US Marines in Melbourne 1943

[Peter H]

Photos from the 1st Marine Division History,The Old Breed,1949.

The 1st Marine Division moved to Australia,after its ordeal on Guadalcanal,in January 1943.Initially it landed at Brisbane but malaria in its ranks lead to a request for "a move to southern Australia where the climate was cooler and there were no mosquitoes."Sydney was already full of US Army and Navy personnel so the decision was made to move onto Melbourne.

The Marines disembark at Melbourne,February 1943.

[Peter H]

The Division was quartered as follows:

1st Marine Regiment--Camp Murphy(the MCG)
5th Marine Regiment--Rowville Camp,near Dandenong
7th Marine Regiment--Camp Balcombe,Mt Martha
11th Marine Regiment(Artillery)-Ballarat

The parade of the 1st Marine Division past Melbourne Town Hall,22nd February 1943.

[Peter H]

Local business boomed

[Peter H]

Some arguments and pub brawls soon developed between the Americans and Australians,especially when Victorian members of the AIF 9th Division,returning from the Middle East,arrived in town.

A beer party was organised at the MCG in July 1943("beer was served in paper cups,just so some character doesn't throw a bottle in the air and hit somebody").No MPs were allowed at the get together as well.Around 9,000 drank and enjoyed a concert,half of them Australians.

[Peter H]

American football at the MCG

[Peter H]

Dance hall.

[Peter H]

Mt Martha Camp

[Peter H]

Training ground at Mt Martha.Amphibious assaults were also conducted in the area.

[Peter H]

The Engineers pulled out of Melbourne in August 1943,followed by the infantry units in September 1943.The 5th Marines sailed to Milne Bay,the 7th Marines to Oro Bay,the 1st Marines to Goodenough Island.The last elements of the 1st Marine Division left Melbourne on the 23rd October 1943.

Cape Cloucester was to be there next objective.

[Dan W.]

I was just getting ready to ask when the Marines left but you answered that, thanks for those pictures, that is excellent, I've long heard of Marines and liberty in Oz but it seems that someone forgot to take their camera because I have not seen many pictures. There is a gentleman who lives not far from me who was with the 5th and was at either Tarawa or Pelileu, I know he was in reserve until later into Okinawa after those campaigns.
Regards,
Dan

[Peter H]

Thanks Dan.

More on the 1st Marine Division in Melbourner here:

http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/usmc/1stmarinedivision.htm



US troops in Melbourne,1942-43:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/ ... click=true


Something on Eddie Leonski also,well before the Marines arrived there:

http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozatwar/eddieleonski.htm

http://www.enet.org.au/historyonline/br ... ownout.htm

[Peter H]

From the AWM website.

MOH ceremony at Mt Martha,May 1943.

General Vandegrift presents the CMOH to Mitchell Paige for his actions on Guadalcanal.

[Peter H]

John Basilone also received the MOH at the ceremony.

From Left--Vandegrift,Edson,Paige,Basilone.

Mitchell Paige died in 2003,Basilone was killed at Iwo Jima in 1945,the only US Marine to receive both the CMOH and the Navy Cross in WW2.

[Dan W.]

Gunnery Sergeant Manila John Basilone was the only Marine in WWII to receive both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross.

CITATION:

For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action against enemy Japanese forces, above and beyond the call of duty, while serving with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division in the Lunga Area. Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 24 and 25 October 1942. While the enemy was hammering at the Marines' defensive positions, Sgt. Basilone, in charge of 2 sections of heavy machineguns, fought valiantly to check the savage and determined assault. In a fierce frontal attack with the Japanese blasting his guns with grenades and mortar fire, one of Sgt. Basilone's sections, with its guncrews, was put out of action, leaving only 2 men able to carry on. Moving an extra gun into position, he placed it in action, then, under continual fire, repaired another and personally manned it, gallantly holding his line until replacements arrived. A little later, with ammunition critically low and the supply lines cut off, Sgt. Basilone, at great risk of his life and in the face of continued enemy attack, battled his way through hostile lines with urgently needed shells for his gunners, thereby contributing in large measure to the virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment. His great personal valor and courageous initiative were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

March 5, 2004

The legend of Gunnery Sgt. Basilone

For more than 60 years Marines have heard about the legendary acts of Gunnery Sgt. John "Manila" Basilone.

In the steaming jungles of Guadalcanal, two sections of heavy .30-caliber machine guns at the Tenaru River were in charge of defending a narrow pass to Henderson Airfield in the Solomon Islands. Suddenly, Japanese forces attacked their position. Vastly out numbered, the Marines held their ground and fought valiantly to check the savage and determined assault.

