Evening star., 1942-09-12
HurIbut
Continued From First Page. J

trated deep into the jungle and as
saulted the fortified enemy positions.
Company made the main con-
tact and wiped out the Jap forces.
Other companies helped make the
action a success by keeping the Jap
troops occupied until Capt. Spur
locks men had maneuvered into
attacking positions. The attack was
scheduled for this morning, but Com
pany z had its first action late yes
terday when it came upon a Jap
patrol in the jungle Six japanese
were killed in the encounter. There
were no marine casualties. zoe
Enemy Camoufiage Clever.
According to plan, an intensive
artillery barrage was laid down on
the Japanese camp to soften things
up for the attackers. Shortly, the
barrage lifted and Company K
moved from its overnight bivouac
to the Jap right flank.
This force was pinned down i'm
mediately by heavy machine-gun
fire and sniping from the enemy
lines. Mote to Gen. r. l.. Denig:
was with this bunch, boss, and 1t
was plenty hot. / took cover behind
a log that seemed no bigger than
tooJhpick, with bullets smacking
into the other side and kicking up
dust a foot to my right.) Greatest
difficulty was in picking out the
enemy firing points, so expert was
their camouflage.
| Meanwhile Company z had begun
closing in from its biyouac several
hundred yards up in the hills. They
soon encountered resistance. and
from then on were almost constantly
in action. They fought their way
through japanese outposts, and
Capt. Sprulock calmly reorganized
his company front and established a
firing line against the main Japa-
nese position.
Many Snipers in Trees.
Enemy forces were we'll dug in,
They had trenches and machine gun
nests and many snipers in trees.
Here agin their uncanny ability at
concealment was demonstrated. 1t
John E. Flaherty of Wilmington
Del, reports that while leading q
platoon he was fired on at least SO
times during the day by snipers
without actually seeing one.
One of our lieutenants and his
runner a private, we're active in
reconnaissance work, going well out
ahead to scout enemy positions
While they were moving in the open
our observers saw the private shot
and killed by sniper. The lieuten.
ant bent over the private to give aie
and was hit.
Marine Gunner Edward S. Rust ol
Detroit, Mich, said he saw the lieut..
enant, although mortally wounded
fire on the Jap sniper with his pistol
The Jap was found dead few feet
away with two slugs in his body.
The japanese automatic weapons
were described as being of three
sizes. One was light gun. presum.
ably 25-caliber: the second size wa
approximately that of our 3o-cali
Der, while the third was heav,
,, gun, repeatedly about .60-caliber
Three machine-gun nests held ul
the advance for a short time. Gun
, ner Rust performed what seemed
! an almost impossible feat by usinl
a rife grenade to knock out on
nest from a distance far beyond tn
/ usual grenade range.
The other two nests were knocke'
J out by marines charging under tn
! protective fire of rifles. One OF tn
i rifleflmen, Pvt. Nicholas Sileo
Brooklyn, N. Y, stayed at his pos
and kept blazing away until eigh
4 Japs were chased out of the mes
S he was covering.
s Shortly after the main resistanc
f was broken the enemy tried to ef
S feet a counterattack. Capt. Spurloc
o anticipated the action by estab
e fishing firing line in favorabl
: terrain About 100 Japs charge
e the line, brandishing bayonets an
yelling at the top of their lung
They were moved down by FIRE G
rifles and automatic weapons.
Pvt. Frederick Norcross of Dan
bury, Conn, and Pvt. Lawrenc
Gerkin of Washington. D. c., wer
specially commended by their S,
periors for coolness and braver
under fire.