21 June 1944, the 3rd Marine Division landed on Guam at Asan Beach, link HERE…
This photo is from the South side of the beach, with Asan Point at my back. You can see the hills to the East, within about 2 miles of the beach.
They came under direct fire from Asan Point just to the right of the beach and from the hills backing the beach. And another problem was the lack of amphibious units like AMTRACS and DUKWs, as the shallow water extends out over 200 yards from the beach. And due to damage done to the vehicles by the reef, Marines ended up wading the 100+ yards in full combat gear under pretty intense fire.
This photo shows the memorial to all the services that fought on Guam, and you see the rise of Asan Point in the background.
And this is a close up of Asan Point and how quickly the jungle takes over…
Did you see the cave in the picture above? It’s just to the right of the trail in the center of the picture.
This is the cave from the pic above- This one contained a mortar team… And was one of MANY caves dug by the Chamorro natives as slave labor.
At Agat Beach, about 5 miles South of Asan, Marine units and the 77th Division of the Army came ashore with considerably less problems, but again were hampered by the lack of AMTRACS and DUKWs…
In this picture, taken from the South side of Agat, you can see Orote Point in the left side and panning around to the right was the main landing beach. Orote Point is now the home of Naval Station Guam.
And here are some of the guns the Japanese used…
The Japanese AA guns, 25mm 300 rounds per minute-
And the Japanese shore defense battery, 20cm (8 inch)-
These only had a 10nm range, but that was plenty to hit the landing craft and any other ships that came too close…
And this is looking down from the Bundschu Ridge on Asan Beach…
The Japanese HQ was about 1/4 mile to the right of where this picture was taken. Effectively they had a ‘perfect’ sand table view (except real) to what the 3rd Marines were doing. Note the scrub between the beach line and the final slope of the ridge. Some Marine units had HEAVY casualties trying to get up this ridge, and some spent 24 hours pinned down before the ridge was taken from behind. Also, you can Asan Point to the left side of the picture, which was heavily fortified and honeycombed with caves.
I cannot imagine the courage of the Marines and Army fighting up these slopes against Japanese who were NOT going to surrender… Over 18,000 Japanese dead, but the US forces lost over 10,000 dead and wounded.
My hat is off to all those who made this, and Iwo, and Saipan, and Tinian, and all the other islands that were re-taken. And the Chamorros, just like the Pilipinas, who fought beside the Army and Marines, and conducted guerrilla operations on their respective islands.
Now back to your regularly scheduled random BS…
On a continuing road trip, and had some time to spare between meetings yesterday, so I stopped by the National Park Service museum at the front gate of the Navy base at Guam… link HERE.
Thankfully, this one failed it’s task and ended up on the beach too…
I didn’t have time to drive to the various sites, but the interactive museum is excellent!
And the Guamanian’s are dead set on NOT forgetting the history…
The kids had viewed a 10 minute video and each had a set of questions they had to search the museum displays to find the answers for. They were fourth graders, and they do this every year up through sixth grade according to the teacher.
The Chamorro people were supportive of the Americans, and had always been; but were caught in the middle. The Insular Guard started with a little over 100 men who were trained as defenders…
And defend they did, setting up a defensive position during the Japanese invasion with three Lewis machine guns and six .45s (and a few 03A3 Springfields) to attempt to slow the invasion. Link HERE.
The museum has a fascinating led/laser interactive map that shows an 8 minute multi-media presentation of the battle for Guam, and shows the attacks/battle lines as moving laser colors on a large map of Guam. Considering the terrain here, it’s a miracle anyone could see much less fire accurately in the jungle. Even today, outside the main areas, the jungle is right down to the road and pretty much impenetrable…
And the Chamorros DON’T forget… In chatting with the lady running the gift shop, she says many of the ‘elderly’ locals absolutely will have nothing to do with any Japanese even today.
And one of the last holdouts of WWII was on Guam in the person of SGT Shoichi Yokoi, he was captured in 1972 and returned to Japan, but later came back and spent time on Guam. Link HERE.
