17 February 1945

17 February 1945 (Page 3/3)

After Campbell was killed the situation took a bad turn with the troops facing Wheeler.

Building 28D (on the right) - was "F" Company's Command Post.

Now "F" Company was desperately short on officers. In one morning we had lost three, and one had been lost on the jump. Only the company commander, Bill Bailey, and the 1st platoon leader, Bill Calhoun, were left. The 2nd platoon had lost their platoon leader, their platoon sergeant and the sergeant who had replaced their platoon sergeant. At this time the first platoon was still missing the six men who had returned in plane number 22 to Mindoro. They were coming by water with the 1st Battalion. These men were all in the 1st squad which had lost Handlon and Thomas the first day.

T/Sgt Joseph Shropshire withdrew the 3rd platoon without orders.

Bill Bailey was not at all happy. He told me to take the 3rd platoon back out there, put them in position to attack and await orders. We moved back out to the berm and the RDF shelter hill. I think we would all have been in better spirits had we not been so thirsty. Anyhow we waited and sweated.

During the afternoon we noticed smoke coming from the interior of the battery.

The way the Japs seemed to come and go we did not know how heavily the battery would be defended. Sometime they were there and some time they were not. If they were ready and waiting it could be a bloody affair. Then there was the thought that with the Japs being able to come in through tunnels, if you took the battery would you really have it?

About 1500 hour word came that 1st Lt. James Gifford was coming out with his first platoon, D Company to make the assault. They got there about 1530. Jim made his reconnaissance, and we withdrew so that the artillery could lay down a barrage on Wheeler. The assault was to be made immediately after the barrage lifted. The attackers would have to crawl to the top of the berm about thirty feet wide, dash down the steep incline about twenty feet into the road behind Wheeler, run about thirty feet crossing the railroad to the battery, climb the stairs to the floor of the gun port, cross this floor and mount the stairs leading up to the top of the parapet. They would have their choice of stairs. One set was at the left side of the gun port, the other at the right side. These stairs would put them on top of the parapet with the Japs still in the battery beneath. This problem would resolve itself that night.

As the time for the assault drew near I really sweated it out for Jim Gifford, his assistant platoon leader, Jack Mara, and their men. The attack was carried out in a splendid fashion. They threw smoke grenades and the entire platoon rushed forward as one solid body and stormed to the parapet. In the 503rd when the command to go was given we stood up and went with no laggards. Gif and his men demonstrated this mark of an elite unit brilliantly. Pucci, Combs, Hess, Verdell, and Mayberry were wounded during the assault.

By about 1730 we had finished our digging in at the AA position. 1st Lt. Daniel A. Lee, a recent replacement who had been assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, came out there and set up a 50 caliber machine gun. (I have no idea where he got it.) I had a light machine gun section attached to my platoon. Of course my defensive position covered 360 degrees, but we were particularly concerned-about the portion of the deep ravine which jutted to the west between our position and the Senior Officers Row. We had to circle this ravine to get to our company CP at 28-D. In this portion of the defense we occupied the ditch along the side of Crockett Trail which ran along the rim of the drop-off into the ravine before it began its descent into the ravine through a series of switch backs.

Night came suddenly as it does so dramatically in the tropics. Our last water had been what we jumped with in our two canteens thirty hours ago. Of course our rations were long gone, too; however Kipling put it so fittingly:

" But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'em that's got it."

As the darkness turned pitch, the wind seemed to rise, rattling the metal debris. There had been buildings here before the Japanese invasion and an abundance of wreckage was strewn about, especially pieces of corrugated metal roofing. Some hand grenade throwing went on. The machine guns fired a lot.

When the naval star shells burst overhead and illuminated the area I would rise up and look good, but I never saw anything suspicious

About the time things began to quieten down, around 2200 hour, the ground started shaking a strange grating sound began along with a loud noise of sucking air much like the sound made if one purses their lips and draws air in quickly, and suddenly with a roar flames gushed out of Battery Wheeler's back side and shot skyward for maybe one hundred feet or more.

