecting teams checked to see that every man's equipment and clothing and the equipment of his unit were complete and serviceable for combat. No Marine–officer or enlisted, including the Commanding General–was excused from this inspection.
The last training phase also saw extensive command practice given to subordinate leaders, for it was known from previous Pacific battles that officer and NCO casualties would be heavy. Therefore officers turned over platoon command to sergeants, and corporals and Pfcs operated as squad leaders. In December the 27th Replacement Draft reached Camp Tarawa, and was at once assigned to the newly organized 5th Shore Party Regiment along with the Division Pioneer Battalion and the 31st Replacement Draft. Shore party companies were trained to help load the ships of the three transport divisions of the Navy as they arrived at Hilo. The last replacements to join the Division were 400 men from the Transient Center at Pearl Harbor, and their arrival brought all units of the 5th Marine Division up to their full strength. The Division continued its CPX training and other last preparations for battle well into December. Least popular of these was typhus, cholera, and plague shots administered by the Division doctors and Corpsmen.
VMO-5 was the first unit to break camp. It left for Pearl Harbor on December 16, there to practice take-offs and landings on an LST rigged with Brodie gear and then to be loaded aboard a carrier for the voyage to Iwo Jima. Next to leave were LSTs carrying several thousand tents to Guam where V Amphibious Corps engineers were building the camp then planned as the future rehabilitation camp for the 5th Division. Movement of supplies and equipment to Hilo began on December 20, and there was a final briefing in the DIvision chapel at which key officers described the part their particular units or sections would play in the battle to come.
In the midst of this activity came one day of peace–Christmas. A mountain of packages, cards and letters arrived by way of the Fleet Post Office in San Francisco. Thousands of Marines attended Christmas religious services, and them moved on to parties and turkey dinners in every unit mess hall and in the officer, staff, NCO, and enlisted clubs. Work did not stop entirely, however. On Christmas Day, the AKA Athene, the first ship assigned to lift the 5th Division, began loading at Hilo. From then on, hundreds of trucks moved night and day across the "Saddle" road or down the coastal highway to the railhead. Men and equipment streamed steadily into the embarkation points at the Hilo docks and the LST beaches. The 27th Marines began to embark on December 27 aboard the ships of Transport Division 47, and on New Year's Eve reported "all aboard" to General Rockey.
It was hardly possible to conceal completely the movement of a reinforced Marine division. For security, the Hilo port area was restricted to military personnel and civilian dock employees, but on January 2 a suspected attempt at sabotage was discovered. The striking surfaces of five boxes of safety matches had been placed inside of the boxes so that the heads of the matches would rub against them. The boxes had been rolled up in newspapers and stuffed inside a cargo pallet. However, a minute search of the whole dock area and the ships already loaded disclosed no other sabotage attempt.
Early on New Year's Day the 26th Marines and their support group began to load Transport Division 46. On January 4, 1945 the 5th Division command post closed at Camp Tarawa and opened aboard the USS Cecil. Next day the outline of the big island slipped below the horizon and on January 6 the convoy reached Pearl Harbor and there joined Transport Division 47 in anchorage. Four days later Transport Division 48, carrying the 28th Marines arrived at Pearl, and the entire 5th Marine Division was water-borne and assembled. It had completed its battle training; its physical condition was excellent and its morale was high. The 5th was ready for combat.