Wake Atoll

Wake Atoll

Wake Atoll that consists of three main islands: Wake, Peale and ?Wilkes

Wake Island
Japan launched air raids on the island on December 7, 1941. Despite a heroic defense, the island fell to troops of the Japanese Special Landing Force on December 23, 1941.

American Surrender
Japanese forces depart Kwajalien for Wake on December 8, 1941. They attempt to land on December 11th, but are repulsed. In the early hours of December 23, 1941 they land again. After a short battle, captured 1,603 men with the fall of the island garrison.1 Among those were 1,150 civilian contractors employed with Morrison-Knudsen Company

Missions Against Wake
December 8, 1941 - August 6, 1945

American Strikes on the Island
The first Pacific B-24 mission flown by four planes, against the island on June 26, 1943. Yorktown carrier planes flies attacked Wake with a devastating raid of 5 October 1943. Admiral Sakaibara saw this operation as an indication that an invasion was imminent and ordered the execution of the 98 Americans "to eliminate any threat they might pose".

Today
Some World War II facilities and wreckage remain on the islands.

Wake Island Airfield
Runs the length of the island, built by civilian contractors. Occupied by the Japanese until the end of the war.

"98" Rock
The "98 rock", a large piece of coral standing in the lagoon inscribed "98/U.S./P.W/5-10-43", a message carved by one of the 98 POW's later executed on Wake Island.

Command Posts and Fortifications
Other significant remains include USMC command post and hospital bunkers, and the Japanese command post bunker.

Japanese Pillbox
Numerous Japanese pillboxes, fighting positions, tank traps and aircraft revetments remain on the island. Photo by Kirby Crawford 1968.

Peale Island
Smaller island located to the north of Wake Island. Prewar, this island had the terminal and seaplane area for Pan American flyingboats. Also, priort to the start of the war, the US Navy began construction of a Naval Air Station, that was never completed.

Weeping Chemical Weapons
There is evidence of Japanese chemical weapon stocks on Wake Island during World War II. It is also possible that the US had stocks of CW on Wake prior to the war although no records support this.

A Mysterious Irritant Forced Evacuation of Island in Pacific
New York Times, July 4, 1969: "In July of 1969 'Japanese WWII' canisters began leaking gas, reportedly containing chloropicrin. Several members of the US Coast Guard station there were sickened by the gas and the area was evacuated."

Japanese Eight Inch Artillery

Kirby Crawford 1967

Wartime History
Emplaced by the Japanese on the northern coast of Peale Island.

Myth of Singapore Gun
It is often reported that this was a British made gun, captured by the Japanese in Singapore and relocated to Wake Island. This is not true. See Dirk H.R. Spennemann 8-inch costal defense guns in Micronesia to learn more about this history: "As so often in Micronesia, the mythology about the 'Singapore'-guns also engulfed the 8-inch guns. As the guns on Eneen-Kio were identified by aircraft reconnaissance as British technology, wartime assessments first feared and then believed such guns might have been transplanted from Singapore (OPNAV 1945a: 54). The same is purported by Cohen's book on Wake Island (Cohen 1982:103), where he also confuses them with 7-inch guns. In the same volume the same guns are reported to have come from HongKong (Cohen 1983:95). The reality is that the guns came from obsolete Japanese naval vessels, which had been purchased from the U.K. and Italy in the years before World War I"