The 1st Provisional Antiaircraft Artillery Group was a provisional unit that served as the headquarters for all

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

antiaircraft battalions that participated in the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...

. The group was formed on

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

Territory of Hawaii The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory ( Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory, excluding ...

in November 1944 under the command of the III Marine Amphibious Corps. For the Battle of Okinawa, the group was under the command of the 53d Antiaircraft Artillery Brigade of the Tenth United States Army and was responsible for air defense of the area surrounding

Yontan Yŏnt‘an County is a county in North Hwanghae province, North Korea. Name The name Yontan means "a fast stream like a swallow", which refers to the river that is fast that exists in the region. History The county was newly created in 1952 from M ...

& Kadena Airfields. Following the end of the war, the group returned to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and was decommissioned on December 5, 1945. To date, no other Marine Corps unit has carried the group's lineage and honors

History

Organization

The 1st Provisional Antiaircraft Artillery Group was commissioned on November 1, 1944, in

by the authority of

Fleet Marine Force, Pacific The United States Fleet Marine Force, Pacific (FMFPAC) is the largest maritime landing force in the world. Its units are spread across the Pacific Ocean and reports to the United States Pacific Command. It is headquartered at MCB Camp H. M ...

(FMFPAC), Special Order Number 75-44. It was formed as the antiaircraft headquarters for the

III Amphibious Corps III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) is a formation of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force of the United States Marine Corps. It is forward-deployed and able to rapidly conduct operations across the spectrum from humanitarian assistance and d ...

. On November 11 the group assumed tactical control of the 2d,

5th Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash tha ...

8th 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

10th 10 (ten) is the even natural number following 9 and preceding 11. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the most common system of denoting numbers in both spoken and written language. It is the first double-digit number. The rea ...

, and 16th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalions. The 10th AAA Battalion was detached from the group on November 25, 1944, when it was decommissioned by authority of FMFPAC, Special Order Number 104-44.

Training, embarkation, and movement west

Prior to the group forming, the

and

8th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion The 8th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (8th AAA Bn) was a United States Marine Corps antiaircraft unit that served during World War II. Formed in 1942 as the 8th Defense Battalion, its original mission was the air and coastal defense of advance ...

s had returned from deployments to Funafuti and

Apamama Abemama (Apamama) is an atoll, one of the Gilberts group in Kiribati, and is located southeast of Tarawa and just north of the Equator. Abemama has an area of and a population of 3,299 . The islets surround a deep lagoon. The eastern part of ...

and had been conducting extensive air defense training for most of 1944. Training for the group's battalions consisted of firing air defense artillery and automatic weapons at towed target sleeves, drones and waterborne targets, field artillery exercises, and training in

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

and radar countermeasures. In December 1944, the 2d and 8th Antiaircraft Battalions were tasked with temporarily augmenting antiaircraft defenses in forward areas prior to the group's next amphibious operation. The 5th Antiaircraft Battalion was sent to

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

while the 16th was sent to Tinian. On January 17, 1945, the group headquarters boarded the for transport to

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

arriving on January 19. On January 20, the group received FMFPAC Special Order Number 25-45 ordering movement to

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

. The group's equipment departed Pearl Harbor on January 28 on board the while the group's personnel departed a day later on the from

Honolulu Harbor Honolulu Harbor, also called ''Kulolia'' and ''Ke Awa O Kou'' and the Port of Honolulu , is the principal seaport of Honolulu and the State of Hawaii in the United States. From the harbor, the City & County of Honolulu was developed and urbanized ...

. The group's personnel arrived off the coast of

Eniwetok Atoll Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

on February 6 and they remained there until February 12. The convoy arrived at Saipan on February 16. On March 14, the group's headquarters began loading USS LST-641 in

Tanapag Harbor Tanapag Harbor () is the primary harbor of Saipan, and is located on the western side of the island in the city of Tanapag. It is separated from the Philippine Sea by a barrier reef, located about 3 km (2 miles) off the shore. This reef forms ...

Battle of Okinawa

For the Battle of Okinawa the 1st Provisional Antiaircraft Group was tasked with providing antiaircraft defenses for

Yontan Airfield Yontan Airfield (also known as Yomitan Auxiliary Airfield) is a former military airfield located near Yomitan Village on the west coast of Okinawa. It was closed in July 1996 and turned over to the Japanese government in December 2006. Today it i ...

and the III Marine Amphibious Corps beaches in the Yontan Area, Southern Okinawa. On D-Day, April 1, the assault echelons of the Group Headquarters and the 2d and 16th Antiaircraft Battalions were loaded onto seven Landing Ship, Tanks (LST). During the assault, the first antiaircraft artillery battalions ashore were initially placed under the tactical control of the division they were assigned to support. The assault echelon of the 2nd Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion was tasked with supporting the

6th Marine Division The 6th Marine Division was a United States Marine Corps World War II infantry division formed in September 1944. During the invasion of Okinawa it saw combat at Yae-Take and Sugar Loaf Hill and was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation. The 6 ...

while the assault echelon of the 16th was in direct support of the

1st Marine Division The 1st Marine Division (1st MARDIV) is a Marine division of the United States Marine Corps headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is the ground combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF). It is the ...

