abf10a9c-2295-4c1f-aae1-46ef14838796

Friedman, Joseph_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

Joseph Friedman was born on June 28th 1923 in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of five, his family moved to the Bronx and from there to New Jersey in his early teens. Joseph joined the Marine Corps on September 3rd, 1942. He joined the Marine Corps for the strong discipline. Basic training was at Parris Island in South Carolina. Training lasted approximately eight weeks. Joseph found it difficult with the heat and the sand flies and the tough drill sergeants, however he appreciated the valuable discipline which helped him survive. After basic training, he came down with a fever and was in the hospital for five days and then went into a casualty company to be reassigned. He did odd jobs until he was reassigned to the 3rd Marine Division, 21st Regiment, which was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. They left Camp Lejeune and went to Camp Elliot in California. From there, Camp Pendleton and then left for the Pacific. They went directly to New Zealand aboard the Matsonia liner, Luraline, a former luxury liner. They packed the entire regiment aboard. In New Zealand, they were 60 miles from Auckland, in the area of Walkworth. While there, they furthered their extensive training for four or five months. In July, they left for Guadalcanal, with a one day stopover in New Mia, in the harbor of New Caledonia, arriving in the last week of July of 1943. The 3rd Marine Division used the island as a base of operations. There, they did a lot of jungle training. They went to Bougainville for about a month, experiencing mostly jungle combat. They arrived back in Guadalcanal about January 8th or 9th of 1944, took in more replacements and went into training for the Guam campaign. They left approximately May 15th of 1944 on an LST. They were 61 days aboard the LSTs, from Guadalcanal to Guam, with stopovers at Quadraline and Enewetak harbors. The 3rd Division was also was floating reserve for the Saipan campaign, in which they were not needed after all. Joseph recalls living conditions aboard the LST as horrible. They slept topside all the way, trying to avoid getting soaked when the heavy rain squalls came along. While aboard he was asked to operate a 50 caliber machine gun, which he did when the five Japanese torpedo bombers made a run at them. He helped knock down three of the five bombers. One bomber hit an LCI alongside them and 17 men were lost. Joseph helped pull the survivors aboard their own LST. One way to entertain themselves on the long trip was to play poker games. Joseph tells a story of playing topside and a big wind coming and blowing the money into the ocean. Joseph jumped in the ocean after the money and collected it until he got yelled out to come back aboard. In the holds of the LST were the amtraks and DUKW [pronounced ducks], fully loaded, which were the landing craft that would bring them to shore when they arrived in Guam. On the morning of landing in Guam, the vehicles were started up and the men got into them, while they were in the hold. After about 15-20 choking minutes, they opened the ramps and the vehicles were discharged. They were about a mile from shore. Joseph was in a DUKW with 12-15 other men. They circled around waiting for the pre-bombardment to finish. When they saw the signal flare, they could start in towards the beach. They headed in towards Asan beach, near the point. While coming in, Joseph noticed the DUKW had 105 millimeter shells aboard and he was worried about all the mortars landing near them. He got out and told the other men to get out and wade in. They started wading in and not long after, a mortar hit their DUKW and it exploded. They moved inland about 100 yards, with heavy fire around them. Josephs, specialty was that he was a weapons man, he knew 50 calibers, and was assistant gunner on a 37 millimeter anti-tank gun. They didn’t move any more until the next day. When they moved in the next day, Joseph tells of going on his own to the top of ridge and helping to retrieve wounded and bringing them down the cliffs on a cable. Joe Rosenthal, the photographer for AP, took photos of him doing that. Joseph recalls in detail, his part in the bonzai attack while he was part of the reinforce platoon on the right flank of Fonte Hill. The main attack started under a mortar barrage by the Japanese at approximately 4:30 and the attack came about 5:00 in the morning. He lay in the prone position with his M-1, firing furiously, clip after clip into the masses of troops 70-80 yards ahead of them, coming over the top of the ridge. The attack went well into daylight, around 8:30 in the morning. The next day they moved out early in the morning about 8:00 in what they called, what is known as “jumping off”. This is attacking to take up more land and territory. They went toward Agana, marched through this town which was leveled by naval gun fire and continued to work north through the island. That was their field of operations for the rest of the campaign. Immediately after the organized resistance and in the middle of August, they worked our way up into the north area of Guam, and started to go on combat patrols, from the end of August, all the way through to November. Every other day they rotated and went out on combat patrols. Joseph tells a few patrol stories, one of a Japanese soldier hiding in a hut who, upon the patrol coming along, tried to hang himself. Joseph cut him down and they took this man for interrogation. One of their duties was to also clear out and close up the caves with either flame throwers or sticks of TNT. The flame throwers killed any Japanese hiding in the caves and the TNT sealed up the entrances. At that time they had 22 months overseas. They sent home the men who were married and with children. Those who were single stayed and formed the cadre for the new replacements who were coming in from the States. They went back into training out on the rifle range, getting ready for Iwo Jima. Their unit marched from base camp in northern Guam, across the entire island, 17 miles overland to the beaches, just before Apra Harbor, where they dug in that evening, and then the next morning went right aboard the ship, a large transport APA, for the invasion of Iwo. When the units got ashore, they dug in on the first airfield, which was coming under intense mortar and artillery fire. On the morning of the 23rd, Joseph saw the flag being raised on Mt. Suribachi. When we saw that, they knew that Suribachi was secure and they were able to move around a lot easier. On the morning of the 27th, they were set to leave and go back to Guam, 150 Japanese came out of caves and attacked, the battle lasted 2-3 hours. Joseph left Guam on an aircraft carrier on April 13th. After the war, Joseph lived off his $20 stipend and rested a few months. After working with his dad in the furrier business, he went to school on the GI Bill to learn printing. He eventually got a job with The New York Times. He is now retired and living in Florida.

U.S. National Park Service, War in the Pacific National Historical Park

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War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Code: WAPA

Guam , Guam
War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Guam , Guam
Latitude: 13.3905000686646, Longitude: 144.654006958008

ICMS (Interior Collection Managment System) : WAPA-00246
NPS Museum Number Catalog : WAPA 4170

War in the Pacific Oral Histories

2025/03/07

T. Stell Newman Visitor Center, Collections room, Safe and Shelf SLF D-01

Public Can View

Rose Manibusan, Jennifer Craig

Organization: American Memorial Park
Role: Chief Interpretation
Address: Micro Beach Road, Garapan, Mp 96950
Email: wapa_interpretation@nps.gov

Sunday, April 6, 2025 1:02:12 AM

Sunday, April 6, 2025 1:02:12 AM

Friedman, Joseph_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

mp4

1988.3 MB

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