Did the Brave Marines At This Lonely Outpost Delay Imperial Japan's Advance By More than a Month?...

The Japanese were literally on a shoe string. Contrary to urban legend, they were a crack fighting force, but they had been chopped up into invasion pieces with just enough materiel to do their specific task. They had X number of spares, etc.

So when the Marines fought them to a standstill AND inflicted casualties, the Japanese didn’t have the bandwidth to stick around and throw more assets at Wake.

Had the Marines captured a Japanese servicemen or two and found that out, they could have succeeded in keeping the invasion force on the one beach and then when it ran out of spares it would have left.

For a small force they did a huge amount of damage to the Japanese fleet and morale.

SSG Robert Mark Odom Sounds Like the Marines I've Know, Tough Onry Bastards.