Ordered to move Battery D’s 3-inch guns the length of Peale during the night, Godbold reconnoitered the new position selected by Major Devereux, and at 1745, after securing all battery positions, began the shift. For the next 11 hours, the Marines, assisted by nearly 250 civilians, constructed new emplacements. By 0445 on 12 December, Godbold could again report: “Manned and ready.” At Peacock Point, on the night of the 11th, Wally Lewis gave permission for all but two men at each gun, and at the director, to get some sleep—the first the men had had in three days.
A pre-war view of the destroyer Kisaragi, sunk as the result of damage inflicted by two 100-pound bombs dropped by Capt Henry T. Elrod on the morning of 11 December 1941. Out of the crew of 167 men, not one sailor survived.
Naval Historical Center Photo NH 3065
National Archives Photo 80-G-179006
Wrecked Grumman F4F-3s from VMF-211 near the airstrip on Wake (photographed after the Japanese took the island). The Wildcat in the foreground, 211-F-ll, was flown on 11 December by Capt Elrod in the attack that sank the Japanese destroyer Kisaragi. Having suffered such damage as to make it unserviceable, 211-F-ll was ultimately cannibalized for spares.
The Japanese force, meanwhile, “... humbled by sizeable casualties,” withdrew to the Marshalls, having requested aircraft carrier reinforcement. Hundreds of miles away, at Pearl Harbor, elements of the 4th Defense Battalion received orders to begin preparing for an operation, the destination of which was closely held. The Marines of the battalion fervently desired to assist their comrades on Wake Island and many of them probably concluded, “We’re headed for Wake!”
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