105th Infantry Regiment (United States)

The 105th Infantry Regiment earned its "baptism by fire" on Butaritari Island on 20 November 1943. Here, during the Battle of Makin, the 3rd Battalion (3-105) made an assault landing alongside the 165th Infantry Regiment. It formed a "Special Landings Group", which preceded the main landing craft in Amtracs and cleared the beaches for the subsequent landing waves. As the landing craft approached the beach, they began to receive small-arms and machine-gun fire from the island's defenders. The assault troops were also surprised to discover that even though they were approaching the beach at high tide as planned, a miscalculation of the lagoon's depth caused their small boats to go aground, forcing them to walk the final 250 yards (230 m) to the beach in waist-deep water. Equipment and weapons were lost or water-soaked, but only three men were killed approaching the beach, mainly because the defenders chose to make their final stand farther inland along the tank barriers. 3-105 fought with the 165th Infantry for the remainder of the battle, which lasted 4 days and cost the Americans 66 killed and 185 wounded. On 24 November 1943, the entire regiment left the atoll for Hawaii, where they arrived on 2 December 1943.

The Regiment left Hawaii on May 31 and landed on Saipan on 17 June 1944, where it fought with the rest of the 27th Division for the first time. Also fighting on Saipan were the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions. The 105th Regiment began the campaign by clearing the hilly and well fortified southern point of Saipan, which was later found to have been held by over 1,200 Japanese defenders.[3] Early on 18 June, the regiment assisted the 165th Infantry Regiment with clearing the island's southern airfield, Aslito Airfield, and took up defensive positions that night on the east of the field. On 19 June, 1-105 advanced on Nafutan Point under the command of LTC William J. O'Brien but became bogged down, and despite armored support and flanking maneuvers, the Japanese position was too strong. 1-105 was unable to breach the Japanese defenses at Nafutan point by 21 June, and were ordered to move north in order to press the advance, and 2-105 was slated with reducing the Nafutan position. At this point of the battle, the three American divisions moved north abreast of each other; the 2nd Marine Division advanced up the west coast, the 4th Marine Division advanced up the east coast, and the 27th Infantry Division advanced up the center of the island.[4] At Nafutan Point, the 1,200 remaining Japanese attacked the 600 men of 2-105, but they were defeated when 3-105 arrived to help, and Nafutan was finally declared secure on 27 June.[5] Meanwhile, on 23 June 1944, the units of the 27th Division advanced up what the soldiers called "Death Valley" and "Purple Heart Ridge" toward Mount Tapotchau. The enemy was dug into the caves along the cliffs, and units of the 27th moving through the valley, including the 105th Infantry Regiment, were subjected to deadly and accurate enemy fire. The soldiers were forced to advance through thick jungle at the opening of a plateau onto a flat plain where the Japanese held the high ground on both sides.[5] Elements of the 165th Infantry and 1-105 joined with elements of the 23rd Marine Regiment to capture the villages of Donnay and Hasigoru[5] from 26–27 June. This high ground, known as "Obie's Ridge," was held by the 105th against repeated Japanese counterattacks.

