WW2 WWII Battlefield tour of Roi Namur; Kwajalein Atoll: Operation Flintlock: Marshall Islands

ROI-NAMUR BEFORE WORLD WAR TWO
The first recorded exploration of Kwajalein Atoll occurred in 1542, when Spanish seafarer Ruy Lopez de Villalobos reported visiting several atolls one of which was probably Kwajalein. In 1788, William Marshall, captain of the British Royal Navy’s H.M.S. Scarborough visited the region and named the groups of islands that comprise the Marshalls after himself. By the nineteenth century, crews from whaling ships, German copra (dried coconut meat) traders, and Protestant missionaries were routine visitors to the Marshalls. Germany’s commercial interest in the Marshalls led to their purchase from Spain in 1885. Imperial Japan, as a member of the Allied powers during World War I, quickly seized the islands from Germany in 1914. Japanese control of the islands, despite a strong protest from the United States, was formalized by the League of Nations in 1920, whose members permitted Imperial Japan to retain the islands under a class “C” mandate which allowed no naval or military installations.
The Japanese presence in the Marshalls was of grave concern to American military officials, because the islands provided sheltered bases from which Japanese ships and planes could interdict the American supply lines to the Philippines, at that time an American colony. Army and Navy war planners had labored since 1904 to devise a strategy that, in the event of an attack, would allow American forces to move across the Pacific Ocean to relieve the Army garrison in the Philippines. A foothold in the Marshalls would provide American forces with a base of operations that would assure the recapture of the Philippines. The capture of Kwajalein Atoll would also deny the Japanese important air and submarine bases. These same bases had provided forces in the attacks against Pearl Harbor and Wake Island during the opening days of the war.
The invasion of Kwajalein, Roi, and Namur would be the second time that an American force was thrown against a fortified island. The first attempt, at Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands approximately 300 miles southeast of Kwajalein, had been a near disaster. Thus, many military planners questioned if an amphibious assault against a fortified position could ever work. For this reason the success or failure of the Marshalls invasion could affect future Allied strategy in the Pacific and in Europe. An attack in the Marshall Islands would also be the first on Japanese territory….land held by Japan before the start of World War II.
The invasion of the Marshalls was a textbook operation. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps planners carefully applied the lessons learned from Tarawa. These included longer periods of aerial bombardment and naval gunfire support, the use of tracked amphibians, and the first use of frogmen (forerunners of Navy SEALS) to scout beaches and search for underwater obstacles. Maximum use of close-air support and the early introduction of armor and artillery were also used to great effect in the Kwajalein invasion. The result was a nearly perfect operation that proved the utility of amphibious assault against fortified positions.
Plans for the invasion of the Marshall Islands, code named Operation FLINTLOCK, were issued on December 20, 1943. The 4th Marine Division was designated the strike force for the invasion of Roi and Namur. Opposing the Marines on Roi-Namur were approximately 3,500 Japanese soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Korean laborers under the command of Admiral Michiyuki Yamada. After several months of air strikes against many of the islands in the Marshalls, the three-day operation began on January 31, 1944, when elements of the 4th Marine Division began to seize islands near Roi and Namur. Proceed from your present location to Stop 1, located next to the Beach Pavilion (Building 8270) on Roi’s Perimeter Road.

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