Able Company at Anguar: A Unit Perspective from Bolt Action’s Campaign: Mariana & Palau Islands Book
By Tom Burgess
When Warlord expanded their Bolt Action campaigns in the Pacific to include Campaign: Mariana & Palau Islands I was ecstatic to see that they included coverage of the US Army in this campaign.
Though US Army Divisions serving in the Pacific far outnumbered the US Marine Divisions, addressing the US Army is always a second thought in Pacific wargaming if it gets any attention at all.
Kudos to Warlord for not leaving the US Army out on this book. One unit that I have always wanted to model, 2nd Platoon, Able Company, 1st Battalion, 322nd Infantry Regiment in the Battle, fought its first battle on Angular Island.
The book ends with a description, scenarios, and forces from the Battle of Anguar Island. I was honestly very surprised to see this solely US Army and relatively small battle included in this book.
I’m sure this battle would have been long forgotten if the War Department did not make this War Bond Drive about the battle.
The movie, with actual battle scenes, is a bit of a rarity for the military history researcher. The images, video, and narration add so much more to what you can read in the history and battle reports.
The island was only defended by the reinforced 1st Battalion, 59th Infantry Regiment, 14th Division commanded by Major Goto Ushio with just over 1400 soldiers. This small but experienced and well dug-in force was attacked by the two-thirds of US 81st Division. The Division committed is 321st and 322nd Infantry Regiment to take Anguar Island while its third regiment, the 323rd Infantry assaulted Ulihi Atoll on its own.
The 81st Division conducted its amphibious landing on Anguar on September 17th. The two regiments made unrelenting progress but against continuous opposition over every yard. By the 21st of September, the 81st Division declared that Anguar Island has been “secured.” Work at that point began on an airfield and the 321st Regiment disembarked from Anguar Island to Peleliu Island where US Marine losses had been horrendous. It was now left to the 322nd Regiment to eliminate Major Goto Ushio’s stronghold in the north of Anguar Island which he had withdrawn to for his command’s last stand.
Major Goto Ushio had chosen his final position well. The north of Anguar Island was dominated by Romoldo Hill which had a large crater or “bowl” on its southern approach. The whole area was riddled with caves. The phosphate Romoldo Hill peaks and slopes were steep and jagged. Mortars were infective due to the height of the ridges and crevices. Crew served weapons were just too difficult to employ on the rugged terrain that had to be battled as much as the Japanese.
Losses had already been heavy in the 322nd Infantry even before the assault on Romoldo Hill commenced. Able Company, 1st Battalion, 322nd Regiment hit the beach on September 17th with 168 men and six officers.
By October 10th and the eve of the Romoldo Hill assault, they were down to 70 men and three officers. Continuous fighting over 23 days had reduced the company strength by over 50%. The combination of losses and restrictive required that Able Company reorganize for its task.
The company disbanded its 3rd platoon and weapons platoon in order to bring 1st and 2nd platoons close to full strength. Though crew severed machinegun and mortars were left behind, the two platoons loaded up an all Browning Assault Rifles and Bazookas the could get their hands on.
So how would I model 2nd platoon, Able Co, 1st Bn, 322nd Infantry in the Bolt Action game for recreating the final assault on Anguar Island’s Romoldo Hill? I would limit the platoon leader to a Lieutenant. I’d require four to six squads at half strength. I’d remove the MMG and Medium Mortar but increase the Bazooka and Flamethrower allocations. There would be no guns, tanks, or transports able to operate on the hill. The narrow gorges and ravines and close proximity would make air support impossible, so only the only Forward Observer allowed should be for artillery.
The modified Able Company army selector would look like this:
Headquarters
1 Lieutenant – First or Second
0–1 Medic team
0–1 Forward Observer (Artillery)
Infantry
4-6 Infantry “half squads” Regular Infantry squad (late-war), or Veteran Infantry squad
0–4 Bazooka team
0–2 Flamethrower team
0–1 Sniper team
“Half-Squads” would be the minimum size squads from the army selector. The reason why Able Company should use more small squads rather than a couple of full squads is due to the rugged terrain and hidden enemy positions.
According to the battle account, Able company’s platoons would only move one half-squad at a time, while the rest of the platoon over-watched that small element’s move. This minimized how many men were exposed to hidden machinegun nests and snipers are any time. Having more smaller “half-squads” will also let Able Company have a higher number of BARs than it would have in other theatre selectors.
Despite the fact that Anguar Island was Able Company’s first action, it should be rated as Regular or Veteran. This is because the 81st Division had been in training for years before employed at Anguar Island. The 81st Division had been training non-stop since 1942. They were slated to go to North Africa, but that campaign ended before they shipped over. Then it was decided that they would be trained as an Amphibious Assault Division and sent to the Pacific.
So the Division trained on amphibious assaults in California, Hawaii, and then Guadalcanal. So “Regular” is easy to justify. Veteran though is plausible to if one considers they were Regular when they landed on Anguar but then became battle-hardened and more experienced over weeks of continual intense combat with hard l lessons learned coming from unfortunately from their 50% casualty rate.
So how to model Able Company? Unfortunately miniature companies have not produced many US Army options specifically for the Pacific Theater so far save Warlord’s excellent Merrill Marauders. Those are fantastic figures but don’t really portray the 81st Division at Anguar very well.
Your best option right now is to use the Warlord’s 28mm plastic USMC set. You will need to swap out the Marine heads with helmet covers for US Army plain helmets. If you add backpacks, use the Army ones vice the Marine one. Both the Army and Marines wore Herring Bone Twill (HBT) uniforms in the Pacific. The difference is that the Marines had only one breast pocket on theirs while Army soldiers had both breast pockets. Much of the time arms and weapons will conceal the infantry model’s chest anyway. When they do not, a little bit of greenstuff could be applied to build up the second pocket.
When it comes to helmets, we have a unique modeling option for the 81st Division that is easy to do and very distinctive. The 81st Division was paired together with the 1st Marine Division in the 3rd Amphibious Corps.
The Marines had their camouflage helmet covers, but the 81st was one of the only US Army units that painted camouflage patterns on their helmets. The soldiers of the 81st Division painted simple broad swathes and patches of a sand color over their standard helmet olive drab base coat. This will make any 81st Division unit, like Able Company, 1st Battalion, 322nd Regiment, really stand out on the table.
Hopefully, Warlord or some other manufacture will eventually produce 28mm US Army infantry figures, especially for the Pacific. Now that this Campaign: Mariana & Palau Islands book is out, I may not be able to wait much longer. I may have to convert Warlord Marines as detailed above.
So why am I so interested in recreating 2nd Platoon, Able Company, 1st Battalion, 322nd Infantry Regiment, 81st Division in the Bolt Action game? It is because 2nd Paltoon was led in the battle on Anguar Island by Lieutenant Raymond Trowbridge, my maternal grandfather.