Evening star., 1946-01-13
CT Ferrets Track Down Enemy Secrets

AN important factor in the sue
cess OF our troops in World War III
,0as their knowledge OF enemy equip
nlent and ,OeaponS. Here is the story,
previously untold in many respects,
OF the men tuhoSe business is lUaS to
dig out these UeaponS so that our
fighting men could learn about them.
1t iCas Written By United States
Army correspondent tUho sa10 action
in the Pacifc.)
BY Sergt. Thomas Dundon
Distributed by the Associated Press)
The Doughboy wrote a final para
graph with his automatic rife and
rested his weapon on the volcanic rock
in front of him. His buddy added
rife shot for an exclamation point.
Another cave cleaned out. These
Okinawan hills were as full of holes as
Swiss cheese and maggotty with Japa-
nese. A soldier approached them, and
smiled a greeting.
"ASFEEIST," he said The two
Doughboys looked at each other blankly.
What's ASFEEIsT?" The newcomer
smiled and sighed patiently. IT'S my
Army job" he explained. "Just an
abbreviation for Army Service Forces
Enemy Equipment Intelligence Service
Team. I'm supposed to see if there's
any enemy equipment laying around in
that cave you've just cleaned OUT
Ia1l in hat
one of the Doughboys said, we're not
sure that all the Japs inside are dead.
Sometimes those little stinkers play
doggie just to get one of our people to
show himself We were just going to
blow the entrance shut and call it
day"
A Little 'know.How'
That's just what was afraid Of"
the ASFEEIST man said. But there
are plenty of guys in training thatll
get lot of good lessons from the stuff
in that cave Besides, there1l be a lot
of men from Europe out this way pretty
soon. A little know-how isn't going to
do them a bit of harm
The Doughboys recalled the training
they had received with japanese equip
ment in Hawaii. 1t had helped.
The ASFEEIST man climbed the slope
and listened intently outside the cave,
then craWled inside.
A few minutes silence and then the
click of a grenade. The Doughboys saw
he ASFEEIST man leap from the en-
trance and dive headlong into a ditch.
A second later, cloud of dust and
chippel rock mixed with the smell of
cordite emerged from the cave. That
mad been close!
Perilous Going
The ASFEEIST man stood up and ap-
preached the cave again, once more he
disappeared into the smoky darkness.
The Japanese inside probably had blown
himself to pieces with that last desperate
grenade, but you never could be sure.
Minutes passed. The Doughboys
breathed an audible sigh of relief when
the familiar American uniform emerged
from the smoke. Their ASFEEIST
friend grinned broadly. Four japanese
rifles, blood-stained packet of letters,
three helmets and an armful of jap
anese field equipment. Not bad haul!
The Doughboys waved farewell as
the heavy-laden soldier disappeared into
the drizzle.
short time later, at the Middle Pa
cific combat training center of the Ha-
waiian island of Oahu, an earnest young
lieutenant was addressing class of
troops who had fought and won war
almost hemisphere away.
Sound of Enemy Weapons
You're going to run into lot of night
action out here and your life may very
we'll depend on how we'll you can tell
Nip in the dark" the instructor said.
"One method of identifying the enemy
is to know the sound of his weapons"
The instructor pointed out several OPP
Grating features of Jap II rifle and
passed it around for examination
demonstration team stepped up to fir
ing line. One was armed with the MI
Garand, the basic weapon of the Ameri-
can infantryman. The other had the
Japanese ~.
We're going to fire five rounds from
each of these rifles" the instructor said.
You'll find that the MI has a louder
report, but the difference in sound is not
the only way to identify the IT, Notice
particularly how the rounds are spaced"
The doughboys listened as the rifles
were fired. The semiautomatic Garand
pumped off five rounds in quick success
sion. The n was bolt-operated and
much slower.
A Life-Saving Glass
This class was going to save lives!
After the rifle demonstration, vari-
ETY. of Japanese machine guns, mortars
and field pieces were demonstrated.
Later the men would learn to fire each
Of the weapons. become familiar with
their limitations and capabilities.