30 June was the beginning of the end of the Saipan battle. The Japanese began moving north toward Marpi Point, and this was to be their last stand. On 1 July, the 4th Marine Division advanced both north and east toward Marpi Point, the 2nd Marine Division marched up the west coast toward Tanapag, and the 27th Division, along with the 105th Regiment, continued to attack up the center of the island. 1-105 was occupying Obie's Ridge when it was ordered to move up to 3-105's position and link up with the left flank of the 165th Infantry, and the right flank of the 106th Infantry, however, this required crossing 1,700 yards of open terrain.[5] On 2 July, 1-105 marched at double time across the open ground and dug in at their objective. On 4 July, the 105th had secured Flores Point, and 2-105, which had been fighting at Nafutan Point, rejoined the regiment. The regiment attacked up the Tanapag Plain until they were roughly 1,200 yards south of Makunshka. This action on the Tanapag Plain has been studied by the United States Army Center of Military History and is well documented.[4] Here, 1-105 dug in on the east side of a railroad track that ran north–south about 150 yards west of the beach near the Tanapag plain.[5] 2-105 was dug in to the west of the railroad, but there was a considerable gap between the battalion, so LTC O'Brien concentrated his battalion's anti-tank weapons and machine-guns near the divide. During the evening and night of 6 July, the Japanese launched minor probing attacks against the 105th's lines to find weak points, and at 0445 on 7 July, they launched the largest Banzai charge of the war; it is estimated over 4,000 Japanese took part in the charge simultaneously. MAJ Edward McCarthy, then in command of 2-105 and one of the few officers of the regiment to survive the attack, described the scene as follows: "It reminded me of one of those old cattle-stampede scenes of the movies. The camera is in a hole in the ground and you see the herd coming and they leap up and over you and are gone. Only the Japs just kept coming and coming. I didn’t think they’d ever stop".[5] This charge hit the 105th directly and violently, and the two lead battalions were overrun. LTC O'Brien led the defense in the 1-105 area, with a pistol in each hand and even manning a nearby .50 Caliber machine-gun until he was killed. When his body was found, there were 30 dead Japanese around him, and he received a posthumous Medal of Honor. When the carnage of the final charge finally ended, 2,295 dead Japanese lay in front of the 105th's positions, and another 2,016 lay intermingled or in the rear of the 105th's positions for a total of 4,311 dead.[5] US casualties were also heavy, and 1-105 and 2-105 suffered 406 KIA and 512 WIA. In 1-105, Lieutenant John Mulhearn of B Co was the only surviving officer, and in 2-105, all the company commanders and the entire battalion staff were killed, but the battalion commander (MAJ McCarthy) survived. During the fighting on 7 July, Private Thomas Baker fought with the Japanese although seriously wounded early in the attack, he refused to be evacuated and continued to fight in the close-range battle until running out of ammunition. When a comrade was wounded while trying to carry him to safety, Baker insisted that he be left behind. At his request, his comrades left him propped against a tree and gave him a pistol, which had eight bullets remaining. When American forces retook the position, they found the pistol, then empty, and eight dead Japanese soldiers around Baker's body. PVT Baker received a posthumous Medal of Honor. CPT Ben L. Salomon was the 105th's regimental dentist officer but on Saipan he was quickly needed as a surgeon. Salomon's aid station was set up only 50 yards behind the forward foxhole line on 7 July. Fighting was heavy and the Japanese assault soon overran the perimeter, then the aid station. Salomon was able to kill the enemy that entered the hospital tent and ordered the wounded to be evacuated, while he stayed to cover their withdrawal. When an Army team returned to the site days later, Salomon's body was found slumped over a machine gun, with the bodies of 98 enemy troops piled up in front of his position. His body had 76 bullet wounds and many bayonet wounds, up to 24 of which may have been received while he was still alive. CPT Salomon eventually received the Medal of Honor in 2002, and it is believed that the long delay was due to discriminatory practices arising from Salomon's Jewish faith. The fighting on 7 July decimated the regiment, and the memory of that night would define the character of the survivors, and set forth a courageous tradition for the future. The badly mauled 105th continued operations on Saipan against an enemy that was all but used up, and the island was eventually declared secure on 9 July 1944.

Once the Battle of Saipan was completed, the 105th Infantry Regiment was assigned to garrison the island from 15–30 July. They then moved to Espiritu Santo for some much needed R&R on 4 September.[3] The regiment had slowly begun refilling its ranks with replacement officers and men, but were definitely still understrength and weary by the time they departed for Okinawa on 25 March 1945. 3-105 was a little better off than their two sister battalions, so they were selected to assault the island of Tsugen Shima. In this engagement, on 10 April 1945, the Japanese lost 243 men killed while thirty escaped, and the Americans lost fourteen dead.[6] These would be the opening shots of the 105th's involvement in Operation Iceberg. The 105th landed on Okinawa on 12 April, and moved to the south where they confronted the Shuri Line. The 27th Infantry Division comprised the XXIV Corps' western flank, and the 105th attacked the Japanese strongpoint at Kakazu Ridge, but the attack faltered. Here in southern Okinawa, the 105th was mired in mud, torrential rainfall, and static warfare reminiscent of the First World War. After pitched fighting across the Shuri Line, the exhausted 27th Infantry Division was relieved by the 1st Marine Division. According to one Marine veteran who relieved his Army compatriots; "Boy, they looked like hell coming off that line.[7]" After suffering heavy casualties at Okinawa, the beleaguered men of the 105th arrived in Japan on 12 September 1945 to serve a garrison role, and the regiment was inactivated on 12 December 1945 when it returned home to the United States.