Richard Brault, a Hopkinton veteran who served on Okinawa was one of eight members of his family, including himself, six brothers and one sister, who served in the military in World War II. After his junior year of high school, Richard joined the US Marine Corps. It was January 1, 1944.

 

“I went in to my father’s office in New Bedford. He was a surgeon and he had to sign the papers for me because I was leaving high school and going into the Marine Corps,” said Brault.

 

Brault trained at Parris Island and Camp Lejeune before assignment to the Pacific Theater. Many Marines, including Richard, were transferred from the 4th Marine Division to the 2nd Marine Division which was badly depleted in the Battle of Tarawa, where he served with the 10th Marine (Artillery) Regiment. Richard was in the 2nd Battalion, Company D which manned 75mm pack howitzers. Combat in the Marianas Campaign in mid-1944 preceded deployment to Okinawa.

 

The Operation Iceberg L-Day strategy was for the 2nd Marine Division to be a diversionary feint on the southeast coast of Okinawa, near the Chinen peninsula. Assaulting the beach was done with Landing Ship Tanks (LST) and APAs including the USS Hinsdale (APA-120). “But the successful deception came at considerable cost. Japanese kamikazes, convinced that this was the main landing, struck the small force that same morning, seriously damaging the troopship Hinsdale and LST 844” (“The Final Campaign”). But despite being hit, the Hinsdale was able to put the marines ashore. The 2nd Marine Division was sent to Saipan to wait in area reserve. Throughout April, kamikaze raids around Okinawa were intense. There was a desperate need for radar search facilities and an adequate fighter director station. Two small islands, Iheya Shima and Aguni Shima, were designated for these installations. The 8th Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division was organized to take over the two islands. Richard Brault’s 10th Marine Artillery Regiment was part of the landing force. 3 June 1945 was the beginning of the first beach assault. Ultimately the installations were helpful in intercepting kamikazes.

 

On 16 June 1945, the 8th Regiment, again with Richard’s 10th Artillery, landed on Oroko Peninsula south of Naha in relief of weary troops. Clean up fighting around Mezado Ridge and the town of Makabe was the objective.

 

Brault says one of his most vivid memories of Okinawa was after nine days of not washing or cleaning, or brushing his teeth, was being covered with lice.

 

“I was exhausted,” said Brault. “This is firing your pack howitzers day and night, and you have flares being sent up constantly to prevent any infiltrators coming into the gun section - we had the machine gun sections on both sides of us. We had a mortar section on both sides of us – to protect us in the middle with our pack howitzers. It was a horrible noise, the twirling of a shell through the air; you never forget it.”

 

“Another vivid memory that I have is when you are setting your gun section up in a sugar cane field and you’re digging your trench out, and you are seeing dead Japanese soldiers around the area – they’d look with so many maggots like they were moving. A body does that you know. It’s creepy. It’s creepy at night at dusk,” said Brault. “And this happens in all the areas that the Marines were in. There were some very serious battles. You had one dead Jap here and a dead Marine here – that’s how close the combat was.”

 

On 18 June 1945, Lt. General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. was killed by artillery shrapnel. Brault was within a few hundred feet of Buckner when he was killed.  Bucker was the highest ranking officer to die in World War II. Buckner was posthumously promoted to the rank of a full four-star general on 19 July 1954 by a Special Act of Congress (“Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr.”).

 

Ibaru Ridge was where the next fighting took place, just before Okinawa was declared secure. The 8th Marines of the 2nd Division, with the 10th Artillery Regiment, carried out the last major land drive of World War II. On 7 August 1942, the 2nd Marine Division were the first American troops to land on enemy-held soil and engage the Japanese.