It’s one thing to read the books; it’s another to actually see the land, look at the artifacts, and see the reality of what happened there.
And it’s a truly humbling experience…
Remember this???
Well, HERE are the good pics, courtesy of JayG! And those guns really were beautiful!
Thanks Jay!
Getting up at 0330 is just unnatural if you’re not going fishing or hunting…
Now sitting at the airport trying to pry both eyes open and get ready for another day/another airplane…
At least I beat the ‘rush’ through security! FIVE busloads of Japanese tourists!!!
Now if I can just the IV of coffee going, I ‘might’ survive…
4 hour flight, 3 hour train ride, and two meetings after I get there today…
Sigh…
I don’t think this one is going to get much play in the MSM…
Between the years of 1993 and 2011, as the assault weapons ban expired, more Americans purchased guns, the Supreme Court overturned outright gun bans, and individual states not only loosed gun control restrictions but also issued concealed carry permits to private citizens, incidents of gun violence in America collapsed.
Between 1993 and 2011, nonfatal gun crimes plummeted 69%; from 1.5 million to 467,300. Gun-related murders dropped 40%; from 18,253 to 11,101. Gun-related murders for black Americans plummeted by 51%.
The report also shows that the media-created hysteria over school shootings is wildly misleading. Between ’93 and ’11, the murder rate in schools dropped by almost a third; from 29 to 20.
Read the full article HERE at Breitbart.
And one more thing, while I’m thinking about it…
Three pictures from the NRA convention, taken at the RIA booth.
For those who are searching for those old sniper rifles, take a look at the prices here, remembering these are ALL documented weapons…
And buyer beware at those gun shows where ‘supposedly’ real ones show up! If there ARE documents, then they are worth that $10,000 price tag, otherwise not so much…
I’ve seen supposedly ‘real’ 03A3s for $7-10,000, and ‘real’ M-1Ds for $15,000 but with NO PAPERWORK!
Bagged it out of Houston this morning on the ‘next’ leg of the trip…
Bonus points if you recognize these locations…
A hint on this one, 30 mumble years ago there was ONE hotel called the Princess…
And now I’m going to trot my draggin ass off to bed…
To all those who were in Houston, it was great to see y’all again, and I truly enjoyed the weekend!!!
It was great to see all the usual suspects, and to meet new folks in real space for the first time too!
Weekend was too damn short…
We all got PLENTY of exercise (that was a damn BIG show floor)!
NRA media folks were outstanding! And I didn’t ‘sense’ any resentment from most of the MSM media folks (other than the NYT idjit who seemed perpetually pissed off the entire three days).
With over 600 displays, I didn’t see them all even in three days. But there was everything from low end to OMG, HOW MUCH??? on the floor. EBRs and variants, accessories that ran the gamut from tacticool to really useable, lots of concealable holsters, ammo makers (who to a person said they are trying to catch up) and admitted they are 4-6 mos behind at the moment. Materials seem to be the common shortfall, both for ammo makers and for gun manufacturers.
Interestingly, Midway didn’t even have a booth this year…
As for the usual suspects, we were spread out over a few different locations, so trying to get everybody together proved interesting, but it did get pulled off three times (thanks to Phlegmmy, Ray and Breda). The after the party party was fun too, and the hotel folks were VERY obliging in letting us pile into the lobby area every night (but then again we DID clean up after ourselves). Sadly, some folks had to leave yesterday to head home, and the rest of us are out today. Probably a good thing, as I needs SLEEP!!!
As I said, I hope I managed to answer the questions that I got in emails and in comments, and I will just say there will be wrap up posts from Lawdog, JayG and Jennifer with LOTS of good pictures…
And one more tease…
Well, two…
And a reminder to self, DO NOT eat BBQ beans before spending 17 hours on airplanes… Sigh…






















