Wake Island Wildcat
I highly recommend a welcome addition to the Wake Island library: Wake Island Wildcat: A Marine Fighter Pilot’s Epic Battle at the Beginning of World War II by William L. Ramsey (Stackpole Books, 2024). This is an intimate, well-sourced biography of the author’s great-uncle, Henry Talmadge Elrod, the Marine Corps captain who valiantly defended the island during the siege and battle of December 1941 and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. (See my post from 2014: A Matter of Honor)
The story of Wake Island at war has come together over decades with a handful of primary source documents, postwar records, and survivor narratives, layered and filled in with historical research and new perspectives. We will never know the full measure of what happened on the island in December 1941, but Wake Island Wildcat reveals at last the living man behind Wake’s legendary war hero, “Hammerin’ Hank” Elrod.
William Ramsey, a professor of history and philosophy at Lander University in South Carolina, brings his scholarly skills and unique family relationship to this carefully crafted biography of Henry Talmadge Elrod. The volume is slim as his subject’s life was sadly short, but he packs it with information and perspective from Elrod’s troubled youth to his emergence as a proud aviator in the United States Marine Corps. Elrod left little behind from which to construct his life story, so the author has utilized unusual sources to build this biography, including a young girlfriend’s diary, school transcripts, pilot logbooks, and probing views of family and service photographs. His use of archival and other primary and secondary sources is solid throughout.
I particularly appreciate Ramsey’s integration of historical context throughout, including the rapid technological and tactical advances in military aviation during the 1920s and 30s. Additional details, such as Elrod’s close professional relationship with Major Paul Putnam and well-established friendship with fellow Wildcat pilot Frank Tharin, deepen the significance of the historical events to come. While I would have liked to see more recognition of the aid of civilian volunteers in the siege and battle, I respect that Ramsey’s focus is on Elrod and VMF-211 and know that some military sources reflect a disparaging attitude toward civilian efforts or lack thereof.
The surprise arrival of the twelve Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats of VMF-211 on December 4, 1941, thrilled bystanders on the ground and underscored the value – and vulnerability – of the isolated atoll. Four days later war came to Wake, severely decimating the VMF-211 squadron in the first attack that took out over 60 percent of its personnel and planes. Veterans and researchers have recreated and refined the interactive map of the ensuing sixteen-day siege and battle in December 1941. Ramsey’s Wake Island Wildcat adds another deep layer to the big picture, anchored on the complicated, committed marine pilot who fought and died a hero.
