A brief history and timeline of the U.S.M.C.
2nd Marine Division
in the Pacific Theater of Operations during WWII
2nd Marine Division
in the Pacific Theater of Operations during WWII
The origins of this division lay in the activation of the 2d Marine Brigade as part of the Fleet Marine Force on July 1, 1936. A year later the brigade deployed to Shanghai, China, returning in 1938 to San Diego, California. It was in San Diego, California on February 1, 1941, that the unit was re-designated as the 2d Marine Division. Its component regiments, the 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 10th Marines, brought with them impressive histories of service in Vera Cruz (Mexico), World War I in France, and the Caribbean. In World War II, elements of the division served in Iceland, in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and on Samoa, then the full division in the Guadalcanal campaign.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it was elements of the "Silent Second" which were indisputably the first Americans to land on enemy soil during World War II. Just before dawn on August 7, 1942, a company from the division's Second Regiment splashed ashore onto the gray-white beaches of Florida Island in the Solomon's some 80 minutes before Guadalcanal was invaded. On August 8 a platoon of Second Division Marines met the enemy in the war's first American bayonet charge; and on that day the Division's Artillery fired the first offensive shells of the war.
The following is a list of the Pacific campaigns in which the 2nd Marine Division took part:
- The Battle of Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands campaign — 4 January to 8 February 1943.
- 2d Marines, reinforced: Guadalcanal-Tulagi landings, 7 to 9 August 1942; capture and defense of Guadalcanal, 10 August 1942 to 31 January 1943.
- 8th Marines, reinforced: capture and defense of Guadalcanal, 2 November 1942 to 8 February 1943.
- The Battle of Tarawa, in the Gilbert Islands campaign — 20 November to 4 December 1943.
- The Battle of Saipan, in the Mariana Islands campaign — 15 June to 24 July 1944.
- The Battle of Tinian, — 24 July to 10 August 1944.
- The Battle of Okinawa (floating Reserve) — 1 April to 10 April 1945. (Detachment of Headquarters and the 8th Marines, reinforced, from 1 to 30 June 1945).
The 2nd Marine Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, 20–24 November 1943.
Finally, the Second Marine Division (in which 60,000 Marines saw action during World War II) landed in Japan itself; and achieved the goal for which it had striven longer than any other American Division - Army or Marine. *
*Research sources: 2nd Marine Division Association website Wikipedia-2nd Marine Division U.S. Follow Me! The story of the 2nd Marine Division in WW II By Richard W. Johnston Copyright, 1948, by the 2nd Marine Division History Board Published by Random House of Canada, Ltd., 1948