Suddenly one of the gun crews was knocked out. Disregarding his own life, a Marine lifted his 90 pounds of weaponry and raced 200 yards to the silenced gun pit and started firing. Enemy soldiers attacked to his rear. He cut them down with his Colt .45 pistol. Short of shells, he dashed 200 yards amid a stream of bullets to an ammunition dump and returned with an armload of ammo for his gunners. This Marine battled his way through hostile lines running back and forth between gun pits clearing jams and re-supplying the other Marines with ammo. Flares lit up more swarms of grenade-tossing attackers. The Marines' hands started blistering from the heat of his machine gun, but still he kept shooting.

At dawn, reinforcements found this Marine resting his head at the edge of his pit. The line had held. Nearly 100 sprawled enemy dead were around his cut-off outpost. At least 38 enemy dead were credited to this Marine, many killed at arms length. The day was Oct. 24, 1942 and his name was Gunnery Sgt. Basilone. For his actions he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Upon returning to the United States, this Raritan, N.J. native traveled across the country on a war bond tour that prompted $1.4 million in pledges. He met Hollywood starlets and his picture even made the cover of Life magazine.

The Marine Corps offered to make him an officer and let him spend the rest of the war in Washington, but he reportedly turned them down stating, "I'm a plain soldier, and I want to stay one."

After his war bond tour, Gunnery Sgt. Basilone requested to be reassigned to a gunner unit with the 27th Marines. He could have continued to sell war bonds or he could have even stayed back in the states. But this man instead chose to live his life as a Marine.

So he said farewell to his new wife, Lena Riggi, and joined the Fifth Division. Staying behind, he told buddies, would be "like being a museum piece." And it wouldn't seem right, he said, "if the Marines made a landing on the Manila waterfront and 'Manila John' wasn't among them."

On February 19, 1945, Basilone was again in action on the black sands of Iwo Jima on Red Beach II. Enemy gunfire pinned down his platoon. Everyone, that is, but Basilone, who walked straight up, kicking butts and yelling, "Get off the beach! Move out," he yelled at the gunners just behind, hunkered low and straining under the heavy loads of weapons and ammunition amid the blistering fire. Minutes later an enemy artillery round exploded, killing Gunnery Sgt. Basilone and four other members from his platoon. Immediately before, he had single-handedly destroyed a Japanese blockhouse, allowing his unit to capture an airfield. On his outstretched left arm was a tattoo that read "Death before Dishonor." He was 27 years old.

After World War II, his body was reburied with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery and he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. A life-size bronze statue depicting him in battle dress and cradling a machine gun now watches over his hometown of Raritan.

Gunnery Sgt. Basilone, the man whom Gen. Douglas MacArthur called "a one-man army," became the only man in the history of the United States awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, and the Purple Heart.

John Basilone has been remembered in a variety of ways for his service and supreme sacrifice. In 1949 a destroyer, the USS Basilone was commissioned. The New Jersey Turnpike Bridge across the Raritan River is named in his honor, as are numerous American Legion and Marine Corps League Posts. Interstate 5 outside of Camp Pendleton has been renamed the John Basilone Memorial Highway. A tribute to the war hero started in 1981 with "Basilone Day" and continues to be celebrated annually in Raritan, N.J. on the last weekend in September.

However, John Basilone never cared much for the fame that accompanied his Medal of Honor. The parades, the newsreel appearances, the starlets who hung on his arm; he would much rather, he insisted, be just a "plain Marine" like his buddies who were still out in the Pacific. He told his brother after joining the Marines that, "Without his Corps, his life meant nothing."

[Peter H]

Great info Dan.

As far as I know these are the only surviving Marine CMOH holders from WW2 still around:

Jefferson Joseph DeBlanc
VMA-112,Solomons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_J._DeBlanc

http://www.medalofhonor.com/JeffersonDeBlanc.htm

Arthur J. Jackson
7th Marines,Peleliu

http://www.medalofhonor.com/ArthurJackson.htm

http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Histo ... son_AJ.htm


Everett Parker Pope
1st Marines,Peleliu

http://www.medalofhonor.com/EverettPope.htm

http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Histo ... ope_EP.htm


Jacklyn Harold Lucas
26th Marines,Iwo Jima

http://www.homeofheroes.com/jacklucas/3_mcl_story.html

http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Histo ... cas_JH.htm


Hershel Woodrow Williams
21st Marines,Iwo Jima

http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Histo ... ams_HW.htm

http://www.shadowwolf.org/woody.html

James E. Swett
Marine Fighter Squadron 221,Solomons

http://www.medalofhonor.com/JamesSwett.htm

http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Histo ... ett_JE.htm