Evening star., 1942-06-13
Jonuory r.
up to the front.
by Jap snipers.

"eh' wa" wiz NJ 1Hc general
apparently never thinks Of his per-
sonal safety. I finally told him:
Dead generals don't make good
generals" He laughed and agreed
to retire.
Plenty of infantry and cavalry
are now cleaning up the Japs. whom
they find in considerable force.
+ Gen. Macarthur reported that
all central front positions lost to
the Japs two days before had been
recaptured in counterattack. He
added that a single Yank raiding
party in Northern Luzon had put a
Jap garrison to flight. killing ll0D
Our 1st Division has been with
out food for two days Gen. Sc
gundo made his way back along the
beaches to report his troops are
outnumbered three to one. We
couldn't find enough barges to take
food to them.
The next day a Jap army of
25O,0O0 to 10000 men attacked Mac
Arthur's lines in Bataan. Subic
Bay fell to the enemyD
Didn't Eat in Four Days.
Jonuory a. The hhs ist to [etiqe plvli'qn
along the beaches. A quarter OF
them wore only underwear. None
of them had eaten in four days.
Enemy dive bombers are bombing
necessarily, circling and dropping
bombs as they please. They are
coming very close to our command
post. keeping us in foxholes much
Of the time
CThe next day Washington said
Gen. MacArthur's report was mot
optimistic Jap warShips were
bombarding the west coast Of Ba-
taan and heavily reinforced Jap
landing forces were advancingD
Jonuory 26-ci cided to Withdraw
to a shorter line south of Pillar
Bigac road. He's in good spirits
despite the bad situation. The COM
mand post was moved again The
general. Johnny, Tom and I went
up to bring in the rear guard. The
dusty road was jammed by buses.
Troops were walking, riding and
sitting everywhere We directed
traffic a while until the rear guard
came along Then we fell in be-
hind The Japs were only l kill
ometer behind us.
Our Pillar Bigac line is much bet
ter prepared than the other. We
feel confident we can hold out for
a while
Gen. Wainwright and Tom had a
tough time this morning. Jap bomb
ers being plentiful, they spent more
time in the bitches than they did
in the car.
I had a haircut, shave and a
bath today. I feel like a newly
sheared lamb. The road is very
dusty. I hope and pray every one
is well at home.
Japs Good Jungle Fighters.
The troops. including the Air
Corps Pursuit Squadron, are very
willing to attack. The Japs are
good jungle fighters. The way to
beat them is to use their own
methods.
Their airplanes fly over us most
of the day That whistle of their
planes is driving me nuts. I'm sure
l feel worse about it than any one
here, because I've been trained to
fight in that element but haven't
got an airplane to use against them.
They roam around like cub planes
at a municipal airport, machine
cunning and bombing wherever they
see fit, without opposition. Four Of
our P-40s bombed boats in Subic
Bay, strafed roads and shot down
two Jap dive bombers. certainly
hope we can get planes here.
There was good news today about
our airplanes bombing conveys
headed south and United States
destroyers sinking eight Jap ships.
1 also heard a good rumor that
part of our Asiatic feet met part Of
the Jap fleet and shot them up con-
siderably in Macasssr Straits.
(The official comnunique Of the
same day stated United States
cruisers and destroyers in Macassar
straits had sunk five enemy trans
ports and probably another one, In