Battle of Wake Island

Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II

A destroyed Japanese patrol boat (#33) on Wake.

Date	8–23 December 1941
Location	Wake Island, U.S. territory
Result	Japanese victory

Belligerents

Empire of Japan

United States

Commanders and leaders

Shigeyoshi Inoue
Sadamichi Kajioka
Shigematsu Sakaibara
Eiji Gotō
Tamon Yamaguchi

Winfield S. Cunningham (POW)
James P.S. Devereux (POW)
Paul A. Putnam (POW)
Henry T. Elrod †

Strength

First Attempt (11 December):
3 light cruisers
6 destroyers
2 patrol boats
2 troop transports
Reinforcements arriving for Second Attempt (23 December):
2 aircraft carriers
2 heavy cruisers
2 destroyers
2,500 infantry

449 USMC personnel consisting of:

399 infantry of the 1st Marine Defense Battalion
50 det. VMF-211

6 coastal artillery pieces
12 aircraft
12 anti-aircraft guns
68 U.S. Navy personnel
5 U.S. Army personnel

Casualties and losses

First attempt:
1 light cruiser heavily damaged
2 destroyers sunk
325 killed
Second attempt:
820 killed
333 wounded
2 transports sunk
2 patrol boats wrecked
7–8 aircraft shot down
20 aircraft damaged

52 killed
49 wounded
2 missing
12 aircraft lost
433 captured

70 civilians killed
1,104 civilians interned, of whom 180 died in captivity

449 USMC personnel consisting of:

The Battle of Wake Island began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor and ended on 23 December 1941, with the surrender of the American forces to the Empire of Japan. It was fought on and around the atoll formed by Wake Island and its islets of Peale and Wilkes Islands by the air, land, and naval forces of the Empire of Japan against those of the U.S., with Marines playing a prominent role on both sides.

The island was held by the Japanese for the duration of the Pacific War; the remaining Japanese garrison on the island surrendered to a detachment of United States Marines on 4 September 1945.

In January 1941, the United States Navy constructed a military base on the atoll. On 19 August, the first permanent military garrison, understrength elements of the 1st Marine Defense Battalion, totaling 450 officers and men, were stationed on the island, under Major James P.S. Devereux. The defense battalion was supplemented by Marine Corps fighter squadron VMF-211, consisting of 12 F4F-3 Wildcat fighters, commanded by Major Paul A. Putnam. Also present on the island were 68 U.S. Navy personnel and about 1,221 civilian workers for the Morrison-Knudsen Civil Engineering Company. Forty-five Chamorro men were employed by Pan American Airways at the company's facilities in Wake Island, one of the stops on the Pan Am Clipper trans-Pacific air service initiated in 1935.

The Marines were armed with six 5-inch (130 mm)/51 cal pieces, originating from the battleship USS Texas; twelve 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal anti-aircraft guns (with only a single working anti-aircraft director among them); eighteen .50 in (12.7 mm) Browning heavy machine guns; and thirty .30 in (7.62 mm) heavy, medium and light water- and air-cooled machine guns.

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