Here is another article from the Scrapbook of Dorothy Uren Hazleton
Oroville Mercury Register September-March 1944
Don Casagrande Writes Vivid Account of Marines at Palau
Grounded on a coral reef in the Pacific during the early moments
of the Palau Islands invasion, Marine Cpl. Don R. Casagrande of
Oroville, lived through a nightmare of suspense and dread as Japanese
mortar shells dropped closer and closer to his stranded boat. Casagrande,
who was attached to the first division going in, tells a graphic
story of moments preceding the invasion and the battle itself contained
in a letter sent to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Casagrande of
Robinson street. “All the guys feel pretty damn good before the
boats come up to take them into the beach,” he writes. “But when
they get into the boats they all look at each other and say ‘goodbye.’
They don’t know whether they are going to get killed or not. Time
For Jokes Gone “We all joked while we were going in but when we
got close to the island everybody just sat still and looked at the
beach. There were Japanese mortars all over the beach. First they
would start at the end of the island and then they would start coming
right down the island beach. They did that all day. “The boat we
came in on got stuck on a coral reef and the Japanese were getting
their range on us. There were five mortars that hit within 10 and
five feet of our boat and we were just about ready to start swimming
in. Every time a boat came by we’d holler at them to stop and get
us out of there. Back would come the answer that they were taking
wounded men back or that they were going after more ammunition.
They couldn’t stop. Out And In Again “Finally a boat stopped and
we got into it. They took us back out and then we got into another
boat and started in again. In our rush to get off the reef, we had
left our radios in the boat. Well, the officer sent us back to get
them and boy, did we really get them quick. One guy would get in
the other boat and just toss the radios over and where they lit
nobody gave a damn. “About three of them and a roll of wire I was
to carry went into the ocean. Many Didn’t Make It “Soon as we got
ashore we had to run about 30 or 40 yards up so the mortar shells
wouldn’t hit us. Then we dug in, and I really mean dug in. I think
my fox hole was nearly six feet deep “There were about 75 or 85
landing barges that made the first wave and 40 of them were blown
out of the water. It took all day just to get the assault troops
on the beach. The Japanese were really laying the mortars in and
were hitting their targets pretty well. “I Saw A Lot Of Dead” “All
day on the beach the snipers were firing and they were really taking
a lot of our men. There was one of our guys that wanted to go out
and get one of the snipers so he did. He hadn’t been out ten minutes
when he had a bullet in his head. “I saw a lot of dead marines.
I saw one of our own men and he looked awful. He was lying right
by his radio and had a ……I think a mortar must have hit right in
his lap.” In the action that continued, Casagrande was wounded.
He was hit in the back by shrapnel as he was attempting to make
a run across the air field. With him was a companion of whom Casagrande
wrote. “He was my buddy. We had stayed in the same fox hole and
had eaten chow together, at least what chow there was to eat. Casagrande
Wounded “We got half way across the air field and heard some mortars
dropping…one of our planes had been forced down and a little way
away from the plane, four of our tanks had been knocked out. “Then
a mortar dropped right behind us. My buddy fell and just as I turned
around something hit me and I fell. I tried to get up but couldn’t
so I started crawling. I got about five feet and another mortar
dropped but it missed us. I turned around and started after my buddy.
When I got to him I saw that one of his legs was blown nearly off.
“There was a SeaBee with us and he hadn’t been hit. He ran after
a corpsman and in about five minutes we were in a first aid station
getting the best of care. They had wrapped my buddy’s leg with a
rifle for a splint. I saw him on the way over to the hospital ship
and he told me they had cut his leg off. There wasn’t anything I
could say.’ Brother Coming Along Casagrande concludes his letter
with a little ribbing of his brother, Sgt. Gene Casagrande of the
61st marine air group in the Emirau area. “I hear Gene
is up there now,” he writes. “You don’t have to worry about him.
We killed all the Japanese so that it would be safe for the pilots
to come in.”
Stu’s Notes: Well, my whole family spent 4 days at Fort Bragg
we had a great time. Debbie, my daughter who wears combat boots,
came over. Soon she and other Oroville National Guard will go to
Iraq. Now they are at Camp Roberts in training. Then Indiana, then
Iraq. We don’t want them to go but they are Soldiers and that is
what they do. I wrote a little before about the Casagrande Brother’s.
I wonder what happened to them. Google says there were 1,600 Americans
killed on Palau and 8,000 wounded, 11,000 Japanese died.