. The battalions were delayed coming ashore because the landing beaches were not good and the Marine Corps prioritized other assault units before them. Reconnaissance parties were finally able to get ashore on April 3 however the majority of personnel and equipment from both of these battalions did not start flowing ashore until April 8 with both battalions being fully operational by April 12. On April 20, operational and tactical control of the 1st Provisional AAA Group was transferred from III MAC to the 53rd AAA Brigade under Tenth Army AAA. The first echelon of the 8th AAA Battalion arrived on April 17 coming ashore at Nago on the neck of the Motobu Peninsula. The battalion completed offloading on April 20 and was fully operational capable y April 22. the 8th AAA Battalion was followed by the 5th AAA Battalion on May 5 which also established positions in the vicinity of Yontan and Kadena Airfields. On May 8, the 53rd AAA Brigade, higher headquarters for the group, issued an order that antiaircraft battalions were now expected to use only variable time fuses for 90mm antiaircraft ammunition. Some of the heaviest air raids of the battle occurred on the evening of 24-25 May during the

Giretsu Kuteitai was an airlifted special forces unit of the Imperial Japanese Army formed from Army paratroopers, in November 1944 as a last-ditch attempt to reduce and delay Allied bombing raids on the Japanese home islands. The ''Giretsu'' Special Forces uni ...

raid on Yontan Airfield. That evening, five

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

Mitsubishi Ki-21 The (Allied reporting name: "Sally" /"Gwen") was a Japanese heavy bomber during World War II. It began operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War participating in the Nomonhan Incident, and in the first stages of the Pacific War, including ...

( Allied reporting name "Sally") bombers headed for the Yontan-Kadena area. Four of these planes were shot down by the guns of the 1st Provisional AAA Group. One of the Japanese planes crash landed on Yontan Airfield and 10-12 Japanese commandos escaped. Before they were all killed, the commandoes were able to destroy or damage thirty eight aircraft. From April to July 1945 the Group was credited with destroying 31.5 Japanese aircraft, probably destroying 6 more and damaging 23.

Post war and decommissioning

On October 1, the 1st Provisional AAA Group was transferred under the command of the ''Commanding General, Service, Command, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific.'' On October 4, the group received FMFPac Special Order 334-5 authorizing the group and its subordinate battalions to return to the United States. On October 9, Typhoon Louise struck Okinawa causing extensive damage to deployed American Forces. There were three Marines from the Group that sustained minor injuries while the group and its battalions lost 50-75% of tents and buildings. The Group Headquarters began embarking on the USS Meriwether (APA-203) on October 22 and set sail the next day for the United States. The Group arrived in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

on November 8, 1945, and reported to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The 1st Provisional Antiaircraft Artillery Group as officially decommissioned on December 5, 1945, by the authority of Area Special Order Number 354-45.

Commanding Officers

The following officers served as Commanding Officer of the 1st Provisional Antiaircraft Group: *Colonel

Henry R. Paige Henry Reid Paige (March 30, 1904 – April 22, 1989) was a decorated officer of the United States Marine Corps with the rank of major general. He is most noted for his service as commanding officer of 7th Defense Battalion during Palau Islands Ca ...

(November 1, 1944 - December 6, 1944) *Colonel

Kenneth W. Benner Kenneth Wachter Benner (May 6, 1904 – September 10, 1975) was a decorated officer in the United States Marine Corps with the rank of Brigadier general. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he trained as Anti-Aircraft Artillery officer ...

(December 7, 1944 - August 30, 1945) *Lieutenant Colonel Charles T. Tingle (August 31, 1945 - October 21, 1945) *Major Walter L. Eddy Jr. (October 22, 1945 - December 5 1945)

Notable members

William J. Van Ryzin William John Van Ryzin (April 20, 1914 – July 1, 2002) was a highly decorated officer of the United States Marine Corps with the rank of Lieutenant general (United States), lieutenant general. He is most noted as Headquarters Marine Corps, Chie ...

- Group Executive Officer (November 22, 1944 - March 16, 1945)

Unit awards

A unit citation or commendation is an award bestowed upon an organization for the action cited. Members of the unit who participated in said actions are allowed to wear on their uniforms the awarded unit citation. The 1st Provisional Antiaircraft Artillery Group has been presented with the following awards:

Citations

References

Bibliography * Web * Part 2 {{US Marine Corps navbox Military units and formations established in 1944

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and me ...

Military units and formations of the United States Marine Corps in World War II Groups of the United States Marine Corps