Last updated: July 18, 2024
Place
Fonte Plateau
National Archive 80-G-281278
Quick Facts
Location:
FP6J+889, 6, Nimitz Hill Annex, Guam
Significance:
Site of the final battle in Phase 1 of the liberation of Guam
Amenities
2 listed
Parking - Auto, Scenic View/Photo Spot
While American forces had secured the beachheads at Assan and Hågat by July 24, 1944, the fight for Guam was far from over. The beachheads were narrow, isolated strips of land surrounded by well-fortified hills and mountains still controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army. To consolidate their position, the U.S. needed to secure the line of peaks stretching from Adelup Point in the east to Måkpo Point in the west. This would link the two beachheads and give American troops access to the rest of the island, but first, they would have to capture the Japanese Army's stronghold on Fonte Plateau, overlooking Assan Beach.[1]
The Third Marine Division launched their attack on the morning of July 25. The 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cushman Jr., spearheaded the advance. They faced fierce resistance from the entrenched Japanese soliders on the rocky slopes leading up to Fonte Plateau, but by the end of the day, they had taken control of the critical Mt. Tenjo Road, which crossed the high ground framing the beachheads, and secured a stronghold within 250 yards of the plateau.[2]
Following Cushman’s troops, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, 3rd Marines blasted their way through the remaining Japanese Army's defenses north of Adelup Point and reached the lower part of the Mt. Tenjo Road by nightfall. To the west, the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 9th Marines took the high ground north of the Aguada River, capturing several of the Japanese soldiers' supply dumps. Between them, the 21st Marines also reached the slopes of the Mt. Tenjo Road. However, this progress meant that the Third Marine’s line now stretched over 9,000 yards, with large gaps between the battalions.[3]
As the Americans launched their assault, General Takashina mustered more than 5,000 soldiers, the majority of his remaining forces in southwest Guam, on Fonte Plateau, preparing to launch a major counterattack. His plan was to surge down the slopes surrounding the Assan beachhead and push the Americans to the edge of the water. He hoped to take advantage of the large gaps in the American line, particularly the 800-yard gap between the 3rd Battalion, 21st Marines and 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, which was guarded by a single reconnaissance unit.[4]
As the Marines dug-in for the evening, the Japanese launched a series of small, probing attacks. The strongest one targeted the gap between the 3rd Battalion, 21st Marines and 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. A group of 50 Japanese soldiers attacked the 25-man reconnaissance unit, forcing them to withdraw and leaving the gap unguarded.[5] Then at 3:00 am, Japanese troops poured down the slopes from Fonte Plateau in a forward moving, last-ditch effort, to give their all in a banzai attack. Shouting, “Wake up American and die!” the Japanese charged towards the American tanks, artillery, and ammunition dumps. Some Japanese soliders strapped TNT packs and mines to their bodies, turning themselves into suicide bombers. The fighting was fierce, and men fought hand-to-hand to the death, sometimes resorting to using rocks and sticks as weapons. [6]
Japanese infiltrators made their way as far as the division hospital near Assan Point. Doctors evacuated the worst of the wounded, while cooks, bakers, stretcher bearers, corpsmen and 41 of the healthiest patients formed a defensive line to fight off the attackers. Private First Class Michael Ryan, one of the patients, later recalled that he "grabbed up the blanket covering me and ran out of the building without another stitch on." He had to run through crossfire with a wounded foot to reach safety.[7]
Just below Fonte Plateau, where the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines formed the forwardmost point of the American line, the situation was especially fraught. Cushman’s men were dangerously low on ammunition. Soldiers were down to two clips per weapon and the mortarmen only had six rounds left per tube. The Marines held their ground, often fighting hand-to-hand, until two tanks were able to make it to the front with more ammunition. When the fighting was finally over, the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines had suffered a more than 50% casualty rate but had killed between 600 and 900 Japanese soldiers.[8]
The Japanese troops launched seven consecutive waves of counterattacks before dawn on July 26, and while they bent, the Third Marines did not break. Not only did the Japanese Army fail to break the American line, but they also suffered tremendous casualties. 3,200 of the best remaining Japanese soldiers on Guam died during the banzai. Approximately 600 Americans were killed or wounded during the night.[9]
After spending July 26 reorganizing and recovering from the night’s attack, the Marines renewed their assault on Fonte Plateau on July 27. After the failure of the banzai attack, the Japanese commanders realized they would not be able to hold Guam and instead shifted to a war of attrition, with the objective of inflicting as much damage as possible on the Americans as they moved inland. Many of the remaining Japanese defenders fought to the death as the Americans attempted to advance through the rough terrain honeycombed with bunkers, caves, and trenches.[10]
The remaining Japanese forces were ordered to withdraw during the night of July 27-28. When the Marines overran the Japanese command post the following day, Takeshima and his commanders retreated as well, but he was killed by machine gun fire that afternoon.[11] The last Japanese holdout on Fonte Plateau was in a steep, cave-lined depression. On July 29, the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines blanketed the pit with tank, machine gun and bazooka fire while an assault team armed with flamethrowers worked their way down from the rim of the pit and destroyed the remaining Japanese positions.[12]
When the smoke cleared, Fonte Plateau was firmly in American hands and the Imperial Japanese Army was in full retreat. To the west, the 9th Marines made contact with a company of the 307th Infantry Regiment at Mt. Tenjo, securing the two beachheads and completing Phase 1 of the liberation of Guam. Fonte Plateau was turned into a forward headquarters for Admiral Chester Nimitz and used as a launching pad for the final phase of the fight to retake Guam.[13]
Today, the main feature at the Fonte Plateau Unit is the U-shaped bunker that served as the Japanese Army's communications center for the island before being overrun on July 28, 1944. It also provides a magnificent view of the entire area from Assan to Hagåtña area and inland, looking over north-central Guam.
