Edward Baldwin's Account of Peleliu |
| For more information concerning the battle at Peleliu, please see www.peleliu.net or www.peleliu.org |
| This was taken from a letter that Edward wrote to Mr. Charlton Heston, President of N.R.A. He was submitting a "Japanese nambu pistol" to be used in the N.R.A.'s museum. NOTE: (I have not changed any spelling or grammatical errors but have added a few correct spellings in parenthesis.) Also, I've provided links that can tell you more information about that item. Dear Mr. Heston: I was in the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, Company "C", 1st Marine Division in 1944 when our division hit Peleliu Island in the Paua Group of Islands. I was a PFC acting as a leader of a Demolition Squad that was comprised of Flame Throwers, Bazookas, and Demolition charges which in those days were called C2. We hit Peleliu Island in April 1944 and were in Amtracks (AmTracs), and at the time the island was all coral. The Japanese had been entrenched on this island for about 10 years, and had caves up in the hills on railroad tracks with 80mm motor shells, when we came in about 15 yards from the shore they blew these Amtrak's out of the water, plus the troops they were carrying. I went overboard and went down in the water and almost drowned. I managed to unbuckle my equipment except my knife and 45-caliber pistol, which demolition people carried and started to the beach. I had a new pair of boots on, but by the time I had struggled to the sand, the coral had completely cut-off the soles and heels of the boots, and had cut my feet to pieces. I then found a Japanese soldier, so I took his boots and put them on, but were not my size, even though they were supposed to be Imperial Japanese Marines, the largest of the bunch. The shoes he was wearing had wooden soles, heels and cleats for the coral they walked on. Farther in...on the beach, which they had us at a standstill for the first 24 hours. I came upon a dead Japanese Colonel, I could tell by his uniform. The dead soldier had a Samurai Sword and a Nambu Pistol (homemade), but a very good replica of the original Nambu pistol held 8 shells sit holster and all. I took the pistol and left the sword, we advanced inland after losing about 40% of our men. I found a dead Marine that was in Demolition. I took his detonators and a pack of C2 charge and proceeded on the island when we reached "Sugar Loaf Hill", and dug in. It was beginning to get dark so we waited for flares to be thrown up so we could see the enemy. As they were making Bazooka charges from the top of the hill they were all drunk with Saki (rice wine), and one of them jumped in my fox hole, and about that time a flare lit up, and I shot at him with my 45 pistol, but didn't hit him as he jumped out and went down. A guy below knifed him. When dawn came, we were still in the same place, and I saw him down below with a knife in him, so we preceeded up to the top of the "Sugar Loaf Hill". The Japanese had a machine gun next right over the hill, and I put a detonator in the C2 charge which was a 15 seconds detonator and I pulled the pin and threw it into the nest which was too close. When I threw it, and went off it killed the machine gunners, but also knocked me unconscious, and the next thing I knew I was on the hospital ship Americana for a concussion. The ship took me to the hospital airbase in Tenian (Tinian) Island Guam, Siapan and Tenian (Tinian) which I believe my memory to be the Marshall Islands. When I recuperated they sent me back to Puvuvu Guadalcanal with my outfit, which after battle had come back to get ready for the next battle, which was supposed to be Iwo Jima. We were ready to go, and at the last moment they changed our orders, and sent the 3rd Marine Division in, and held us on Puvuvu for Okinawa. We were there on Easter Sunday 1945 we hit the North end of the island and as usual Military Blunders, there wasn't a shot fired for a month. They the enemy, had evacuated the North and was South of Naha Airbase, and the Army had hit the South and ran into heavy battle and we lost a lot of men. When we advanced toward the South into Naha Airbase we also confronted the Japanese, we bixed bayonets and went into battle. I was still in demolition and we had to blow up caves and use flamer throwers to burn them out, once we cleared the area we found large urns that the Japanese buried their dead. The fighting became pretty furious and we were running fast, and hitting the ground to fire that I lost a bag of C2 charge. I grabbed another C2 charge off a dead Marine and found he had used about half of it to heat a canned C Rations and coffee, but kept it anyway. We advanced again, and over the hill, we could hear commotion sounding like Japanese, so I went up with this C2 charge with detonator and pulled the pin. As I threw the charge, it got tangled up on my shirt that I was wearing and I quickly untangled it and threw it at the enemy killing all of them. It also, blew me back down the hill. Again, I woke up and I was on a cruiser, a Kamakazi (suicide) airplane was trying to dive down the stack of the ship. There was a terrible typhoon at that time, they thought the ship was going to go down, so they tried to outrun the storm and they got 1,000 miles off the coast of China before it let up. So again, the ship dropped all of us off to the Admiralty Islands and went to the hospital after getting well they put us on a LST and we went back to our outfit, and from there the 1st Marine Division and 3rd joined the 5th Marines in Teintsen (Tientsin) China....From the heat of the jungles to North Cold China, WOW!!!! I am sending a picture of the homemade pistol for you to put on exhibition as you see fit. It is one of a kind, and I would surely like a response from you as soon as possible, on how to send it, or must I have it registered before sending? Sincerely, Edward Allen Baldwin Serial No. 926694 1st Marine Division 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Division Co. "C" 1st Platoon |
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