The Wilmington morning star., 1946-02-25
Marines Haven Landed
But Wake Well In Hand
Rv TOM LAMBERT

Bv TOM LAMBERT
WAKE ISLAND, Feb. 24.-(P)-
There are no United States Ma
rines today on this island where
the Marines made history.
A leatherneck detachment! is
scheduled to arrive here later for
duty, but now the Navy and Army
are occupying the island whose de-
tenders late in 1941 won world re-
nova for a hopeless fight against
overwhelming odds.
Many Navy Men
The Army maintains about 100
air transport command and COM
munications personnel here. APP
proximately 1000 Navy personnel
under Navy Capt. E. A. Junghans
Ok Bethesda, Md. are transform
ing Wake into an island which
would scarcely be recognizable,
either by the Marines who
defended it or the Marines who
proudly planted the United States
flag when the island was sur
rendered by the Japanese at the
wars end.
Seabees diligently are knocking
down Japanese emplacements and
installations and constructing
buildings for the Americans.
Steam shovels which dwarf the
few remaining pieces of Japanese
equipment are gouging roads and
leveling a site for new Navy
base. Jeeps hustle along dusty
windwhipped roads. Transport
planes land here and are serviced
for flights westward to Tokyo or
eastward to the mainland.
Stand Close In
American ships stand close in to
the reef, unloading equipment and
supplies for the base. In contrast
to the situation at most bases, Of
ficers are living in tents, using
their helmets for washing and
shaving. Enlisted men living in
permanent quarters have hot
showers, movies and two cans Of
beer a day.
There have been no demobili-
zation demonstrations on Wake Is
land" Capt. Juaghans remarked
proudly.
Heavy Damage
The former pan American base
shows as heavy damage as any
inflicted on Wake installations.
Gaunt rusty steel girders rise from
the concrete foundations, some OF
which are surprisingly little dam
aged. The Pan American Hotel
and the old Naval Air Station adj
ministration's repair buildings now
are only shells, the framework
having been burned and blasted in
both Japanese and American
raids.
The japanese used the buildings
Orders literally in constructing
their emplacements and dugouts.
A few Pan American personnel
are here surveying sites for pos
sible new installations. Pan Ameri-
can survey flight airplanes already
have landed here.
Air Base Now
Wake Island presently is serving
as an airbase and stopover point
on the regular Naval Air Transport
route from Honolulu to Tokyo. o.
casionally an Army air transport
command plane lands although the
Army mostly flies more souther-
ly route from Honolulu via Kwa-
jalein and Guam.
There are still many evidences
of japanese occupation, evidences
which indicate a frontal assault
might have been costly. Along the
shoreline and along the lagoon
fronting the three islands which
comprise Wake Island Aton -
Wilkes, Wake and Peale Islands
the Japanese erected series OF
defensive positions, some of which
now are succumbing to Seabee
bulldozers.
Many Tank Traps
The Japanese knitted barbed
wire entanglements along the
beaches which sloped upward into
series of pillboxes, machlnegun
nests and rifle pits. Tank traps
laced the three islands and mine
fields studded most OF the ap-
proachable beaches. Unable to
burrow deeply underground be-
cause Wake Island is only a few
feet above sea level, the japanese
scuffed small depressions in the
coral surface and erected frame
work which they covered with CO.
raj.
Even these emplacements., how.
ever, and the reverted coastal ar
tillery batteries proved vulnerable