Evening star., 1943-06-11

to ride with him a few miles down
the Nagilien road. the northernmost
OF the two roads from Baguio down
to the Lingayen Gulf shore. They
have just set fire to Jan Marsman's
oil storage tanks" he said. ito keep
the oil from falling into the hands
OF the Japs. and it is quite a sight"
Juan refused to 60, but Carlos and
rode on down. past numerous SEN
tries who challenged us in the
blacknesS. We saw the fires from
a couple Of miles away.
The road curved sharply down
the mountain. and as we rounded
corner we pulled up short to keep
from hitting truck parked in the
middle of the road. BY the light
OF the fires We could see a long line
OF trucks and buses stretching
around the bend past the burning
tanks and then out OF sight down
the hill, Filipino soldiers were
standing quietly by the roadside. or
sitting impassively in their trucks
and buses.
We located two American officers
They were both young and one was
tall and dark and the other me-
dunn sized and blond, with his
trousers torn of at the knees and
one shirt sleeve gone We put our
feet on the retaining wall and
leaned our elbows on our knees and
looked at the fires. Finally, the
officers started talking.
Macarthur has sure cot us
sleWed, stewed. and tattooed with
these green troops" said the tall
one.
Those airplanes have really cot
us switched. twitched, and be-
witched,' said the other.
What happened?"
They told the story, each supple
menting the other.
we were sent up here A while
ago and stationed on the beach At
the junction OF this road and the
one to Vigan. to the north up tn.
gulf. This regiment was formed
three days ago. and most OF the
troops hadn't been in uniform for
more than couple of weeks.
We dug in on the beach as we'll
as possible, and got our guns set
up. We had a few one -fiftv-f1v.s
and a couple OF seventy-fives and
some flfty-caliber machine guns.
We sat down to wait.
Last night We saw lights on shins
long way off shore and this morn
Ing the gulf was thick with shins
i'hey were anchored in a straight
line. about half mile offshore. dj-
rectly in front of us at Bauang and
all the way down to Da Mortis.
About 7:30. when it was fully
light, the Japs started coming ashore
IN landing boats. Meantime, as soon
as we could see. our guns opened on
them and We sank one or two of
their ships. They were small, about
5000 tons.
These green troops had never
heard shooting before and when our
155s fired for the first time we looked
around and saw about half OF our
forces heading for the hills. They
just left their rifles and machine
guns and took off.
While the landing boats were still
coming in the Japs hit us from the
air. They came low and bombed
and strafed but didn't do very much
damage. Most of their bombs went
wild.
LAS the Japs hit the beach the
planes went away.
I'VE opened with our .5O-ca alibers
and started moving the Japs down.
The Japs didn't seem to know what
to do when they ran into our fire.
They looked like bewildered young
kids. Every third one had a baby
machine gun. Even though the first
ones were cut down the others kept
coming, like men in a hypnotic
trance.
Those Japs may be first-class
troops, but if we'd had 5000 Ameri-
can soldiers and so airplanes. the
gulf would be full of floating bodies
tonight and we'd still be sitting there
On the beach. Those Japs looked like
frightened kids to me. The only
trouble was, our own kids were more
frightened. That and the fact we
didn't have any airplanes."
I asked, How many warships were
with them? Did they cover the
landing with barrage?"
They didn't shoot hardly at all
from the ships" they said. we
saw only two ships that looked like
destroyers. The rest were trans
ports
l asked. Didn't some of our ships
get in among them and m,lss them
up? Where were our submarines?"
I'VE haven't seen one of our ships
since the war started. And we heard
that Tommy Hart has taken his
submarines down to Java"
Where were our airplanes?"
We saw one about 10 days ago.
but that was the last"
They called over one of the Fill
plnos, a green youngster who had
stuck and fought and l questioned
him. He said, 1t is very difficult to
| tight airplanes with rifles. sir"
The blond lieutenant said, Those
alrplanes have really got us tripped.
stripped and whipped. For Gods
sake, if you get chance, tell them
back home that we need airplanes."
BY the freight I made one more
notation in my book.
The officers said the Japanese
had kept coming ashore for hours.
despite their losses, and that finally
our forces had to withdraw. BY
that time it was afternoon and the
Jap planes had returned either to
their carrier or to one of the fields
they had seized in Northern Luzon,
and had refueled and come back.
Our troops dumped everything they
could carry into their trucks and
drew back up the road to Baguio.