It had been hours since the 27th Marine Regiment had stopped for something to eat and a break. And the sun had long since slipped behind the 15-foot-high sand ridge closest to them, the remnant of a recent typhoon. As Horace Lee began to slide his gear off his back and settle in next to a cistern that was collecting rainwater, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye — a tree stump.
At first he thought he was hallucinating and just tired from the dangerous trek of avoiding the “withering fire” that blazed above them. But the stump kept tilting back, away from the ground. Luckily, he said in an interview 70 years later, he was alert enough to see a hand reach out from beneath the stump in the darkness. He knew immediately the stump camouflaged one of the exits for the Imperial Japanese Army’s 11 miles of underground tunnels. Lee grabbed a hand grenade from his bag, pulled the pin and held it for as long as he could before tossing it toward the stump.
“I held the grenade … for about seven to nine seconds, then tossed it and blew the stump away,” Lee said. After the air cleared of debris, Lee and his fellow Marines investigated the scene and sealed the tunnel’s exit.
That was one of the scariest moments from his 36 days on the island of Iwo Jima, he said.
Lee was 21 at the time, serving during his first term with the U.S. Marine Corps in the 2nd Battalion, 27th Regiment, 5th Division, Team 227 Demolition Engineers, B Company Combat Team under the direction of Col. I.L. Antonelli.
At the age of 17, Lee had enlisted voluntarily, just one year and one month prior to the U.S.’s entrance into World War II.
Born in west Perry County, Lee was the second-oldest child of five and grew up on his family’s cattle farm. His parents were members of Hopewell Baptist Church, Marion, and in 1934, Lee “gave his heart to the Lord” and was baptized.
After three years of drought in the 1930s, Lee’s family could no longer sustain their farm and had to sell and move to Selma, where they purchased new land and harvested cotton and corn.
US neutrality
On the other side of the world Japan had invaded and conquered most of the coastal area of China in 1937. And Germany, part of the Axis powers with Italy and Japan, had invaded Poland and overrun France by the end of 1939. At the time the U.S. was holding to neutrality.
But Lee said, “I felt it was my duty to defend my country. … We looked on it that the war … was inevitable.”
So he took his oath to become a Marine on Nov. 1, 1940. Once he arrived on Parris Island in South Carolina, he picked up his uniform and was assigned to a barrack.
“We were trained in close-order drill, combat, tactics, hand grenade and artillery. We went to the firing range and used M1s and .45 caliber pistols.”
After graduating Lee was stationed at Marine Corps Base (MCB) Quantico in Virginia for one year. During his time there the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, killing more than 2,400 people and forcing the U.S. into war by Dec. 11. That’s when training for beach landings really got serious, Lee said.
The regiment was sent to Hilo, Hawaii, and ran mock operations on the island of Maui in preparation for taking Japan’s Bonin chain of key islands, including Iwo Jima. Mock operations continued at Saipan, part of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific that the U.S. conquered in 1944.
If captured, Iwo Jima, located about 750 miles south of the mainland, would provide a base for attacks on the mainland and cut air raid times in half from Saipan to Tokyo.
On Feb. 19, 1945, the 27th Regiment was called on to be the first wave of invasion. Operation Detachment was underway.
They landed on Red Beach No. 1, located on the southwestern edge of Iwo Jima’s coast. From there they would move north to block off the rest of the island from Mount Suribachi on the southwestern tip. The Japanese had focused on creating inland hidden artillery, caves and tunnels, so the beach was relatively quick to obtain, Lee recalled, but that didn’t make it any less intimidating.
“The first thing you did when you hit the beach was to say, ‘Lord, I’m in Your hands. If it’s Your will, see me through this.’ … You cannot fight in fear.”
As the Marines advanced past the shore they met intense enemy fire. By evening of the first day 550 Marines were dead and more than 1,800 wounded.
Under Lee’s direction as demolition team leader the men pressed north, overcoming each east-to-west terrace. His team built bridges, pulleys and winches for military vehicles to enable them to make it up the slippery and unstable sand terraces.
While traversing the terraces, “that’s when the Japanese would lay down that withering fire and we were just an open target.”
