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Ordered to take a hill in the vicinity of Okinawa’s Tombstone Ridge, Frank Noelle’s company ran into an ambush. “About halfway up the hill all hell broke loose,“ said Noelle. “Artillery and machine guns opened up on us from all directions. It was unbelievable how they could hide so much stuff underground.“ After taking heavy casualties, Noelle’s badly-outgunned company was ordered to pull back. “I was running a 30-caliber machine gun at the time. We were supposed to hold the Japs long enough for the company to evacuate the wounded. Then, after everyone had been evacuated, we dismantled our guns so they couldn’t be used against us and got out ourselves.“ For volunteering to stay behind and help cover the evacuation, Cpl. Frank Noelle received a Bronze Star.
Of the approximately 200 men who participated in the assault, 90 either were killed or wounded. The man running the machine gun to the right of Noelle’s position was killed; the one to the left was wounded. The officer in charge of the company also was killed.
Entrenched in caves, the Japanese defenders were determined to fight to the death. “We took very few prisoners,“ recalled Noelle. “The Japs would usually kill themselves before being captured.”
But sometimes they slipped away, leaving supplies and equipment behind. During a lull in the fighting, Noelle and a few buddies stumbled upon a case of Japanese whiskey in an abandoned cave. “But what to do? We had been warned not to eat or drink anything we found on the island because it could be poisoned,“ he said. “Then somebody got the idea to draw cards and whoever got a certain card would be the guinea pig and take the first drink. But by the time a deck of cards was found, everybody was drinking the stuff.“ For several days after the April 10 attack, the 96th Infantry was unable to move forward. The next major offensive started on April 19. The assault began with a massive bombardment that was said to have been the greatest artillery barrage of the Pacific war. Enemy positions were blasted by naval guns, land-based artillery, bombs and flaming napalm from carrier-based aircraft. Following the bombardment, three U.S. divisions attacked en masse.
But the hope that the enemy either had been blown to pieces or stunned to the point they would be unable to resist, was dashed when thousands of fanatical defenders emerged from their hiding places and began a counterattack. Once more the American offensive was turned back. Bitter fighting continued over the next five days. On April 23, the GIs managed to batter their way through the Machinato Line. This caused the enemy to withdraw to stronger defensive positions near the city of Shuri.
By this time Cpl. Noelle was out of action. “We were engaged with the enemy when a shell landed nearby,” he said. “I never knew what hit me. When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed on Saipan. A soldier who witnessed the incident said the concussion threw me about 10 feet. I sustained a partial hearing loss and a shoulder injury which has bothered me ever since.”
By the time Noelle was released from the hospital, the war in Europe was over and the fighting on Okinawa was winding down. Accompanying his citation for the Bronze Star was another stripe to sew on his uniform. Frank Noelle’s rank was now “Sergeant.“ Sergeant Noelle’s next assignment was the 120th Replacement Battalion motor pool on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. “My new responsibilities included repairing busted jeeps and keeping the local hula girls in line.
For a brief moment, I considered giving up my bachelorhood for a pretty Hawaiian girl, but then I decided to return to Nebraska and make a million dollars farming.“ Fighting on Okinawa continued for another two months. The most effective weapon used in the cave fighting proved to be tank-mounted flamethrowers. Flame throwing tanks could squirt a hellish mixture of napalm and gasoline up to 200 yards.
Where the tanks couldn’t reach, infantry men would dump barrels of gasoline into cave openings and then ignite it with phosphorus grenades or tracer bullets. The resulting explosion would often collapse the opening and seal the enemy inside their burning tomb.
News of Germany’s surrender arrived during a lull in the fighting on May 8, 1945. At exactly 12 noon that day, the victory in Europe was celebrated by directing one round from every artillery piece ashore and from every available naval gun at enemy positions along the Shuri Line.
By V-E Day the Japanese were in a sorry state and an American victory seemed assured. Only a fraction of the Okinawa garrison remained in fighting condition.
Ammunition was practically exhausted and there was a critical shortage of food. Still, the Japanese fought desperately, inflicting casualties on the American invaders until the very end, and then often choosing suicide over surrender.
On the morning of June 22, 1945, the commander of the Japanese garrison committed hari-kiri on a cliff overlooking the Pacific. The last major battle of World War II was over.
The fighting on Okinawa cost the Japanese more than 100,000 killed. Of this number approximately half died in suicide operations. American losses totaled more than 12,500 killed and nearly 37,000 wounded.
“There have been many nights when I wake up in a sweat reliving the same battle – and it’s been 60 years,” said Frank Noelle in a 2005 interview with this writer. “If everyone could see the war like we saw it, there wouldn’t be any more war.“ Frank Noelle was born in 1923, two weeks after his parents arrived from Germany.
He and his brother Henry farmed south of Laurel for a number of years. Neither one ever married. Frank died in 2008 at the age of 84. He is buried in the St. Frances Catholic Cemetery in Randolph with his parents and several siblings.
