Battle of Wake Island

Battle of Wake Island
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II

A destroyed Japanese patrol boat (#33) on Wake.
Date8–23 December 1941
Location
Wake Island, U.S. territory
Result First attempt: American victory
Second attempt: Japanese victory
Belligerents
 Japan  United States
Commanders and leaders
Empire of Japan Shigeyoshi Inoue
Empire of Japan Sadamichi Kajioka
Empire of Japan Shigematsu Sakaibara
Empire of Japan Eiji Gotō
Empire of Japan Tamon Yamaguchi
United States Winfield S. Cunningham (POW)
United States James P.S. Devereux (POW)
United States Paul A. Putnam (POW)
United States Henry T. Elrod 
Strength
First Attempt (11 December):
3 light cruisers
6 destroyers
2 patrol boats
2 troop transports
1 submarine tender
3 submarines
Reinforcements arriving for Second Attempt (23 December):
2 aircraft carriers
2 heavy cruisers
2 destroyers
2,500 infantry[1]

449 USMC personnel consisting of:

6 coastal artillery pieces
12 aircraft
12 anti-aircraft guns
68 U.S. Navy personnel
5 U.S. Army personnel
1,221 civilian workers
Casualties and losses
First attempt:
2 destroyers sunk
340 killed
65 wounded
2 missing[2]
1 submarine sunk
Second attempt:
2 patrol boats wrecked
10 aircraft lost
21 aircraft destroyed
600 casualties[3]
52 killed
49 wounded
2 missing
12 aircraft lost[4]
1 scow sunk[5]
433 captured[6]
70 civilians killed
1,104 civilians interned, of whom 180 died in captivity[7]

The Battle of Wake Island was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on Wake Island. The assault began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor naval and air bases in Hawaii on the morning of 8 December 1941 (7 December in Hawaii), and ended on 23 December, with the surrender of American forces to the Empire of Japan. It was fought on and around the atoll formed by Wake Island and its minor islets of Peale and Wilkes Islands by the air, land, and naval forces of the Japanese Empire against those of the United States, with Marines playing a prominent role on both sides.

The battle started with a surprise bombing raid on December 8, 1941, within hours of Pearl Harbor, and the air raids continued almost every day for the duration of the battle. There were two amphibious assaults, one on December 11, 1941 (which was rebuffed) and another on December 23, that led to the Japanese capture of the atoll. In addition, there were several air battles above and around Wake and an encounter between two naval vessels. The U.S. lost control of the island and 12 fighter aircraft; in addition to the garrison being taken as prisoners of war, nearly 1200 civilian contractors were also captured by the Japanese. The Japanese lost about two dozen aircraft of different types, four surface vessels, and two submarines as part of the operation, in addition to at least 600 armed forces. It is typically noted that 98 civilian POWs captured in this battle were used for slave labor and then executed on Wake Island in October 1943. The other POWs were deported and sent to prisoner of war camps in Asia, with five executed on the sea voyage.

The island was held by the Japanese for the duration of the Pacific War theater of World War II; the remaining Japanese garrison on the island surrendered to a detachment of United States Marines on 4 September 1945, after the earlier surrender on 2 September 1945 on the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay to General Douglas MacArthur.[8]

  1. ^ Naval and air personnel not included.
  2. ^ Dull 2007, p. 24.
  3. ^ Dull 2007, p. 26.
  4. ^ Martin Gilbert, the Second World War (1989) p. 282
  5. ^ "US ships lost in the Pacific during World War II". USMM.org. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  6. ^ 20 later died in captivity
  7. ^ "The Defense of Wake". Ibiblio.org/.
  8. ^ "War in the Pacific NHP: Liberation - Guam Remembers". nps.gov. Archived from the original on 2012-12-17. Retrieved 2014-09-13.