Walter George Critchley

Walter Critchley was born in East Norwich, New York, on 10 November 1919. His father, George Critchley, was a professional gardener who supervised private estates; “Walt” and his older sister Dorothy spent their childhood near affluent neighborhoods in Westchester and Erie Counties. They also made multiple  trans-Atlantic steamship trips with their mother, Alice, to visit grandparents in England.

The Critchleys eventually returned to Long Island and took up residence in Nassau County. Walter attended Valley Stream schools, and ultimately graduated from Morristown High School in New Jersey. When he registered for Selective Service in 1941, he was living in Morristown and employed by an awning installation company, George Green and Son.

Walt enlisted in the Marine Corps from New York City on 22 January 1942. He was sent clear across the country for boot camp; just days after joining, Critchley was sweating under the stern glare of a drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.

Private Critchley’s first assignment was a spell of guard duty at the San Diego base, but in April 1942 he received orders for overseas deployment. He joined How Company, Second Battalion, 8th Marines in garrison at Tutuila, American Samoa. The regiment would spend several months on garrison duty, preparing to repel an expected Japanese attack that never came.

During the stay in Samoa, Critchley transferred out of How Company (the battalion weapons unit, specializing in heavy machine guns and mortars) to Fox Company. The reasons for this change, and his specific duties with either company, are no longer known – but it seems likely that Critchley became a member of the Fox Company weapons platoon, which deployed air-cooled machine guns and 60mm mortars in combat.

In late October 1942, the 8th Marines sailed for the Solomon Islands and joined the battle for Guadalcanal on 4 November 1942. Unfortunately, any stories of Critchley’s actions during the campaign have since been lost; he made it through to the end without being wounded in action, and in February 1943 set sail for New Zealand.

During the summer of 1943, Critchley’s regiment rested and re-trained in New Zealand. His career continued to climb, with promotions to PFC and Corporal  during the months spent at Camp Paekakariki.

That October – almost exactly a year since they departed from Samoa for Guadalcanal – the 8th Marines boarded transports at Wellington for a final round of training exercises. When the ships headed out to sea instead of returning to town, the Marines aboard began to realize that the rumors were true: they were bound for combat once again.

The amphibious assault on Betio, Tarawa atoll – Operation GALVANIC – commenced on 20 November 1943. The Second Battalion 8th Marines was given the job of assaulting the easternmost of three landing beaches – “Red 3” – and, once ashore, moving inland to quickly secure the airfield that covered much of the tiny island’s surface. A heavy and morale-boosting naval bombardment convinced many Marines that the task would be a simple one, and spirits were high at 0900 when their amphibious tractors started paddling for the beach.

The Japanese were quick to recover. Shells began bursting over the LVTs. “As the tractors neared the shore the air filled with the smoke and fragments of shells fired from 3-inch guns,” notes A Brief History of the 8th Marines. “Fortunately, casualties had been light on the way to the beach, but once the men dismounted and struggled to get beyond the beach, battle losses increased dramatically.” Most of the beach defenses were still intact, and these were supported by row after row of pillboxes, rifle pits, and machine gun nests.

The Second Battalion, and then the Third Battalion, tried in vain to break through the Japanese defenses, suffering heavy casualties in every attempt. By evening, they were barely clinging to a sliver of beachhead, and the shocked survivors dug in among the bodies of the dead.

One of those who fell on the first day was Corporal Critchley He was simply recorded as “killed in action” by “gunshot wounds” – no further specifics of his fate are known.

It took two days for the dead men on Beach Red 3 to be buried. A long trench was bulldozed near the pier, and more than forty Marines were carried over and laid down under their ponchos. Walt Critchley was one of the first men buried here in “Division Cemetery 3” – however, this would not be known for many years to come.

In April 1944, Alice Critchley penned a letter that laid out a mother’s grief – and the scanty information provided to the families of the fallen.

Dear Mrs. Stewart,

I was so glad to have your letter today; I did have the other one with the snapshots a long time ago – I answered the letter but I suppose you did not get it. I am very sorry to have to tell you that our only son Walter who was your guest, was killed in action on Nov 20 1943 in the assault on Tarawa, Gilbert Islands. He was 24. I had the dreadful telegram on Dec. 23 just saying he was killed in action in the service of his country and so on – We had a hope for a while that it was a mistake, but I had a letter from his commanding officer saying that Walt was in the first assault and was about the first boy to be killed. I believe there were nearly one thousand Marines killed in that landing and hundreds wounded badly.

There are no words to tell of our grief, and especially because we never saw him after he enlisted, and never at any time knew where he was.

As time goes on, it seems worse, because as we hear things, it is more terrible.

I had a letter from a friend of Walt’s who had not seen him for 2 months, and he found him and took his wristwatch and is sending it to me – of all the things, for that boy who was in a different unit altogether to find him.

Well enough of my sorrows. It was so wonderful of you to give Walter a little home life, it meant so much to him, and he wrote so many times to tell me how very much he enjoyed being in your house, and how he liked your son and his friends.

I do hope your two sons and your brothers are safe and well. It is such a worry for all of us mothers. It is a wonder we keep our sanity at all.

Thank you so much for the pictures; it is so nice to see them, all the boys look so well and wonderful. We never even had a picture of Walt in his uniform. I am supposed to get his personal things, so am hoping there will be one in them.

Critchley’s burial ground was “beautified” by Navy garrison troops in 1944 and renamed Cemetery 27. A single large cross was put up and the names of the fallen were painted on a plaque nearby. When the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company arrived to exhume the battle casualties in 1946, however, they found not a trace of any remains beneath the monument – nor anywhere nearby. After days of searching in vain, they gave up and declared the 40 men permanently nonrecoverable.

In 2015, the non-profit group History Flight conducted an archaeological dig at a shipyard on Betio. This expedition, the result of years of research and data supplied by GPR and a cadaver dog, found the original burial trench beneath a parking lot – quite some distance from the memorial location. The remains of 46 men were recovered by History Flight and turned over to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency for forensic analysis.

The remains buried fourth from the end of the row still carried military equipment and personal effects – an entrenching tool, a gas mask, and an identification tag. When cleaned and treated, the tag revealed the name “W G CRITCHLEY.”

Laboratory work including dental and anthropological analysis, plus the material evidence of the dog tag, solved the mystery of Walt Critchley’s fate. In November 1943, he had been interred in Grave #4 of Division Cemetery 3; despite the presence of a dog tag, he was not identifiable at the time of burial.

An official identification was made on 18 August 2016, and announced on 7 January 2017. Critchley’s remains were returned to his family for burial.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Arlington National Cemetery