“We were in the middle of enemy firepower as they were firing from Mount Suribachi (on the left side) and from the other highpoint at Airfield No. 1 (on the right). We were down below them.”
During the day the team would struggle to gain ground, maybe 200 yards one day and 50 yards the next. At night they would sleep in a foxhole, a small hand-dug pit.
Several of Lee’s friends were injured or killed in battle. He shared one graphic story of a friend who was hauling a truck of ammunition up to the 27th Regiment. When the truck was about 30 feet away the Marine drove over a land mine and was instantly killed, leaving remnants of his body on the black, thick sand.
After four days of intense battle the 27th Regiment had made a path and served as a barrier for the 28th Regiment. The 28th, with about 300 men, landed on Green Beach, further south on the island and closer to Mount Suribachi. On Feb. 23 a 40-man patrol was able to reach the summit of the 556-foot Mount Suribachi to raise a U.S. flag and signal its capture — a glimmer of hope for those in battle and for their loved ones back home. But the battle wasn’t over.
For another 32 days Lee and others in the 2nd Battalion would fight to obtain the island. Lee would remain for the full extent of the battle, spending five days in the hospital.
He was injured March 8 as the regiment made a push north while “the firing was real thick.” Shot by machine-gun fire in the right leg, Lee was injured again as debris from nearby artillery shells rained on him.
Enduring to the end
By March 13, with his injuries healing, Lee’s new job was driving the ammunition truck and delivering supplies to the front lines, a job he’d keep until March 26 — the end of the battle and the capture of Iwo Jima.
Waiting on the north side of the island, the mission complete, Lee and the 27th Regiment were transported back to Hawaii.
“I was praising the Lord all the way through. I was so glad to leave. Even though I was wounded I still had my hands, two feet and two eyes.”
His next assignment, Operation Olympic, was a planned attack landing on Kyushu, the southernmost island of Japan, but it never took place. Instead President Harry S. Truman, who was elected in April 1945, authorized the use of America’s secret weapon — the atomic bomb. The Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber, dropped the first A-bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later the second A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. These two crucial attacks ultimately led to Japan’s surrender Sept. 2.
The war was over and Lee was presented with two Purple Heart awards in September 1945. The 5th Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, given to units for “extraordinary heroism in action” and for displaying “such gallantry and determination … in accomplishing its mission.”
From September to December, Lee went back to work on disarmament assignments in Sasebo, Nagasaki, destroying “anything that was fighting material.” The smell of Nagasaki was horrific, he said, with the heat causing the odor of battle and decaying bodies to intensify.
Lee’s enlistment ended Nov. 19, 1946, and by Dec. 15 of that year, he was home.
Back in Alabama, Lee adjusted quickly to civilian life. He met up with a friend and they decided to get a milkshake and catch up.
“There was a pretty little waitress behind the soda bar,” Lee said. “Two or three days later I went to visit Johnny again and we went to get another milkshake and that same waitress was behind the bar. After that I came regularly to get milkshakes.”
Milkshakes and movies
He told the story of asking the girl behind the counter, Patsy, if she would go to the movies with him. After two invitations, the girl agreed, Lee said with a smile as he looked at Patsy sitting across from him in their home.
On June 28, 1947, the two were married at Southside Baptist Church, Birmingham. He would work with the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI), which later became U.S. Steel. He’d also work in gas pipeline construction, traveling the world to job sites, before retiring in 1989.
He and Patsy, who now live on a cattle farm in Hayden, raised a family along the way. They have three children, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Longtime members of Gethsemane Baptist Church, Hayden, the couple taught Sunday School and served in various ministries. For the last eight years they have been “faithful members” at Blount Springs Baptist Church, Hayden, Pastor Jeff Ingle said.
“Horace is one of the most humble men of integrity you will ever meet. … He is committed to his Lord, his wife and the church,” Ingle said.
Although Lee endured a war-torn season of life where he could easily harbor hate or fear, forgiveness is something he lives out day to day, Ingle said.
For Lee, a life lesson came from his time in battle, where he believes God taught him about His guidance and protection.
“If you believe and pray believing, God will take care of you. He has proven that He will. I’ve turned my life over to Him to lead and to guide and direct me, and He has.”
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