Chapter 40
"The approach march is being made with platoons intervaled at
two yards, with a squad on each side to protect
the flanks. Contact is maintained by connecting files and runners.
I can't distinguish any officers by their battledress, although there
are quite a few boys giving orders. This place is
certainly filling up. Here comes a medical detachment with a
casualty transport platoon, carrying rolled-up stretchers,
mmmand behind them is
a group of supply men with boxes of shells.". . ."Shells?
Are there any cannon present?". . ."No, Captain, that's what I
can't understand, unless they're smoke shells.". . ."Yes, they
mmmprobably are.
They'll fire them from knee mortars when they retreat or
change position. What other armament do you see?". . .
mmm"Only small
arms and automatic weapons. Rifles, light and heavy
mmmmachine guns,
grenade dischargers, mortars and Tommy guns. Riflemen
mmmpredominate, and each
carries three leather boxes of ammo attached to his belt.". . .
"Would you say that their intentions were defensive, then?"
mmm. . ."From
what I am able to observe, I would say that
they are preparing to reoccupy their defense positions in depth.
Men are already at work on slit trenches, and others
are digging communication trenches between squads.
mmmWork is being done
by groups of three or four men, while another is
posted as guard behind a light machine gun. A detail
is preparing a four-strand barbed wire fence, and others are
bringing up some short logs from the interior, and are
placing them on top of dugouts for buttresses against grenades.
Fire lanes, about two feet above the ground are being
cut in all directions, with concentrations at points where the
trails intersect and where routes of withdrawal have been
mmmindicated". . .
"Are there any weak spots?". . ."None that I can determine.
It is an all-around defense with no flanks, except the
stream, which may be relatively unprotected, although it's
mmmfairly certain
that sniper teams have got the approaches pretty well covered.
Here comes a group of men carrying empty oil drums
and it looks like they will use them for individual
rifle pits by sinking them in the ground flush with
the surface. They plan to place these in a loose,
flexible arc, but heavy machine guns situated at their rear
will give them strong supporting fire. Some Japs are trying
to hide the muzzles with strips of rice straw matting."
You break off. An enemy soldier with an entrenching tool
in his hand is approaching your place of concealment. Watch
him. He hasn't seen you. If he does, get set
to jump up and make a run for it. His
rifle is slung. By the time he's ready to shoot,
Egan and you can be twenty feet away, streaking for
cover. After that, you'll have to rely on the general
confusion to prevent your capture. Here he is. What's he
looking around for? This is the time to crawl into
your helmet until only your feet stick out. What if
he feels like taking a piss? No, he's looking for
loose soil. He stoops over and jabs his spade into
a pile of debris. You can reach out and goose
him if you want to. He's that close. Now he
grabs a handful of grass from a point an arm's
length from your nose, and rips it up by the
roots and you can hear each separate blade being torn
from the earth. He straightens erect again and turns around
and walks away to his hole with the dirt-laden shovel
and the tufts of long grass. You expel your breath.
Fear passes. But it leaves a record of its stay.
* * *
