The Ghost Mountain Boys - James E. Campbell [133]
Simon Warmenhoven had been moving between the Triangle and the Sanananda Front, stitching up troops and supervising the portable hospitals, making sure that they were performing as intended. For the last month and a half, he had only had one break and that was when he himself was hospitalized with a temperature of 105 degrees. Now, he finally had a moment to write home again.
Dearest Lover:
And how’s my Mandy to-day? Been patiently waiting for the letters that just don’t come any more lately? Well, honey, from now on they’ll be coming in like old times. I’ll be writing at least three a week again. It just couldn’t be helped for awhile, and I’m sure you realize the reason. Hope you didn’t worry too much about it. I’ll assure you I’m safe and sound for which I’m very thankful. Will say that I’ve said plenty of prayers. I assure you on that point too that if anything happened, I wouldn’t be afraid, but I do hope that we all may be together again…. I sure want to see my Mandy again, and Muriel and Ann, and also Simon Jr. I’ll bet he’s getting to be quite a boy already. Another two months and he’ll be sitting at the high chair pounding with a spoon for his meals…. I had the lovesick dream last night…. when I woke up…. I found myself lying in my cot in our native hut. I dreamed that I’d returned back home, and that we didn’t get along…. Wish I could dream that I was making love to you…. Remember New Year’s Eve last year? Walking in New Orleans…. Well, Goodbye darling. Love to the children.
All my heart’s true love.
Sam
Flashes of lightning lit up the coast. Before dawn on January 2, Japanese troops were fleeing any way they could. Twenty Japanese soldiers, carrying heavy packs, food, medicine, and three machine guns, tried to make a run for the stranded landing barges, hoping to somehow get them into the water. A company of 127th soldiers caught them in the act, and cut them down with machine guns and rifles.
Not long after, as the first rays of sunlight filtered through the clouds and splashed across the sea, White Smith’s troops and the men of the 128th Infantry’s 1st Battalion, which had established a stronghold between the Government Station and Giropa Point, saw Japanese soldiers swimming up the coast.
By daylight, in a scene reminiscent of General Horii’s attempted escape two months earlier, Japanese soldiers by the hundreds, grabbing on to anything that would float, took to the sea. American and Australian machine gunners sprayed them with bullets. Then the artillery opened up. By 10 o’clock that morning, the air force was strafing the remaining swimmers. Those who had not already drowned were shot to death.
At the same time, American artillery pulverized Buna Government Station, and white phosphorous smoke shells set the entire area ablaze. Japanese soldiers ran from their bunkers, and American troops cut them down. Some of the Japanese were carrying M-1s and wearing American helmets and fatigues.
Stenberg’s patrol went from bunker to bunker and destroyed each one with grenades. Sometimes the Japanese burst out swinging swords or bayonets. A number of Japanese climbed trees and hid, or rushed into the swamps. Those who remained in their bunkers, refusing to surrender or run, were buried alive.
While the Americans stormed Buna Government Station and flushed out the last of its defenders, Australian tanks were destroying the remaining bunkers at Giropa Point. As the Australians approached what had been Colonel Yamamoto’s command post, two Japanese officers appeared. One was Yamamoto and the other Captain Yasuda, who earlier had left the Government Station to join Yamamoto.
“Surrender,” the Australian commander shouted to the two officers. “You must surrender.”
Yasuda and Yamamoto pretended not to hear the order. Yasuda drifted off into a grove of coconut trees, while Yamamoto appeared to be washing himself in the muddy