The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963, 1945-03-12
Continued from Page y

NOOuLlnueQ from rage -
turned to our mortars, tore them
down, and with all our guns and
equipment We returned to the
beach. There we had supper and
dug in. 1t was a very quiet night
and We had no trouble with the
Japs.
I arose the next morning at day.
break and felt pretty lively after
getting a good nights sleep on
shifts. Three of us dug in together
and We slept for two hours, then
took an hours guard. There has to
be someone awake in each and
every hole all night long. I walked
over toward the ocean and the first
thing I noticed was a dead Jap
being washed to shore. A very
cheerful sight as it was not one
of our boys.
We pulled out of this area around
9 am. and moved up about 300
yards. Not long after We arrived
there the Japs, who were in the
hills before us, began to shell us
They only shot about five or six
shells, and thank the Good Lord
none were injured. We sat up our
mortars in case they needed fire
from our guns.
We sat around all morning and
in the early afternoon we received
our first orders to man our guns.
This I really enjoyed as / knew
some Japs were going to catch hell
We fired the first mission and our
1t. George claimed we had knocked
out Jap blockhouse which pleased
me to the utmost. 1t was later said
that our shells saved whole pla-
toon of infantrymen who had over
run their positions. do not know
If this was true or not. This was
the first time I had heard that the
front line boys really liked our A.
inch chemical mortar.
Around 4::30 that afternoon orders
came through to move back to an
assembly area. This type Of order
I depended on as we then move
away from the front lines.
At this area there were two wood
ed areas with an open space OF
about 5000 feet between them
Our platoon filled in that gap to
complete a straight line perimeter
I had just finished digging my
slit trench when one Of my foxhole
buddies, Pfc. Walter L. Baldree
of Wilson, N. c., said, Hey, Stone,
look!" AS I looked up I saw two
Saipan natives walking, one OF
them carrying a bucket, only about
Is feet to my right. They spotted
one of our soldiers with his car
bine and they took off. running
about ten feet in front of me.
They were returning to the wooded
area at my left when they saw
one of our machine guns and ran
as fast as their legs could carry
them. One of the soldiers hollered,
"tah-mah-reh," which means halt
in Japanese, but they kept on 60
ing. The machine gunner moved
them both down.
Another quiet night was spent,
and the next morning we got up,
ate those damn c rations and
moved up to the same area that we
were in the previous day. We fired
a few missions that day and dug in
for the night right there. I slept
very intentionally that night as
q big coral rock in my slit trench
kept jabbing me in the back.
The following day and night we
spent in that same locality, just
laying around and waiting for our
orders to move. Occasionally a Jap
mortar shell would come our way,
Just to remind us that they were
still on the island.
The next morning We were In
formed that we would not have
any more fighting to do at that
end of the island. I felt quite re-
lieved but knew we had he'll Of a
lot of fighting to do yet. We loaded
our mortars and ammunition ON
the carts and dragged the same
about a mile or so back up to the
tracks we had previously moved up
on. We came upon a ransacked ma
tive hut and took a break.
We stayed there close to four
hours when word came that trucks
would take our mortars and am
mnition, but we soldiers had to
walk and pull the empty mortar
cart. The mortar cart with the
mortar weighs approximately 400
4OO DOullUS dllQ ~ IdhCS AOAA hASAA
to pull one. It's a very rough affair
to drag them mostly up and down
hills.
Four OF us boys were told to stay
back and keep watch over some
equipment, one man from each Of
the four squads, and was one OF
them. There we were, just the four
of us, and no one else in sight.
I was really scared out there alone.
The trucks came back and took
part of the equipment and two
of the four men remaining. There
we were, Pfc. John Wingate, from
Georgia, and /. Then I was more
damned scared than ever. I thought
of a thousand things that could
happen, but wingate was calm as
a breeze. Every time something in
that house made the least bit of
noise, I thought 1t was a Jap.
I was damned happy to see the