Evening star., 1945-10-16
Wainwright Tells of Hopeless He'll Defenders
OfButoun Faced as Hope of u. S. Aid Faded
Continued From First Page.)

and I, with Sergt. Carroll keeping
his eye peeled looking for planes
when suddenly Carroll let ous a
Texas yell. The Filipino driver
brought the car to shrieking stop
in the middle of the road and we
threw open the doors.
A Zero fighter was coming straight
down the road at us, very low and
tremendously fast.
There were two little bitches at
the side of the road. The driver hit
the dirt on the opposite side of the
road. Carroll dived into one of the
bitches. Hewlett took a dry dive
into the other ditch and went right
In there on his back as the Zero's
wing guns opened up.
The stream of bullets raced up
the road at perhaps 300 mp.h. and
bit right through the top of the
Packard.
Use Jeep Afterwards.
I got up off Hewlett's back feeling
foolish. hate to be grounding.
I used jeep after that. Pugh,
Dooley, Hewlett and I were bump
ing along in it one day when another
Zero nailed us from behind.
But this time there were no
bitches to hit, no sense even to
throw ourselves on the ground
which makes a soldier feel bad and,
in a situation like this, affords him
no more protection than if he just
stands and watches.
We had time only to get out of the
jeep and reach the side of the mar
row road. The bullets hammered
down the road and somehow missed
the jeep, but cut furrow within 1OI
feet of where we stood.
1t was bad feeling But Bataan
was a hopeless hell where every
thing was bad except the will to
live, the memories of home (as tor
tuous as they sometimes could be- !
and the eVer-dimming hope that
the great country we represented
would somehow find a way to |
help us.
About midway in the fight to push |
back into the water the JapS who
were attacking my rear flank, the
enemy began to hit us on the main
line to the north.
One strong Jap prong came down
a trail leading into the center of
the 11th Division and penetrated
nearly a mile, on a mile-Wide front
simultaneously, another Jap force
infiltrated deep down the gorge of
the Cotar River, intent upon link
ing with the force that pierced the
11th's line and pocketing q con-
siderabl number of our men.
Jap Forces Pocketed.
Instead, we pocketed the two
forces. The 1st Philippine Division
rounded up the smaller of the two
Jap forces in about week of fight
ing. The larger Jap force, the one
that bit into the front of the 18th,
was cornered by the 11th itself, plus
a battalion of the I'd Philippine
Constabulary, two battalions of the
91st Division and battalion of
the great 45th Infantry Scouts, un-
der 1t. Col. Lathrop.
Both trapped Jap outfits dug in
well, constructing not only foXholes
but a network of connecting tun-
nels. 1t took us II days to wipe
them out, II days of bitter fighting
during which our men up front who
had closed ranks after the JapS
burst through resisted all Jap ef-
forts to rip through to the pocketed
Nips.
1t was a savage ferreting job Rifle
fire and machine-gun bursts were
of little use, for the Japs were un-
derground We had so little in
fantry mortar ammunition left that
We could not lob a suitable barrage
into their holes.
So we had to go up and prac-
tically breathe in the faces of the
dug-in Japs. 1t was fighting that
would be considered fantastically
improbable if seen on a movie
screen. Junior officers with sacks
of grenades drove up to the enemy's
foxholes while sitting on the hoods
of our remaining tanks-and pegged
the grenades right down the fox
holes.
Igorot Rode Tanks.
Whenever the answering fire was 1
too tough, we called for volunteers
among the Igorot men of the 18th
Division. These incredible people,
the greatest guides I ever saw,
would ride the tops of tanks whose
were closed. and direct the
driver to the right foxhole by
with a club, first on one !
side of :the steel top of the tank
and then on the other. These
breath taking performances were
only some of the improvisations we
had to adopt to stick on Bataan as
long as we did.
Toward the end of the grim fer
reting the four landings along the |
China Sea to my rear were success !
fully repulsed and so on February
II was able to report to Macarthur
that the Corps now held every foot
If ground it had first occupied on ,
arrival at the reserve battle posi- !
ton.
From Corregidor Macarthur sent i
back a message saying, well done, E
Corps" t
I told him, too, in a subsequent {
report, what I thought of the splen-
lid work of several native officers, !
Brig. Gen. Segundo, for one, and t
he extraordinary Brig. Gen. Vim
;ente Lin, part Chinese commander /
IF the 41st Division. Gen. Linn was t
, graduate of West Point and of the
Infantry School at Fort Benning.
Many Officers Executed.
He retired from our Army as a n
n inr To mint the Philinnine arrnu