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In July 1944, U.S. armed forces stormed ashore to recapture Guam from the Japanese. Dense vegetation made reconnaissance planes ineffective. The only practical way to ferret out Japanese locations was to scour the area on foot and rely on intelligence from local Chamorro scouts.
The island was declared secure on August 10, 1944, but thousands of Japanese remained in the jungles at that time. For these men, and the men whose job it was to hunt them down, the war was far from over.
“The native guides who accompanied many of the Marine and Army patrols during the campaign proper and the mop up period performed invaluable service in ferreting out Japanese troops and equipment” (The recapture of Guam by Major O.R. Lodge, USMC).
The loosely formed civilian scouts who were engaged in this hunt were succeeded in November 1944 by the Guam Combat Patrol.
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