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SERVICE NUMBER:
818534
LAST KNOWN RANK:
Private First Class
Perry Allen was born in Rattlesnake, New Mexico, in 1927. He grew up on the Navajo reservation near Shiprock, with his parents Joseph and Katherine, and sister Irene. He took off from home not long after his sixteenth birthday, and was soon on his way to San Diego to become a Marine.
As a full-blooded Navajo, Allen was picked for communication school immediately after finishing boot training. At Camp Elliott, he and other young Native Americans entered the code talker program – speaking in code, but openly in their native Navajo language over radio and telephone, they were able to send and receive sensitive information much faster than conventional coded messages. The top-secret program was such a success that the Japanese were never able to interpret a single message sent between code talkers.
With his new skills fully mastered, Private Allen received orders to report to the First Battalion, 24th Marines. However, for reasons known only to the Corps, the young Navajo was not handed a radio, but boxes of ammunition. He would fight as a crew member for one of the company's light machine guns. (1)
Allen was promoted to Private First Class on November 11, 1944, and had his first taste of combat was on Namur, in the Marshall Islands, where his gun crew fought on February 1-2. Then it was back to Maui to re-train, and off to Saipan, where he landed on June 15.
The following month, Irene Allen received a telegram notifying her that Perry was missing in action. Frantically, she packed a bag and went to San Francisco to get more information. It wasn't until weeks after that the true story came out.
On July 6, 1944, Allen's machine gun squad had been positioning themselves to take out a group of Japanese soldiers who were hiding in a cave. Suddenly, from above, came a shower of hand grenades. Marines on a cliff behind them were lobbing the missiles at the enemy, but one threw without proper aim. The grenade bounced off a tree and exploded in the air, showering Allen's crew with pieces of shrapnel. Allen was hit in the left hand and another gunner, PFC Claude Chamberlain, was also wounded. Both were evacuated for treatment – but a clerical error resulted in Allen's listing as MIA, rather than WIA. This was reported up the chain until the telegram was sent, and was not corrected until the young Marine reported back for duty at Camp Maui, having spent a few weeks healing at a hospital on Kwajalein. (2)
PFC Allen went on to serve in the battle of Iwo Jima, and was training for the invasion of Japan in the spring of 1945 when he was transferred to Naval Hospital #128 for unknown reasons. When the war ended, he rejoined his company for the trip back to California, and was honorably discharged on October 25, 1945.
After the war, Perry Allen returned to Shiprock. He rose to prominence after the war despite a car accident in the late 1950s that left him confined to a wheelchair. Seven years spent as a PR representative for the Navajo (and the writing of several articles and pamphlets) led to his appointment as chief prosecutor for the Navajo Nation in 1969.
Allen took great pride in his service. In 1969, more than twenty-five years after he was wounded, he finally received the Purple Heart medal; thirty years later, he and his wife Marie designed a special flag for the Navajo veterans.
Navajo Times, September 25, 1969.
Navajo Times, September 25, 1969.
Perry Allen died in Fort Defiance, Arizona in 2003. He is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, Farmington, New Mexico.
NOTES:
(1) Why Allen was not assigned as a battalion code talker is unknown, though he may have simply been unable to code fast enough to qualify. The battalion's regular code talkers were PFCs Keith M. Little and Peter P. Sandoval, who joined in December as PFCs after much more intensive training at the Camp Pendleton signal school. Several post-war articles do mention that Allen was "originally slated to become a codetalker following his enlistment and schooling."
(2) Reported in the Navajo Times, September 25, 1969.
Inscription:
PFC US MARINE CORPS
WORLD WAR II
PURPLE HEART
Other Comments:
PFC ALLEN WAS AWARDED A CONGRESSIONAL SILVER MEDAL IN 2004
HE IS BURIED AT THE GREENLAWN CEMETERY IN FARMINGTON, N M
Marianas Operation /Operation Forager: Battle for Saipan
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
July / 1944
Description
The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June–9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito.
Bombardment of Saipan began on 13 June 1944. Fifteen battleships were involved, and 165,000 shells were fired. Seven modern fast battleships delivered twenty-four hundred 16 in (410 mm) shells, but to avoid potential minefields, fire was from a distance of 10,000 yd (9,100 m) or more, and crews were inexperienced in shore bombardment. The following day the eight older battleships and 11 cruisers under Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf replaced the fast battleships but were lacking in time and ammunition.
