|
As
daylight of the second day unfolds, I scan the area for any sign of our enemy, and see none.
We
arise from our cover and prepare for the day, and the prospect that this day we
will not be �in reserve�. There are some sore heads still from the night
before.
As
I walk out onto the road I hear someone next to the truck calling me over.
�Hey Nyk! Look at this!�
I
walk over to the truck and see a Nip lying crumpled on the road. It is the first
Jap body I have seen here.
�Who�s
trophy is this?�
�He
took him with his knife,� someone says, and points to our medic.
The
medic, clearly not as shocked now as he must have been earlier, replies to no
one in particular, �I don�t understand why he came to me to help him
commit suicide.�
We
all laugh the laugh of the nervous, and move on.
Our
day is spent patrolling topside and cleaning out pockets of Japs wherever we
find them.
In
the afternoon, towards 4:00pm, we are ordered to a position directly above Black
beach, and told we are there to give cover for a landing. There
have already been landings the prior morning, so I am not expecting too much of
a show.
As I
am laying there looking at the destroyer, now just off the East end of
Bottomside, I see a small landing craft making for the beach. A Nip heavy machine
gun opens up about 200 feet below my position. I see splashes up in front
of the landing craft and sparks flying off the metal hull as the rounds strike
on steel. The destroyer reacts to this threat and starts churning white water as
her skipper puts her into reverse. The large craft backs gently until she is
laying in line with the machine gun, and it then dawns upon me that I too am
along that same line, and that I am not in a good place to be for what shall
likely happen next.
I roll back from my dress-circle view on the
rim of the crater, and wait. It does not take long, for the Rock beneath me
shudders. I hear the machine gun return defiance, and a further naval volley
shakes the ground underneath me. There is no further noise from the Jap MG in
the orchestra stalls, though "to make sure", the blasts continue.
The landing craft reaching the beach, now drops the ramp and I see a man run down on the
beach, where he squats down and appears to be waiting, guiding the men who are
there and too anxious to go ashore ashore. I don't know who he is, but he is one of the bravest
men I have ever seen. As dangerous as being a scout might be, he can have that
job, I'll not trade.
Men engulf him from
the LCI and together with the others on the beach, they move towards Malinta
Hill, like soldier ants with a solitary purpose. I see them scale the giant hill
opposite me, quickly at first and then slower, and in several minutes I see men
atop Malinta. It's still better to jump from a plane, I think to myself.
We
then move down to the cave housing the machine gun. To ensure it is knocked
out, we blast the cave shut. Our 2nd Battalion is now on the Rock and is being
moved into position. "G"Co. is moved back to it�s earlier position on the road
sloping down toward North Beach. We patrol from this station throughout the
next day.
On
the night of the 19th we hear signs of a possible Banzai off to our
right front, towards Wheeler battery. Someone's dying over there, that's the
case with those Banzais. I hope it's just Japs.
(I
later learn that a scout called McCarter is being nominated for a CMH.)
Time
starts to blur on me. At some time between the 18th and the 21st I
witness a major explosion of Malinta Hill. I forget what I am doing,
because suddenly there is a large explosion and as I turn to look towards Malinta
Hill,
I see fire flaming out of the air vents on the
sides and top of the hill. Smoke from the blast moves towards top side,
and I wonder how many men who had been atop the hill are now dead, and how many Japs
died in the Hospital that was inside the hill.
The
tank followed by men of the 34th moves around the north side of Malinta hill,
and we are directed to follow and patrol their left flank. As I move down the road
sloping down to North Beach I pass Trooper B standing over two dead Japs and
laughing at the position they had fallen, almost as though they were in love. I
paused long enough to take a series of three snapshots of the incident. then on
to the job ahead.
As
we pass Malinta hill we came upon a number of dead Japs lying along the road,
I don�t know if the tank�s machine gun killed them or they were killed by
the troops following the tank. It was not hard to determine that the Japs had
charged the Tank.
We
move towards the left after coming around Malinta Hill, the Bataan side, and
start searching for caves or dug-in troops. The constant danger is wearing
me thin. I pretty much lose all recollection of time, as if my memory is playing
tricks on me, refusing to work for me. For the next
seven days we search for the hidden Japs, finding them only after they had
fired at or killed one of our men. Our patrols are scattered like ants across
our area of concern. As
time passes on we stop trying to determine if there were any Japs in a cave,
that's just too dangerous. It is safer to close a cave than to care what
is in there. That's if we can get there to close it, and not get ourselves
killed in the process.
At one time I
come upon my closest friend �Maxie.� He's standing just above a cave tossing
WP (White Phosphorus) grenades and firing into the cave. He truly
looks as though he is enjoying the fight.
 
On
26 February, as we are working the Bataan side of the island clearing the area
north of the air strip, we feel the air press in upon us, and then hear a tremendous explosion. I turn
towards where the noise came at me, and find a huge ball of dirt and smoke in
the air above where the 1st Battalion are today. Debris is flying high in the sky,
and boulders are coming crashing down around us. Logs are flying
through the air, and huge rocks too. It looks like a mountain is broken up
and flying through the air over us. We look out towards the north channel,
and we could see huge logs and rocks
falling towards a destroyer patrolling the waters between
Corregidor and Bataan.
It doesn't seem long before we are ordered to take over the lead, and I
hear the words "Monkey Point". As I am running forward I chance to look down.
