21 FEB 44
ENGEBI Island, at the north end of the atoll, had been secured. On the southernmost island of ENIWETOK, infantry of the Army's 106th Regimental Combat Team were dispatching the last Japanese holdouts and would secure the Island by mid-afternoon. 37 Americans had been killed and 94 wounded taking ENIWETOK. The Japanese dead numbered 800 dead and 23 had been taken alive.
PARRY Island on the eastern rim of the atoll, defended by 1,350 enemy troops, was the last objective prior to securing the atoll completely. The Marines of the 22nd had been removed from ENIWETOK yesterday to rest and equip for the assault on PARRY scheduled for tomorrow.
PARRY was the best defended island and as such had not been ignored by planners. Beginning on the 18th of February the battleships Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Colorado along with heavy cruisers Louisville and Indianapolis had been blasting PARRY continuously. The island had also been hit repeatedly by aircraft from task group carriers.
On the 20th Marines had occupied the islet of JAPTAN, to the north across a narrow passage, from which they had bombarded PARRY continuously.
The Japanese had a confounding ability to hunker down in tunnels and caves — usually built at bayonet point by local slave labor or that of subjugated Koreans and/or Chinese — and survive relentless poundings from surface and aerial bombardment. This would often give the impression that they had retreated completely or were dead, only to have them emerge and fight ferociously when American troops came ashore. The Marines of the 22nd were only in their 4th day of offensive combat since being activated in 1942, but they had already learned that when it came to this enemy, looks were deceiving.
Princeton's participation in Operation CATCHPOLE on the 21st consisted of Air Group 23 delivering 32 fragmentation clusters and 21 100-pound general purpose bombs on PARRY, along with firing 4,450 rounds of .50 caliber at the remaining enemy positions on ENIWETOK.
All the frag clusters and half of the 100-pound bombs hit in their assigned grids 619 and 624, directly in front of "GREEN 3" beach on the atoll side of PARRY, which is where the landings would take place. Air Group 23 bombers would hit the same area tomorrow morning, after the surface bombardment and prior to the landing, which was scheduled for 0900.
With the exception of 1 fighter recovering early due to engine trouble and the return of the bomber crew that had landed in the lagoon yesterday, Princeton's day was, relatively speaking, unremarkable.
Tomorrow, the Marines would again be counting on them.
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