Ten days after the August 7, 1942 landings on Guadalcanal, A and B Companies of the famed 2nd Raider Battalion, led by Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, made one of the most perilous raids of WWII. Makin Atoll was a part of the Gilbert Islands in the south Pacific, held by the Japanese. Carlson’s Marines arrived at Makin on two submarines, the Nautilus and the Argonaut. Each warrior was hand picked to participate. The raid was simply meant as a diversion to the main landings on Guadalcanal, but things went bad almost immediately.
When the subs surfaced, they were met with heavy surf and torrential rains. The engines on their rubber landing boats failed to start. Somehow the men struggled to shore. Shortly after landing, they were met by a small, but extremely fierce garrison of Japanese. Heavy firefights ensued that included two suicidal Banzai raids by the Japanese. Raider casualties began to mount, but the Marines were more successful than they initially realized. They managed to kill almost all 83 Japanese defending the atoll.
At this point, reinforcements arrived for the Japanese by seaplane. While the Americans managed to destroy most of the planes and the subs sunk arriving ships, several planes strafed the Raiders, keeping them pinned down. Plans did not call for the Marines to hold the island so a retreat was called. This was easier said than done.
As the Americans attempted to leave the atoll, engines on the outboards again failed. Heavy surf capsized a number of boats. One hundred and twenty men, including Lt. Col. Carlson were left stranded on the island with most of their supplies lost in the waves. They had stripped off their uniforms to keep from drowning. Marine, Ray Baumi described the scene, “There were 10 of us paddling out over the breakers, and we were tipped over three times before we got passed them…The boat was full of water up to our waists…We kept paddling and paddling. We were so exhausted, yet we kept on. The current was pulling us back but somehow we made it.”
The situation worsened over the next few hours. Without radios to contact the subs, Carlson didn’t know if any of his men had made it back. In the face of Japanese reinforcements, it was decided to surrender. However the man delivering the note was killed before it was passed on.
By dawn, things had brightened considerably. Several men made it through the surf to the subs and a system of communication was set up by flashlight. After lashing several of the boats to outrigger canoes, they were able to evacuate the island at 11 o’clock that night. Sadly they were not able to retrieve their dead. Lt Col. Carlson paid a local to bury their Marines left behind.
Only upon return to Pearl Harbor, was a tally able to be taken of their losses. Eighteen were thought killed and twelve were missing. After the war, it was found out that that nine men had failed to reach the sub and instead were forced into hiding on the island. After 12 days, they were taken prisoner and sent to Kwajalein Atoll where they were beheaded. Their bodies have never been found.
The local people as requested buried the Marines who died on Makin Atoll, but no one knew exactly where. The families received notice by telegram, “Killed in action, body not recoverable.
However, the Central Identification Laboratory – Hawaii (“Cil-Hi”) never forgot about those lost warriors. Many efforts were made over the years to locate the dead Marines on Makin Atoll. Following a lead, a team was sent to the island now known as Butaritari in 1998. There they met a non English-speaking local who was in his 70’s. He had helped bury the dead when he was a teen. On a second trip back in 1999, Cil–Hi was finally able to locate the graves in the unmarked jungle.
The Marines were buried in a mass grave side by side with their hands folded around their M-1 rifles. Their dog tags and helmets were in place. It was a warrior’s grave. Nineteen Marines were carefully recovered and loaded into flag draped coffins and loaded onto a C 130 with a full Honor Guard. The local, watching the proceedings, began to sing the only English words he knew, “From the halls of Montezuma…..” These Marines were finally going home.
While families could choose where they wanted to have their heroes interred, 13 families chose the have their Marine buried at Arlington National Cemetery. On a cloudy August day in 2001, almost 60 years after they died, more than 100 veterans stood side by side with the families to honor their fellow Marines who finally came home.
-N. Page