I wondered what was happening to Gif and Jack and their men. I felt like they probably ran when the noise started. The fire lasted for about five minutes illuminating the entire area like day. We could see nothing moving anywhere.

About fifteen minutes later the battery erupted in flames again, but the duration of the fire was shorter this time. During the eruptions we could feel the heat. The men on the right flank of our defense who were near the battery moved back a distance until the fireworks were over.

After the flames ceased we could hear sizzling and popping sounds coming from within the battery. We knew this was the bodies of the Japs inside burning. After darkness returned it seemed unusually quiet. It had been a long and harrowing day. I was dead tired. I thought I would rest a few moments until another star shell illuminated the area.

After what seemed only moments I awoke with the sun shining brightly in my face. It was already getting warm. This was one of those times when it took a short time to locate myself. For an instant I was back on Mindoro where we were building a fortified line. As realization of my location dawned on me, I reflected for a few seconds on how safe we had been at that time. Our only worry there was the Japanese planes with their bombs and machine guns.

Well what the hell, I told myself. You wanted combat, now you have it.

(This was to be the plan James Gifford used that afternoon when his 1st platoon, 'D' Company successfully assaulted the battery. I don't know of any other plan that could have been practical.)

Although most US servicemen in the Pacific War attribute deaths to Japanese 'snipers' as if they were a trained speciality of the forces opposing them, the Japanese did not allocate men specifically as snipers. Instead they emphasized marksmanship ability throughout all levels of their forces, and sniping skills in the 100-150 yard range were very widely held. One of the skills of the sniper was the patience to register a specific spot where a GI might be careless enough to take a 'second look'. Mistakes like this most often resulted in the careless GI being dealt a 'third eye.'

Another field-craft skill of the Japanese marksmen was target identification, and this was responsible generally for the high casualty rate amongst radio operators. We had long since abandoned wearing badges of officer rank. In some instances, it was fatal to be observed wearing a .45 Colt on a belt holster, as these were often an affectation of combat officers. A canny officer would leave his belt and holster elsewhere. Similarly, saluting a superior officer within sniping distance of Japanese held areas was considered most unwise.

Generally this lapse of military courtesy was appreciated by senior visiting officers - but only after it had been explained to them.

Thus one of the things that we had to learn through sad experience, was "no second glances." When the Japs saw heads pop up they would zero in on that spot and patiently wait for a head to pop up again. One needed to move to another spot before a second look could be risked. Unfortunately in the heat of a combat situation, it was possible to forget this wisdom, or worse, no alternative cover was available. Unfortunately Campbell and the other officer had taken second glances. The name of the other officer, Binegar, was not known by many of us, only the fact of his death.

Curiously, it had not been easy to ascertain the identity of the 2d Lieutenant who had been killed shortly after Campbell. I had noted the fact of his death in my diary when I had time to write the entry upon my return to Mindoro, but already by that time his identity had eluded me. I had too many friends to grieve for and had hardly known him.

The topic occasionally rated a brief mention at reunions. As the years passed, we compiled lists of the casualties, and tried to place every one of them. The 462d Parachute Field Artillery lost three officers killed. First to be listed was Captain Emmet R. Spicer, who had self-diagnosed his fatal gunshot wound near Battery Wheeler on the 16th. 2nd Lt. Robert G. Allen had also been killed that day when he landed short on the cliffs and was shot before he could get our of his harness. On the 17th, 1st Lt. Joseph L. Crook of "C" Battery was fatally wounded as he disembarked from the LSM on Black Beach. The crewmen of the LSM dragged him back on board from the LSM, but the wound was fatal. Eventually John Lindgren had eliminated all the RCT officers who had been lost, except for 2d Lt. Dorval R. Binegar, but we were unable to find which Company Binegar had been with.

With the passing years, as a few more answers were uncovered, but it was ultimately Charles Breit who identified Binegar as his demolition section leader from Regimental HQ Company.

For the full story of the identification of Lt. Binegar see Bless 'em All Appendix No. 11.

