With machine-gun on hip, Yank rakes banzaiing Japs
Doughboy fires until barrel burns his hand as troops turn back attack on Okinawa
By Edward Thomas, United Press staff writer
WITH THE 96TH DIVISION, Okinawa (UP) – One Doughboy yanked a heavy machine-gun from its tripod and, with a belt of .50 caliber shells behind him, shot from the hip at the advancing Japs until the barrel burned his hand.
The Japs were trying another Banzai charge.
Thirty minutes later it was over, and 150 of the 250 enemy soldiers who had charged the 382nd Infantry Regiment were dead. The others 100 fled in confusion.
The Yanks were pretty busy during those 30 minutes.
Toss grenades chain style
They buried one of their comrades quickly on the ridge because they thought they were going to have to retreat, and didn’t want to leave his body behind.
They tossed grenades chain style from one man to another from the bottom to the top of the ridge, where the last soldier pulled the safety pin and hurled them at the oncoming Japs.
Scout mortars fired until the Japs had advanced so far that they seemed like they were firing straight up in the air, and had to cease for fear of hitting their own troops.
Fire 569 shells
A Marine battalion of 75s sent 569 projectiles crashing into advancing Japs in less than 10 minutes.
Men ducked back across open fields under enemy fire stole precious ammunition from other units and staggered back up the ridge loaded down “like pack mules.”
The company didn’t move an inch, and when it was over they recovered the body of the Doughboy they had buried, and he was brought back for decent burial with the others who died.
Marine trades ear for life of Jap lieutenant
ABOARD A USCG ATTACK TRANSPORT AT OKINAWA (UP) – Coast Guard correspondent John Walker McCain Jr. told today a story of a Marine who traded his left ear for the life of a Jap lieutenant.
The Jap leaped into the Leatherneck’s foxhole one dark night on Okinawa and sank his teeth into the Marine’s ear. The Marine plunged his knife into the intruder’s belly. The Marine won the ensuing death struggle but in his dying throes the Jap tore off his ear.
Aboard a hospital ship, the Marine displayed two souvenirs of his experience, a Jap sword and a silver cigarette case. The latter bore the name and emblem of a British bombardier. The Japanese had probably taken it from a British flier in a previous Pacific engagement.