In among some broken slabs of concrete
there below me is our commander
Col. Jones. He's hunched down passing orders to his radio man. This
surprises me because Officers of his status never put themselves in
danger, don't they? Kinsler didn't, that's for sure. The Colonel
must have brass ones.
We're
now in an area that has man-made gullies. I expect they're to carry the
heavy rainfall towards the ocean, without scouring the landscape too
bad. A
road runs through the area and passes over a culvert. As I start to pass in front
of the culvert I am fired upon from someone in the culvert. I
am glad to know this, because I have seen guys who never even had a chance to
know they were shot.
I hit the ground and
look for a way to get in a position to lay fire into the culvert.
The culvert is
under the road and the gully runs parallel to the road. The gully
drain then makes a left as
it heads toward the sea. I drop back and call for a bazooka
gunner. Earl Shelton comes forward to me and I place him in a position at the left turn where he
has good cover.
"See if
you can hit the corner of the culvert without exposing yourself," I tell
him.
He
takes one quick look around the corner and gives me the nod. Second looks around
corners on this island are often fatal, and you don't even get to know you're
shot they're so quick on you.
"Wait
'til I'm in position to jump into the gully," I say. He knows
by now that I'm going in to kill anything that survives his shot.
I
move to a point directly above and in front of the
culvert, but where I'm protected by the bank of the gully. I give him the signal.
As soon as the round explodes I leap into the gully and spray 45 slugs into
three Japs I see. They are still moving, not in a effort to fight, rather, their bodies are falling forward as life leaves
them. One, an older man, has half the top of his head blown away. The bazooka gunner has proved his expertise.
I see a pistol hanging from the closest Jap's neck. I take my jump
knife and cut it loose. I carry it back towards the bazooka gunner.
"Nice shot,
here�s a souvenir," I say as I give Earl the pistol.
As I
climb out of the gully I see a piece of sheet metal laying against the hill,
slightly west of us. I shouted
to the trooper closest to it "Look out ,it may be a
sniper!" I watch him intently as he
cautiously moves up to a position directly in front of the sheet metal. He
reaches down, grabbed the sheet metal and slides it to the side exposing a small
cave occupied by a Jap. The Jap comes out swinging a bolo or
bayonet. I look on as the trooper falls back trying to shoot his
assailant, but his rifle misfires. He rolls down the hill with the Jap
after him until one of the other men shoot sand kills the Jap.
My
next object of concern is a group of 55 gal drums stacked two high forming a
half moon barricade against the face of the hill. In a crouch, I move up to the
drums and place my helmet on the barrel of my Tommy gun and raise it above the
drums, hoping that if there are any Japs hiding in there I could draw fire.
After several seconds with nothing happening, I extend my left arm holding the
gun and helmet, intending that if any Japs are in the enclosure, they will be
watching the helmet and allow me time to take a quick look inside.
I popped my
head up, am looking directly into a large cave. I see slight movement
from the corner of my left eye, and duck down safe, where I can ready a phosphorus
grenade. It's my last WP grenade, so I'd better get it right first
time. I pull the pin, wait very briefly and toss it toward the area where
I saw movement. The grenade goes off and before long, a lone Jap comes over the drums,
his clothes
smoking, running towards the tail of the island. The patrol are nearby and
will cut him down.
As I
move back toward the rest
of the patrol, something hits my right shoulder. I look down and see a small
something falling to the ground. I have no trouble reaching down for it,
and see it is an anonymous chip of shrapnel. As I attempt to draw my arm
back to me, I get a severe pain in
my shoulder. I suspect I am wounded, and try to move my arm to find out
why it is just hanging off me. The pain becomes unbearable as I tried to move my arm.
Trooper E, who is standing not far away, and who has seen something that I have
not, shouts "Medic!"
The medics
arrives and without as much as a "Howdy!" he sticks me with a
needle. We've been on this island long enough for me to know that he knows
what he's doing, and is too damn good at it. I am sitting behind
cover, whilst he hovers around me. He quickly strips me to the waist and
binds me in
adhesive from my neck to my lower stomach.
"Do
you think you can walk?" he shouts at me, as if I am hard of hearing,
simple, or worse - in shock. They help me to my feet and point me towards
the west. Trooper E comes over and calls at me.
"Nyk,
how many Japs in the enclosure?" I think for a moment, just
long enough to realize that I have no idea anymore, other than it is still a
place of danger, a place that can still kill him as it almost did
me.
"Forty."
He'll
be careful now.
(
I met Trooper E at a
association gathering, pleased to know he was still alive. He chided me that there were no more Japs in the
compound, but I couldn't help but feel he was still alive because, dazed as I
was, I loved him enough to refuse to allow him to drop his guard even for a
moment.)
I
stumble myself out of the gully and proceed west. I no longer recall how far I
walked. Time ceases to run, and distances contract
too. I pass the area where I saw Colonel Jones with his radio man
some time ago. How long ago, I can no longer recall. Ahead l see white objects,
incongruous, laying around the path that I am walking. I get closer
and see
they are shaped like cocoons.
"Body
bags," I think, "but why? We don't bag Japs."
It hits
me worse than shrapnel. We don�t bag Japs! These are our guys. As I pass
through this honor guard of dozens and dozens of our dead, our
squalid, battered and glorious dead, a
tightness develops in my throat, and tears smear my vision. It starts
hitting me, hurting me, and I sob �Oh God!� as my ears hear nothing but a ringing
sensation. I crumple to the ground between the rows of bodies as my vision
fades and darkness comes...
 |