A little while later word came that S/Sgt Charles H. Hoyt, a squad leader in the second platoon, had been killed. Also, Ed Flash had been wounded. Soon Ed arrived at the company Command Post. He showed me the holes in his left arm where the bullet had entered and exited just above the elbow. He demonstrated that he could make a fist, but he could not spread his fingers. We had hopes that the wound was not too serious, but Doc Bradford dashed these hopes when he said the bullet had severed a nerve, and Ed would be going home to face a series of operations. He predicted that Ed would spend the next year in the hospital. *

I felt like this day was a disaster. I had lost another buddy. As I said above the company executive officers jumped that morning with the 3rd Battalion. Our exec, Red LaVanchure, had sprained both ankles so badly in landing that he was unable to walk. Even a week later when the company command post was in the post headquarters building, Red was still having to be carried piggy-back. Even when we left Corregidor he was still hobbling.

Anthony Lopez, Robert O'Connell, Angelos Kambakumis and Ed Flash were the team that rescued S/Sgt Ledoux. I felt that they should all have received Silver Star Medals. I was under the impression that they were not cited, but I saw Anthony Lopez last year for the first time after almost forty-four years, and he told me that they did receive Bronze Star Medals. Although this medal was not appropriate for the risk these men took in most outfits, in the 503rd it was appropriate that they were recognized with any medal for bravery or gallantry in action.

Robert O'Connell told me at the 1989 reunion in Boston the names of all the team. Ed Flash points out Lou Varone's "The Congressional Medal of Honor" which appeared in the "Static Line", March 1988, which states that the airborne units were all low in combat awards. On the other side of the coin, the 3rd Division awarded a Bronze Star Medal to all its men who made the D-Day landing on Normandy. We make the toughest, most dangerous jump in World War II, and Bronze Star Medals are guarded like precious jewels.

These positions are shown on a sketch by Captain Arthur E. Huff, commanding officer of Battery B, 60th CA (AA). I have noticed that the modern authors almost always refer to these AA Batteries by a city name which begins with a letter that is the same as the battery designation, e.g., Battery Boston for Battery B, Battery Chicago for Battgty C, Battery Denver for battery D, and so on; however, in reading the reports of those who manned the batteries, and in talking to living survivors such as Al McGrew, it appears that they use the simple letter designation.

What I think was the old gun revetment was almost totally destroyed, and the gun was gone. Two guns were still there. Their revetments were partially destroyed by the bombardment. I believe these were the number three and four M-3 guns.

We heard that the 1st Bn. was coming in by water - they were ordered not to jump due to the high rate of jump casualties in the 2nd and 3rd Bns. As we understand it they landed at Nielson Field and then went aboard LSM's to come in there. There was quiet a bit of gunfire at the beach at 1400 when they did come in. They were getting a hot reception with mg fire. Four P-47's came in to strafe the Japs who were firing on them. At about 1430, lo and behold a tank came through from the beach landing with news that the road was being cleared by bulldozers. At 1500 we sent our 3rd Platoon with "D" Co. to clean out 3 pill boxes on our south. There had been an attack on it about 1200 hr, unsuccessful. There was quite a battle there and they cleaned up one of the strong points. Fortunately we had no casualties (LMG platoon). We employed our one 81mm mortar on it - with some darn accurate shooting." At 1500 hour the 1st platoon of "D" Company with attached machine guns moved up to attack Battery Wheeler as detailed below. It is obvious that the people holed up in Topside Barracks had no real conception of what was taking place. Shooting an 81mm mortar at the heavy concrete emplacement would have eve.~ less effect than the bazooka used the night before if an 81 had been used . "At 1700 we were given 26 gals. of water which was not quite enough to give one canteen per man. Except for little bits of fire, not much happened till dark. One of our missing in action turned up - he had been pinned down by small arms fire on his jump but came thru OK. That leaves one man still missing in action - Pfc. Guidice. All our M.G. platoons and part of the mortars are out on perimeter tonight. The firing started at dusk and kept up all thru the night."

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