d19b4a1b-4133-4b39-8b58-4d6943990ba4

Broberg, Howard_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

Howard Broberg was born on August 29th, 1919 in suburb of Minneapolis. Most of his schooling was done in Minneapolis. Howard was working for U.S. Steel at the time of the start of the war and most of his buddies were going in to the service. He had a high draft, and could have waited quite a while. His first choice was Army Air Corps, but was told it would be six months before he got in. Not wanting to wait, he signed with the Marine Corps. Howard did his boot camp in San Diego. He signed up to go to communications school there in San Diego for six to eight weeks. Howard recalls communications school as being “a lot of baloney that they never used.” When he got through with that, he went into the 2nd Marines, 10th Battalion, a howitzer outfit. Then they split that 2nd Division into five parts and they took one part out. He was shipped back East to Camp Lejeune, to form the 12th. They then went back to the West Coast and shipped out to New Zealand from San Diego. They went on the Liberty ship, run by Hollanders. Howard recalls they didn’t get enough to eat, no exercise and “poor eats”, including rotten mutton. They lost 14 to 16 pounds per man on that 16 day trip. In Bougainville Howard got hit once from an artillery shell. Not bad enough for him to leave and they stayed three months longer than they were supposed to. The artillery units stayed after the rest of the Marines were relieved. In Bougainville, the first time they went up to the front lines, the Japs had made a counter landing on them. They got right up to the field hospital and shot holes through the tent. Howard describes an explosion at the FDC, or fire direction center that sent men flying straight up into the air. As an observer, Howard and the other observers were up in the front with radio men and telephone men, but the radios didn’t work. They were old time Navy portable radios. They depended mostly on their telephone. But the Japs would sneak in behind and cut the line and when the men went to fix them, a lot of times the Japs were waiting for them. Howard tells a story of being sent alone to fix a cut wire and getting trapped at night, not able to move for fear of being shot. When he made it back the next day, the sergeant that sent him out alone was fired and Howard was put in charge of the section. They were supposed to have three men sent to fix the lines, one to repair and the other two to guard him. Arriving in Guam, Howard’s brigade went in on the third wave, which actually was the worst one because the Japs didn’t know for sure where they were going to land. They had the other brigade and ships on the other side of the island as decoys. They took Higgins Boats in and then transferred to amphibian tracks. The communications men carried almost 100 pounds per man because they had wire, DR-4, which with the reel was about 80 pounds. That was in addition to the other 50-60 pounds of other equipment. They had to lose a lot of the wire when they jumped off the amphibian tracks, or else they could drown. Joe Rosenthal, the photographer, landed in the same boat as Howard. Being attached to the 21st Marines, the first night on Guam was spent in their CP, where Howard and his men set up the switchboard. Howard took the first turn on the switchboard, and when he was being shot at by a sniper, ended up staying all night in fear of moving. Things stayed quiet then until the night of the bonzai attack. Howard recalls the Japs using pyrotechnics and the sky looking like the 4th of July. Howard convinced the officer that they needed to get the men, 20-30 of them, out of there as the Japs were shooting at them. He tells the detailed story of leaving the area through a dry riverbed. Howard was last to leave and got left behind and had to help the two wounded BAR men. He recalls fighting the Japs along the way with his bayonet and rifle. One Jap threw a grenade down near them and Howard was hit by a lot of shrapnel. Finally, some guys came to rescue them and take them to the medical outfit. Howard was put on the Solace, the medical ship, right before it left Guam. They were taken first to the Marshal Islands and then a Navy seaplane came and took them to Hawaii. Howard had a lot of wounds, one corpsman counted 300 holes from head to foot. Lucky for Howard, none were very large. This was the end of Howard’s active duty.

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

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Video

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 1:14:02 AM

Sunday, April 6, 2025 1:14:02 AM

Broberg, Howard_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

mp4

1093.3 MB

Historic

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