Peter Wirth's graduating class at Pendleton. Wirth is in the second row, fourth from the left.

It must be why they called him 'Lucky'

By Al Zdon

Okinawa was a tough slog for the Marines as they headed south down the island, overcoming one Japanese defensive position after another.
At one point on June 2, 1945, Company L of the Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, was in a bad spot.
Pinned down by two elevated Japanese machine gun nests, the Marines were taking a terrible beating. They couldn't advance and they couldn't hide. It was an impossible situation.
Somebody needed to attack those machine guns.
Without any orders, two Marines grabbed their M-1s and headed out. After a few yards, under the withering fire, one of the Marines turned back. The other Marine kept on going.
"Lucky" Wirth didn't plan to be a hero that day, but his actions freed his company from its perilous position and earned him a Navy Cross. He still doesn't like to talk about it very much.

Peter H. "Junior" "Lucky" Wirth was born in Aurora, Illinois, in 1926 and grew up mostly in Iowa, up near the Minnesota border.
Times were rough during the Depression in the 1930s, and Wirth left school after the 8th grade never to return again. He trained to become a machinist with the National Youth Administration program in Winona and was assigned a job at the Rock Island Arsenal. He later took another job at International Harvester in Bettendorf, Iowa.
As soon as he turned 17, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. "I knew I'd be drafted eventually. I probably knew a few people who had joined the Marines, but to be honest, I didn't know one branch of the service from another."
He needed his mother's signature to enlist, and, in January 1944, he was on his way from Decorah to boot camp in California. Camp Pendleton was not a lot of fun.
"I didn't care much for that, but it didn't last long."
He was offered a 10-day leave to go home, but he turned it down. "I would have spent most of my 10 days coming and going. It didn't seem worth it. I remember I had a grand total of $10 in my pocket, and I gave it to a buddy so he could go home."
Soon, Wirth was on a ship bound for the western Pacific. After a stop in Hawaii, where the troops were not allowed ashore, the ship made its slow way to Pavuvu in the Marianas Island. The new Marines trained there for a while and then were shipped to Guadalcanal for more training.
Part of the training was to go for a long time without water. "Well, the fact is you can't go very long without water no matter how much training you've had. But I suppose they did that for discipline.
"We did a lot of hikes at Guadalcanal. One time we had to cross a river that was in full flood stage. Trees were going down all over the place."
The technique, he said, was for two Marines to load all their gear onto two poncho halves and snap them together. The two then would swim the river, pushing the somewhat buoyant poncho load in front of them with one arm while they swam with the other arm and their legs.
"The idea was to avoid anything like a tree from bumping into you. I heard later that 14 didn't make it that day. All I know for sure was that three guys in my company didn't make it. They drowned. Plus, guys were panicking and leaving their gear behind. We lost hundreds of rifles that day.
"And then when we got to the other side, they gave us some C-rations, and then marched us back to camp over a bridge that was just down the river. I'll never know for sure how many died that day. You don't get a lot of information out of the military."
The training may have been severe, but so was the ordeal ahead. The next stop was Okinawa.
Okinawa was a large island about 340 miles south of the Japanese main islands, and the U.S. wanted to use it for an air base and jumping off place for the planned invasion of Japan. In all, the U.S. committed 183,000 Marines and Army troops to the invasion. A total of about 117,000 Japanese defended the island, which was considered part of the Japanese homeland.
Wirth said all the Marines knew they were going somewhere, but they didn't know where. "Then Tokyo Rose came on the radio and told us. Well, she didn't know for sure, but she said we were going to Formosa or Okinawa."
On their way to Okinawa, Wirth's company spent a day on a sandbar where the Marine Corps provided the beer for one last party. "After a while, it got to be a problem. It was 110 degrees in the shade, and a lot of those people were not used to drinking beer. There were a lot of fights, but it didn't amount to much."
The Marines were placed on a large ship and headed for Okinawa. It arrived on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945.
"I was up early, and they gave us the best breakfast I've had in the military. I don't know where they got fresh eggs out in the Pacific."
Then it was over the side and down the cargo nets into the landing craft. "As soon as we got loaded, we barreled for shore."
Mortars were exploding around the craft as they neared the beach. "The guys driving the boats had their timing just right. The front end of the boat hit the beach, the front came down, and we took off out of the boat. The idea was to disperse as fast as possible so one mortar doesn't get you all.
"As soon as we were off the boat and lightened the load, he was able to back up and go get more troops."
Except for the mortars, there was very little Japanese resistance to the landings. The Marines and Army split the island in two, and the Marines after a few days of regrouping, headed north, where the fighting was light. After about three weeks, the First Marine Division relieved the 27th Army Division in the south.
"I'm sure we had a lot more soldiers than the Japanese, but we hit tough resistance as soon as we went south. I think more Marines were killed and more ships went down in the battle for Okinawa than any other battle. At any time of night, you could look out and see Navy ships going down."
