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Gents,

U.S. Marines Archives & Special Collections sent me documents concerning 25th Regiment, 4th Marine Division on Iwo Jima from late February to March 6, 1945. This was in reply to my request for information about a distant relative, Pfc. Harris W. Steele, who was killed in action on Iwo on 3/6/45. I in the process of gathering information to write an article about Steele.

The combat report contains some unfamiliar abbreviations. Perhaps some of you may know Marine "shorthand" sufficient to help decipher these entries?

The first unfamiliar abbreviation is LT #1, LT #2, and LT #3. I have a hunch LT stands for "battalion," so that #1 would be the first battalion in a regiment, and so on. Here's an example of how the abbreviation is used in the papers: "At 0930, Co. "C" was detached from LT #3, CT #24 and at 1030 returned to the reserve area and reoccupied its former postions that it had occupied prior to being detached. At 1030, LT #1, CT #25 was detached from CT #24 and reverted to CT #25. [I figured out that CT stands for "Combat Team"]

The second abbreviation is contained on a "USMC Casualty Report" form. Nature of Wound is noted as "WFS, Neck." What is WFS?

Finally, there is an asterisk by the Nature of Wound entry, noting that "FrCertDeath rec'd fr BurMed&Sur Navy Dept." What is "BurMed&Sur"?

As best I can tell, Steele was killed on the night of March 6/7 when a large contingent of Japanese infiltrated into the position of Company A, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines near a point known as Turkey Knob. Some of the papers indicate there was hand-to-hand fighting in foxholes resulting in 12 American KIA and about 50 Japanese KIA.

Thanks for any help.

Dan Roper

Landing Team?

Edit-looks like Paul has this one down

(FrCertDeath rec'd fr BurMed&Sur )

WFS im guessing is, wounded from sniper. Wounded from Shrapnel? Wounded from Shelling?

LT is landing team, CT is combat team. A LT seems to be a composite, as cross attachments of armor etc appear to be made as the situation demanded.

To accomplish this, the battalion's organic complement of three rifle, a weapons, and a headquarters company are reinforced by a variety of forces from throughout the 2nd Marine Division, including tanks, assault amphibian vehicles, combat engineers, etc. Collectively, the reinforced battalion is referred to as a Battalion Landing Team.

examples.

D plus 10 1 March, 10, 1945

This "combat team" became division reserve on this date.
Flame throwers and demolitions were captured in T.S. 199K, west. Rocket launchers and dump were captured in T.S. 199G, northeast.
At 1605, a POW was captured in T.S. 215T.
Enemy dead reported to date was 1042.

1800, 38 FEBRUARY TO 1800 1 MARCH

Night Activity: Very quiet.

Daylight Operations: CT-28 was ordered by Division as follows: 28th Marines with 5th Tank Bn, and 3d Bn, 27th Marines, attached, will at K-hour (0830) pass through 27th Marines, seize O-2 and D-A in Division zone of action, be prepared to seize O-3 on order.

All three "landing teams" moved into the line abreast relieving three landing teams of CT-27. Relief was completed by 0850. Boundary between LT-128 and 228: 216 R northeast, M east, H east. Boundary between LT-328 and LT-228 216 K center, F center, A northwest. Boundary between LT-128 and CT-26; 217 P W center, K southwest, K northwest. Order of LT's from left to right: 328, 228,128. LT-327 was sent to assembly area in reserve in 199 K.

BurMed&Sur is Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
CT is combat team as you found out
Both were found in: http://www.history.navy.mil/books/OPNAV ... index.html

LT doesn't seem to exist in the Glossary of US Naval/marine abbreviations from that time period.
WFS also doesn't appear.

If you want go to the www.wargamer.com forums and there are some active ex-marines who can help you.

edit: I was going to suggest Landing Team but didn't want to confuse the issue by guessing.

ORIGINAL: Sheytan
WFS im guessing is, wounded from sniper. Wounded from Shrapnel? Wounded from Shelling?

Of those three possibilities, I would think shrapnel is the most likely. Wounded from shelling is a shrapnel wound. Wounded from sniper is simply a gunshot, and no different from any other kind of gunshot.

ORIGINAL: Sheytan
WFS im guessing is, wounded from sniper. Wounded from Shrapnel? Wounded from Shelling?

Of those three possibilities, I would think shrapnel is the most likely. Wounded from shelling is a shrapnel wound. Wounded from sniper is simply a gunshot, and no different from any other kind of gunshot.

ORIGINAL: Sheytan
WFS im guessing is, wounded from sniper. Wounded from Shrapnel? Wounded from Shelling?

Of those three possibilities, I would think shrapnel is the most likely. Wounded from shelling is a shrapnel wound. Wounded from sniper is simply a gunshot, and no different from any other kind of gunshot.

Thanks, gents, for the help.

I don't believe Steele took part in the initial landings on the beach. He was part of the 30th Replacement Draft - replacements that were incorporated into the 25th Regimental Combat Team on February 25, 1945 (D+6). According to the Marine Archives documents, the men of this draft were well-trained and prepared to serve on the front lines, but the regiment lost so many men during the battle that many, many green troops were inserted into the lines. The officer making this particular report noted that these men didn't know the difference between a mortar shell and an anti-tank shell and had to be shown how to remove the pin from a grenade. He notes that green troops such as these had a bad affect on the morale of the veterans, making them "nervous." By around March 5, 1945, the combat effectiveness of the 4th Marine Division regimental combat teams was somewhere between 35% and 50%.

Steele came ashore under relatively quiet conditions five or six days after D-Day. He got inserted into a frontline rifle company, participated in the tough fighting in the "Meatgrinder" area that included "Turkey Knob" (a highpoint with a reinforced concrete bunker that was a real *itch) until his death on the 6th or 7th of March. Two or three days later, the Marines finally had control of the area except for mop-up operations.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
The second abbreviation is contained on a "USMC Casualty Report" form. Nature of Wound is noted as "WFS, Neck." What is WFS?

Could "Wound, Fatal, Shot [or stab]" be a possibility here? I was thinking of the militaria tendency to 'comma-ize' descriptors such as these.

By the way, nice tribute article you're putting together for your relative in memoriam.

The US Marines used the "Landing Team" terminology. Usually, they were referred to as BLT ("Battalion Landing Team") and RLT ("Regimental Landing Team"). The US Army used the RCT ("Regimental Combat Team") terminology.

Thanks, Brad, you're right. I've seen the unit referred to as BLT (so that would be Battalion Landing Team) and then as LT (a more abbreviated version, but meaning the same thing).

I think some have mentioned in here that a BLT would differ from a regular battalion in that more "accessories" were added to give the unit some "oomph" beyond the normal Marine battalion OOB.

Regarding "WFS" abbreviation, I "think" it must mean "wound from shrapnel." I'll go back through the records and see if other men form the company who were wounded had other kinds of designations, (for instance, "wound from gunshot").