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This Remembrance Profile was originally created by MGySgt Scott Welch - Deceased
Contact Info
Home Town Picher
Last Address Las Vegas, Nevada
Date of Passing Mar 17, 2005
Location of Interment Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery - Boulder City, Nevada
Funeral honors Las Vegas Navy Cross recipient and WWII vet Ralph Browner
By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
A Marine plays taps during a funeral Monday for Navy Cross recipient Ralph Browner in Boulder City.
Photo by Clint Karlsen.
A Marine salutes the family of Ralph Browner, from left, sons, David Browner and Gary Browner, their mother, Mary Browner, and their sister, Barbara Price.
Photo by Clint Karlsen.
Ralph Browner
80-year-old Marine died Thursday in Las Vegas
Sixty-one years ago, Marine Pfc. Ralph Browner volunteered to dig a foxhole on a beach in Saipan, where he single-handedly fought off dozens of Japanese soldiers using a .30-caliber machine gun, a carbine rifle and a bunch of grenades.
On Monday, inside a chapel at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, shots rang out from the rifles of seven Marines who gave a final salute to the 80-year-old World War II veteran and Navy Cross recipient, who died Thursday in Las Vegas.
He was a humble man, mourners said, who loved his family as well as his country and who never did anything without passion or purpose.
"My father represented love in everything he did," his daughter, Barbara Price, said.
She said it was fitting that her father was buried in Boulder City, where his father, Claney Browner, had worked building what is now Hoover Dam.
Ralph Browner's granddaughter, Amber Hardin, said her grandfather gave her courage to succeed against all odds.
"Any opposition in life that you overcome and you achieve, that's respect to Grandpa," Hardin said.
His son, Gary Browner of Wrightwood, Calif., said his dad was a hero to so many people, not just in the military but to young athletes he coached in Little League and football and students he talked to in schools.
"We'll never be able to fill his shoes, but we'll follow his path," he said.
David Browner, his son from Hesperia, Calif., said he bought him a Superman shirt for Christmas and told him, "You're my Dad. You're my hero. You're my Superman."
Thomas Richards, who as a Marine corporal was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism in Vietnam in 1969, said, "Ralph gave when he went to war, a long war, a brutal one. He performed valiantly and the Navy Cross came.
"So Ralph didn't stop serving his country. He didn't rest on his laurels. He came back, he raised a family, a loving family, and he continued to serve his country in so many, many ways the rest of his life," said Richards, a board member for the Legion of Valor, a congressionally chartered organization that Browner once served on as president.
After the funeral attended by about 40 family members, friends, Marines and members of the Marine Corps League of Las Vegas, Richards said it's tragic that Browner represented one of the last few Navy Cross recipients of World War II.
"They're going pretty fast," he said. "I personally don't think we spend enough time learning from them or honoring them for what they did for our country. That's really the most tragic thing is that we didn't do that; we didn't give them their due."
My platoon was on their way in on the first morning, shell were dropping pretty close to us and our platoon leader, a man named Anderson said, "you guys better get your heads down, if a shell hits it will take your heads off." We immediately all set down. The next thing I knew a shell hit the bow of our Higgins boat and blew the front off it.
This gave the survivors just enough time to drop their packs, rifles and helmets off and we were in the water. This happened about 1,000 yards of shore. I and two of my buddies tried to stay together and finally after what seemed like hours but was probably only about one hour, a Captain's gig came along side and picked us up.
He took the three of us in next to the pier and dropped us off. I had an aluminum handled knife and that was the only weapon we had as we started ashore. The Japs would open up on us occasionally and we would drop under the water and the Japs, thinking that they had gotten us, would fire at someone else coming up to the surface. We would rush forward as far as we could until the Japs opened up again.
We finally reached shore alongside a wrecked Amtrak and ran down the beach picking up weapons from dead Marines along the way, along with packs and ammo. The first night we spent beneath the coconut palm barricade with water coming up to our legs with the Japs up on top throwing down hand grenades and we throwing some back. If the Naval gunfire hadn't destroyed their communications they would have mounted a counterattack and destroyed us the first night, as there were less than one thousand Marines ashore the first day.
On the second morning, we finally got up over the seawall and started our offensive.
The 1st Battalion of the Second Marines, cut the island in two after crossing the runway under heavy machine gun fire. We would run from shell hole to shell hole as fast as we could with machine gun bullets flying around us. I got a bullet burn across my left knee and two in my pack on my trip across. They also killed the guy directly in front of me and wounded the one behind me.
After crossing the island, we reorganized and formed a defensive position for the night. We had some action that night, but not to bad. The next morning we started forward, killing Japs as we went. B Company was on the right flank next to the ocean, and A Company was next to the runway. That was when we ran up against the big Japanese bunker and the Japs stopped us there. Several Marines including Lt. Anderson dropped in to a slit trench and I found a position behind a coconut tree about three or four yards behind them. There was a machine gun firing at us at the base of the bunker so I started throwing hand grenades at it. It was difficult throwing from a prone position and I missed on several attempts. The Marines back behind me started throwing me theirs and I would have to dart out from behind my tree to get them. Anyway after throwing approximately ten or fifteen, I finally threw one through the opening and I guess I knocked out the Machine gun because it quit firing.
Then the "China Gal"1 pulled up along side me and asked where the Japs were. After telling them, they pulled forward about 20 yards and fired their cannon down the opening in to the bunker. Immediately after they fired, the Japs came boiling out, about fifteen of them and stared hacking at the tank with bayonets, rifles, and sabers. The tank stared going around in circles and running over the Japs. Between the tank and the Marines that could fire, we soon wiped out the Japs. I remember one Jap threw a land mine up on the back of the tank but it rolled back off, hit him in the chest, and blew him apart. I was firing at the Japs all the time and believe that I got some.
Ralph is the Marine in the foreground behind the palm tree. The Japs have just exited the bunker and are heading for China Gal to the left and out of the picture. At the time he was unaware of the presence of the cameraman, who was probably Norm Hatch. Sometime later in December '43 or January '44 this footage was shown in color to the Marines at Camp Tarawa in a film called, "72 Hours of Hell," where Ralph recognized himself.
In a couple of hours the Sixth Marines came up and relived us and our part in the campaign was over. The Japs mounted one last counter attack but it was beaten off by the Sixth and that was almost the end of the fierce action on Tarawa. Of course, there is much more to the story but not as interesting.
Semper Fi.
Ralph L. Browner, A/1/2
Ralph is the President of the California Chapter of the Second Marine Division Association.
Ralph was a machinegunner and on Saipan he was awarded the Navy Cross.
Thank you very much for contributing your story Ralph!
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.
