Code Talkers

By: Jeff Brunozzi, Zach Knittle, Virginia LaMacchia, Brooke

Reifendifer, and Lucas Lurowist

Chap.7: Philip Johnston’s Idea

Philip Johnston had an idea to use Navajo speakers to develop a code that they could teach to other “Code Talkers” who would then be sent wherever they were needed.

Navajo is a unwritten language that make sending messages simple.

Each code talker would have to commit the entire code to memory.

Chap.7 cont.

The 29 Navajo recruits developed a code that helped America win the war in the Pacific.

Chap. 8: Who Were The Navajo Code Talkers?

The Navajo recruits, however, were unlike their counterparts. They were already used to deprivation. Many lived rural log cabins and could survive for days at a time without food. It was nearly impossible for the drill sergeants to “get to” the Navajos.

By October of 1942, 27 of the original code talkers were sent to Guadalcanal to participate in a big Allied offensive. Two others stayed at Camp Elliott to teach the next recruits.

Chap.8 cont.

The Navajos were more efficient and would soon be indispensable. And they were among the first top land on the beach when the U.S. Marines arrived at Saipan, in 1944.

Chap.9:War in the PacificSaipan was a much-needed base of operations for

the Allies. The island would be used for initial bomb run over Tokyo’s industries.

On 15 June 1944, the 2nd and 4th U.S. Marine Divisions would descend on the island of Saipan.

One month before US invasion forces arrived at their Pacific Island target of Saipan, the American Military experienced another disaster at Pearl Harbor. The catastrophe occurred on May 21, 1944 at West Loch. More than 500 men were killed or wounded. Critical supplies for the Saipan Invasion went up in smoke.

Chap. 10 – The Battle For Saipan

• Japanese forces held the strategically significant island on 15 June 1944 when America launched its amphibious attack.

• Tinian Island, the starting point of Enola Gay’s atomic bomb run to Hiroshima, is about three miles south of Saipan. It would also be the site of fierce battles during the summer of 1944.

• Fighting on Saipan was savage, as it had been on Tarawa and the Marshall Islands. Enemy guns were trained on the beaches as the first wave of Marines started to hit the Saipan beach took cover behind a sand dune. They had to wait for their attack orders until the next three waves of Marines had arrived.

Chap. 10 – Continued

• Crawling under an avalanche of bullets, they tried to take their assigned positions. Sailors on the USS Monterey, meanwhile, made sure they had enough food to get them through the long hours ahead.

• Army reinforcements for the 27th Division disembarked from LSTs and moved across the coral reef toward Saipan’s beach. Those that made it ashore were able to advance behind their tanks. They took refuge in bunkers.

Chap. 11 – Code Talkers Avoid Disaster

• With Army Support, the Marines were able to take over key enemy fortifications. Using a mountain gun they captured for the Japanese, Marines turned the gun on Garapan, the administrative center of the island.

• The Navajos were able to prevent disaster at key moments during the Saipan battles.

• The Marines set up refugee camps, away from the fighting, for people whose homes were in the battle areas. The Corps itself suffered heavy casualties. Some soldiers were buried at sea. Others including an unknown Marine, were buried on the island.

Chap. 11 - continued

• A navy chaplain held a Mass for some of the 2,000 Marines who fell during the initial landings.

• Nothing, however, could have prepared the Americans for the biggest banzai charge of the war which took place during the early morning of July 7. Realizing they were going to lose Saipan, huge numbers of Japanese committed mass suicide.

Chap. 12 – Banzai Charge

• General Holland Smith, one of the most famous Marines of World War II, predicted the attack was coming by the Japenese.

• Some of the Japanese soldiers were only armed with rocks or a knife mounted on a pole. Others tried, but failed to make it to Japanese ships in Saipan’s harbor. Their death count was 4,311 men. The vast majority of those casualties died in the banzai charge.

Chap. 14-Saipan “Secured”

• Japanese known dead: 23,811

• Japanese dead in caves: “Uncounted thousands”

• Americans wounded in action: 13,061

• Americans killed: 3,225

• Americans secure Saipan.

Chap.15 and 16

• In July of 2001,the President and the Congress of the United States honored the 29 code creators. Only five were still alive. Four went to the White House; the other was represented by his son. Those five received gold Congressional Medal of Honor. President Bush also declared November 2001 as National American Indian Heritage Month.

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