PFC Wirth, known as "Lucky" to his buddies, said he was somewhat nervous going into combat for the first time. "I was kinda scared, I suppose, you know. But everybody else was in the same position."
It was not easy. "It was hilly, and very tough to go down. There was lots of fire, lots of casualties. It kind of came in spurts. I remember there was one hill near Naha (the Okinawan capital) that we took twice and got knocked off of it twice. The third time, we got to the top."
By June 2, the Marines had pushed the Japanese to the southern end of the island, but the progress was still slow and costly.
And on that day, Company L was in a lousy spot. Two machine gun positions had been dug into small caves on a cliff facing the area where the Marines would have to go.
"It's hard to just stand there with people dying all around you. It's just hard not to do anything.
"Up to that point in the battle, I had done a lot of scouting ahead of the lines, anyway. I was used to going out alone. I didn't have to do this thing. But we were pinned down. It was a quick decision. Either stay and die or go out and die fighting instead."
Wirth was armed with his rifle, six grenades, and a .38 Special revolver. "I found that a short gun is handier when you're crawling on the ground. I had bought the .38 from somebody. Once you were over there, you carry anything you can get hold of. Nobody cared."
For a few yards, another Marine accompanied Wirth, but he soon dropped back under the enemy's fire.
"It was probably about 200 yards I had to go, a couple of football fields. But, of course, it felt like a couple or three miles to me."
When he got closer, Wirth worked his way to the side of the first machine gun so that they couldn't hit him from their position in the cave. "I pulled out a grenade, let the spoon go and waited. If you throw it too fast, they'll just throw it back at you. You have to judge the time, but I'd thrown a lot in practice. One thing for sure is that you will get rid of that sucker before it explodes."
Wirth used up his grenades silencing the first machine gun, and then he returned to his unit to get more.
The second machine gun was higher up the cliff, near the top. Wirth had to climb the cliff, again trying to stay out of the machine gun's scope. "But of course there were snipers all over the place. My outfit helped out a lot. They kept them down. Without their help, it would have been a disaster."
Climbing up the steep hill, Wirth unloaded his pistol in the general direction of the cave. "I didn't hit anything, but I didn't think I would."
On top of the cliff, he worked his way across to the machine gun, leaned over the cave, and again used hand grenades to stop the machine gunners.
Not quite done with his work that day, Wirth made his way back to the first cave, found two Japanese soldiers, and shot them with his M-1. His unit was now able to advance down the valley.
"At the time, you're too busy to be scared. When it's all over, the fear settles in. I was shaking a little bit."
Wirth's commanding officer recommended him for the Navy Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor in importance.
Two weeks later, Wirth earned his ticket home, the hard way.
"I was pursuing a couple of Japanese soldiers down by the beach. By this time, we were gathering up prisoners, but these guys didn't want to be prisoners I guess. They went behind a boulder, and I didn't realize that one of them had doubled back and climbed on top of the boulder."
The Japanese soldier shot Wirth from above. The bullet entered his right shoulder at an angle and exited out his back. Instinctively, Wirth turned and killed his assailant.
"I didn't feel any pain at all. It was just like someone hitting you in the shoulder. I never even dropped my rifle. I got him, and I got his rifle."
He was taken to the aid station that morning, but wasn't operated on until midnight. "There were bubbles in the blood coming out, so I knew it must have nicked my lung. Later on, it got to be more painful, and they shot me up with morphine, of course. There was a lot of pain as it was healing."
Wirth was in a hospital at Guam when the war ended. He stayed in the Marines until 1946, and considered making the military a career for a time. He traveled home on an escort carrier and remembers a guy riding a bicycle around the flight deck until he rode it right over the side. They fished him out – still holding onto the bicycle."
The ship landed in San Francisco. "I hitchhiked back home, and I beat the train. It was easy to hitchhike in those days. You'd hardly get out there, and somebody would stop and pick you up."
There were no bands, no welcoming home events. There was a short story in his hometown newspaper about his Navy Cross. "Nobody knew you were gone. Nobody missed you."
After the war, he worked for Mansfield Industries for many years as a tool and die maker. When Mansfield, a maker of photographic equipment, moved to Spring Grove, Minnesota, so did Wirth. He and his wife, Berthana, have lived there for nearly 60 years.
He later worked for Control Data in Spring Grove, and when they left he bought their tool and die machinery and went into business for himself. He retired when he was 62.
The Wirths also farmed for 40 years.
They have four children, 13 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Wirth was recently inducted into the Tomah VA Medical Center Wall of Fame. He uses Tomah because it's closer than the Minneapolis VA hospital. On Veterans Day last year, he attended a ceremony there in his honor.
Wirth has never attended a Marine reunion. He has never worn his Navy Cross. He said the old war wound hurts a little bit now and then. "When the weather changes, I can feel it. I suppose there's some arthritis getting in there."