Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Wake Island Defenders or what happened after Pearl Harbor" video.

  1. A small correction. The shore battery guns were 5 inch 51 caliber guns, usually noted as 5"/51 guns. That may be where the confusion of "5.5 inch" came from. The US never used a 5.5" gun. The 5"/51 guns wee the hardest hitting medium caliber guns in the navy. Even though they had been removed from the Texas, they were in excellent condition, as shown by the results of their shooting. What Marines needed was a battery of 5.25" dual purpose guns rather than the mixed battery of 5"51 and 3"/50 guns. The 5"/25 could have shot down the high flying Japanese bombers and still have sunk the two destroyers. Unfortunately, the serious preparations of the defense of Wake only began about six months before the attack so they had to use what was available.
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  2. What happened to any mention of Major James P.S. Devereux, the Marine commander of Wake? Cunningham only showed up 10 days before the invasion and had almost nothing to do with the defense plans. Devereux had drilled and exercised his men constantly since he and his detachment arrived on Wake in January, 1941. It was Cunningham that ordered the surrender against the advice of Devereux. The Marines were still fighting successfully on Wilkes Island and had almost ejected the Japanese from the island when the word came down of the surrender. Even though the final outcome was never in doubt, Marines do not surrender, and the order to do so came as a bitter blow to them. Later interviews with surviving Marines did not paint a picture of Cunningham as a respected commander.
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  3. There was no parade to rain on. Cunningham was the officer in charge, and Devereux did as he was commanded to do. What neither could know, because all the phone lines has been cut and radio transmissions were being jammed, was that Marines and civilian workers that had become infantry on Wilkes Island were doing much better than the apparent situation on Wake and Peale Islands. Cunningham had assumed that Wilkes had fallen since nothing had been heard from the island in almost 12 hours. Contrary to that assumption, Second Lieutenant Arthur A. Poindexter's men had not only stopped the Japanese advances, they were counterattacking toward the airfield. The Japanese were falling back in front of the counterattack when the word came of the surrender. That's why the Marines on Wilkes considered it a bitter blow. No Marine questioned Cunningham's order. They just didn't like it.
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