Detroit evening times., 1945-09-25
Wermu+h Story Of Adventures:
Lack of Planes
Lost Philippines
lConttnued trOm PAEs onsl

Continued from Page ons)
the Jap avalanche but all my crack shots knew the
and had all the the world
We wsrs ordered to fall back to the Abueay Line,
some so miles auoy, and hold there at oil costs Our
main line still miles farther at MdbitunS.
oL GEORGE CLARK had the 57th at that time but ne was
~ replaced in AZ by Col. Arnold Funk
think the Battle Of the Philippines was fought
and lost right there at Abuesy. II we had had any
planes we'd be there yet
Japs outnumbered least Ave to onemaybe much
From what have heard since they probably outnumbered
by a great deal than five to
From jan to Jan. rs the battle ragged day and night
We depoyed road HOO strong, giving battle to
thousands Of Japs and In that period killed more than
5000.
We fought across open rice paddles through sluShy
water
We dug foxhOles In the paddles
We had land mines all around u.s. put up wire en-
tangIements and went to IL.
Caribou lent bizarre touch scene; they podded
slowly through the paddles as they always had done
Now then would step q land mine and that
would be the end Of the caribou.
RTILLERY was going all time. Col Limbock, who had
"A charge of artillery did grand job. giving remen
dous support without which couldn't have lasted long
Thank God the Jap artillery r00s as Inaccurate as
the Jao rifle fire.
Come to think of it, I thank God, also, that
the Jap using 27caibre bullets the day tDos shot
through the chest. N it had been of our babies
Wouldn't be here noUO.
and Bettys strafed and bombed and
had nothing to oppose them.
They'd generally in at WILL pastering u.s.
Amazingly had only three per cent killed in my
outfit
We had ourselves pretty well dug in with sand
bag revements
The Japs tried every trick they knew to nhltrae lines
They'd try slipping through night tanks but we'd
shoot the hell out of them grab them and finish them with
bayonet or knife.
One day they tried to break through with tanks.
They started tank convoy straight down the road at
but 1t Clare Knuc from home town. squashed that idea
a hurry
He blew the first tank to pieces yards with anti
tank the Of the Japs decided that discretion
the better part Of valor.
A THE battle developed and desperately Bs
became obvious that would be unable fight the
Jsps with conventional military tactics In regular units
We too hopeessy outnumbered for that So had
rely wits and devise various schemes for individual
exploits by several and often by alone.
eide snipers." The things did noy like thrill
ing adventure to read noW-but then it Wds grin,
game Of death With the highest stakes.
can tell you that you don't think Of being hero
Dhen you jump into ditch, thinking it's shelter from
doWnpour of enemy fire, only find yourself staring
into the very eyes of Jap he raises his gun to
write fnis to your career.
THAT happened will relate later in this series.
Most of sngehanded exploits accomplished at
night but learned lot Of tricks about how to detect the little
men Of Nippon before they spotted
Once burned whole town Of Japs-but that's story
all in itself.
Tomorrow Capt Wermuth tells how he organized his
suicide snpers" to nhltrate into the Japs ranks
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