The landings began at 07:00 on 15 June 1944. More than 300 LVTs landed 8,000 Marines on the west coast of Saipan by about 09:00. Eleven fire support ships covered the Marine landings. The naval force consisted of the battleships Tennessee and California. The cruisers were Birmingham and Indianapolis. The destroyers were Norman Scott, Monssen, Colahan, Halsey Powell, Bailey, Robinson and Albert W. Grant. Careful Japanese artillery preparation — placing flags in the lagoon to indicate the range — allowed them to destroy about 20 amphibious tanks, and the Japanese strategically placed barbed wire, artillery, machine gun emplacements, and trenches to maximize the American casualties. However, by nightfall the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions had a beachhead about 6 mi (10 km) wide and 0.5 mi (1 km) deep. The Japanese counter-attacked at night but were repulsed with heavy losses. On 16 June, units of the U.S. Army's 27th Infantry Division landed and advanced on the airfield at Ås Lito (which is now the location of Saipan International Airport). Again the Japanese counter-attacked at night. On 18 June, Saito abandoned the airfield.
The invasion surprised the Japanese high command, which had been expecting an attack further south. Admiral Soemu Toyoda, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Navy, saw an opportunity to use the A-Go force to attack the U.S. Navy forces around Saipan. On 15 June, he gave the order to attack. But the resulting battle of the Philippine Sea was a disaster for the Imperial Japanese Navy, which lost three aircraft carriers and hundreds of planes. The garrisons of the Marianas would have no hope of resupply or reinforcement.
Without resupply, the battle on Saipan was hopeless for the defenders, but the Japanese were determined to fight to the last man. Saito organized his troops into a line anchored on Mount Tapotchau in the defensible mountainous terrain of central Saipan. The nicknames given by the Americans to the features of the battle — "Hell's Pocket", "Purple Heart Ridge" and "Death Valley" — indicate the severity of the fighting. The Japanese used the many caves in the volcanic landscape to delay the attackers, by hiding during the day and making sorties at night. The Americans gradually developed tactics for clearing the caves by using flamethrower teams supported by artillery and machine guns.
The operation was marred by inter-service controversy when Marine General Holland Smith, unsatisfied with the performance of the 27th Division, relieved its commander, Army Major General Ralph C. Smith. However, General Holland Smith had not inspected the terrain over which the 27th was to advance. Essentially, it was a valley surrounded by hills and cliffs under Japanese control. The 27th took heavy casualties and eventually, under a plan developed by General Ralph Smith and implemented after his relief, had one battalion hold the area while two other battalions successfully flanked the Japanese.
By 7 July, the Japanese had nowhere to retreat. Saito made plans for a final suicidal banzai charge. On the fate of the remaining civilians on the island, Saito said, "There is no longer any distinction between civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears than be captured." At dawn, with a group of 12 men carrying a great red flag in the lead, the remaining able-bodied troops — about 3,000 men — charged forward in the final attack. Amazingly, behind them came the wounded, with bandaged heads, crutches, and barely armed. The Japanese surged over the American front lines, engaging both army and Marine units. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th Infantry Regiment were almost destroyed, losing 650 killed and wounded. However, the fierce resistance of these two battalions, as well as that of Headquarters Company, 105th Infantry, and supply elements of 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Artillery Regiment resulted in over 4,300 Japanese killed. For their actions during the 15-hour Japanese attack, three men of the 105th Infantry were awarded the Medal of Honor — all posthumously. Numerous others fought the Japanese until they were overwhelmed by the largest Japanese Banzai attack in the Pacific War.
By 16:15 on 9 July, Admiral Turner announced that Saipan was officially secured. Saito — along with commanders Hirakushi and Igeta — committed suicide in a cave. Also committing suicide at the end of the battle was Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo — the naval commander who led the Japanese carriers at Pearl Harbor and Midway — who had been assigned to Saipan to direct the Japanese naval air forces based there.
In the end, almost the entire garrison of troops on the island — at least 30,000 — died. For the Americans, the victory was the most costly to date in the Pacific War. 2,949 Americans were killed and 10,464 wounded, out of 71,000 who landed. Hollywood actor Lee Marvin was among the many American wounded. He was serving with "I" Company, 24th Marine Regiment, when he was shot in the buttocks by Japanese machine gun fire during the assault on Mount Tapochau. He was awarded the Purple Heart and was given a medical discharge with the rank of Private First Class in 1945.
