Battle Cry - Leon Uris [206]
“I just can’t look those kids in the face…mine or the others.”
Huxley, Colonel Malcolm, and Lt. Colonel Norman of the Third Battalion came to attention and saluted General Philips. He ordered them at ease and they seated themselves about the field desk.
“You people can be proud,” Philips said. “Your First Battalion performed magnificently in their charge yesterday. I’ve never seen them better and that includes Belleau Wood. Does anyone have a cigar? Thank you.” He lit up and puffed away contentedly at Malcolm’s offering. “You men are about to make up for your light duties.”
A smile spread across the faces of Huxley and Norman.
“Colonel Norman, your battalion is to board ship and go to Apamama atoll to the south, immediately. A platoon of Jasco men is already on the way down to scout it for you. We don’t know what you are going to hit but we presume it won’t be too heavy. As soon as we hear from Jasco we’ll arrange for your landing.”
Philips opened a large map of Tarawa atoll. “As for you, Huxley, I hear your men have an affection for hiking.” Sam laughed politely at the joke. “Well, you might not be laughing when you are finished. Tarawa has forty miles of islands. You are to debark to Bairiki again and move down the entire chain until you get to Cora and you are to destroy any enemy left.”
“Aye aye, sir. Any idea of their strength?”
“Hard to say, Huxley, hard to say. We will never get an accurate count of the bodies on Betio. There may not be more than a handful of Japs left…again, there may be a thousand. You have the only battalion left that is in condition to handle this assignment. We should get some reports from the natives. Remember this, you are on your own. We haven’t a spare bean left. We can give you a dozen planes and one destroyer for support. The supply dump is on Bairiki. We’ll assign an alligator to move ammo and medical stuff and rations up to you each day. I want this job done quickly. Travel light—no packs, just water and ammo, period.”
“What does the General suggest in regard to heavy mortars and radio and telephone gear?”
“Give the heavy weapons men rifles. Take only enough radio stuff to keep in contact with your support and with Headquarters on Helen. Use light telephone stuff. Move fast. I’m assigning a squad from Jasco to work in front of your battalion. Good luck to both of you.”
CHAPTER 5
WE HAD been aboard the J. Franklin Bell nearly a month. We were all quite logy and unsteady at first. It was a blessing to be traveling light. Everything we carried was either in our pockets or on our pistol belts. The romance of the trek was exciting but it soon became evident that Highpockets had no scenic tour in mind.
We assembled and moved out quickly. Captain Harper, the gum-chewing skipper of George Company, took the point of march. He was followed by Shapiro’s Foxmen, Headquarters, Major Pagan’s weapons company, and the rear was brought up by Captain Whistler’s Easy Company.
Out a few islands ahead of the battalion a squad from Jasco scouted for us. They were reconnaissance specialists billeted at Fleet Marine Force Headquarters and were sent any place in the theater of war where their talents were needed. Many Jasco men were from the disbanded Raider battalions.
The tide was moving out of the lagoon. The only barrier between islands was ankle-deep water. Harper’s boys waded from Bairiki to Belle and stepped onto the path that ran close to the lagoon side of the island.
We moved along the path down Belle at a stiff pace. A few yards from the age-worn path was the still lagoon. On the other side of the path was light brush that sometimes thickened into jungle denseness. Clusters of palm trees were everywhere. They were smaller than the cultivated palms of the Lever Plantation on Guadalcanal.
The tinyness of the islands was amazing. Like their bastard cousin, Betio, the islands were long and narrow, running like a chain with links of water between them. They varied in length from several yards to several miles. The width was seldom more than a few hundred yards. Opposite