Listen to Jack Eddy, a platoon leader with the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, and Arthur Armstrong, who served in Company S, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines recount the attack on Fonte and surviving the banzai attack on the night of July 25 – 26.
View historic photos from the fight to take Fonte Plateau.
[1] John C. McManus, Island Infernos: The US Army’s Pacific War Odyssey, 1944 (New York: Caliber, 2021), 409; Peggy Nelson, Lisa Duwall, and Laila Tamimi, "Asan and Agat Invasion Beaches: Cultural Landscape Inventory, War in the Pacific National Historical Park, National Park Service" (National Park Service, November 26, 2003), 52.
[2] Harry A. Gailey, The Liberation of Guam, 21 July-10 August 1944 (Novato, CA : Presidio, 1988), 125–26; Maj O. R. Lodge, The Recapture of Guam (Headquarters: Historical Branch, G-3 Division, U.S. Marine Corps, 1954), 74–76; Cyril J. O’Brien, Liberation: Marines in the Recapture of Guam, Marines in World War II Commemorative Series, 1994, 19–23; Henry I. Shaw, Bernard C. Nalty, and Edwin T. Turnbladh, Central Pacific Drive, vol. III, History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II (Headquarters: Historical Branch, G-3 Division, U.S. Marine Corps, 1966), 506.
[3] Gailey, The Liberation of Guam, 126–27; Lodge, The Recapture of Guam, 75–76; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 507–8.
[4] Gailey, The Liberation of Guam, 129–30; Lodge, The Recapture of Guam, 79–81; McManus, Island Infernos, 409; O’Brien, Liberation: Marines in the Recapture of Guam, 20; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 505–9. See Lodge, 233 for a map of battalion positions on the night of July 25.
[5] Lodge, The Recapture of Guam, 80; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 509.
[6] Gailey, The Liberation of Guam, 135–39; Lodge, The Recapture of Guam, 80–81; Robert F. Rogers, Destiny’s Landfall: A History of Guam, Revised Edition (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2011), 173–75; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 510–11.
[7] Lodge, The Recapture of Guam, 80; O’Brien, Liberation: Marines in the Recapture of Guam, 25; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 514–15.
[8] Gailey, The Liberation of Guam, 139–40; Lodge, The Recapture of Guam, 81–82; O’Brien, Liberation: Marines in the Recapture of Guam, 22–23; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 511.
[9] Gailey, The Liberation of Guam, 132–43; O’Brien, Liberation: Marines in the Recapture of Guam, 24–26; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 509–17; Erwin N. Thompson, "War in the Pacific National Historical Park Historic Resource Study," Historic Resource Study (National Park Service, July 1985).
[10] Gailey, The Liberation of Guam, 142–50; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 516-26.
[11] Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 529–30.
[12] Lodge, The Recapture of Guam, 99; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 529; Thompson, "War in the Pacific National Historical Park Historic Resource Study."
[13] Gailey, The Liberation of Guam, 151–56; Lodge, The Recapture of Guam, 96–99; McManus, Island Infernos, 410; Shaw, et al, Central Pacific Drive, 526–31; Thompson, "War in the Pacific National Historical Park Historic Resource Study."
This article was made possible through generous support from the Mellon Foundation in partnership with the National Park Foundation and American Conservation Experience. Learn more about the Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship.