The Ghost Mountain Boys - James E. Campbell [159]
Details of the early days on the Sananada Front are from Lieutenant Colonel Bill Sikkel, Carl Smestad, Martin Bolt, Wellington Homminga, other 3rd Battalion veterans, Medendorp’s report and his memoirs (he called them his “Reminiscence”), and the Major Boerem Force Journal in the National Archives.
Details of the establishment of the roadblock, including the savage attack led by Shirley and Keast, are from Milner, Carl Smestad, and a series of articles that George Weller wrote for the Detroit News and the Chicago Daily News.
Details of 2nd battalion’s move back east across the Girua River are from Lieutenant Robert Odell’s diary.
The story of Colonel Smith’s early efforts at the Triangle were told to me by Irving Hall. I filled out the story with details from Milner.
Early in the afternoon on November 21, Sergeant Irving W. Hall of Company F, 128th, was out in front, leading the company, when he noticed an enemy machine gunner ahead. It was a lucky catch. The machine gunner was preparing to mow down Hall’s men. Hall pretended that he had not spotted the machine gunner. He turned around to face his men and calmly instructed them to leave the track. Then he spun around, firing his tommy gun and splattering the enemy with bullets. It was a heroic move that allowed the company to avert disaster.
Smith immediately called for flanking movements. Company F went left, G moved right, H was sent right down the center, and E was held in reserve. On the right, Company G was soon mired in neck-deep swamps. The company, under 1st Lieutenant Theodore Florey, pushed on in hopes of finding better terrain. Hours later, it was still surrounded by nasty swamp. At 2100 hours, Florey halted his troops; it was senseless to push on in the dark. Florey must have been cursing his map. Despite the swamp’s vastness, on the map there was no indication that it even existed. How could the G-2 guys have missed the swamp?
Early the following morning, Florey and his men moved out. By noon they found dry land on a kunai flat. After consulting his compass, Florey realized that only a relatively small sago swamp separated Company G from its destination. In other words, Company G was in position to attack. But Colonel Smith balked. He was convinced that the company’s position was unsupportable.
Company F had only slightly more success. The terrain west of the Triangle was not as swampy, so initially it made better progress. But then it bumped into Entrance Creek, which was impossible to cross. At high tide, the creek was deep enough to be unfordable. It was also teeming with well-positioned enemy machine gunners.
Colonel Smith was prepared to pull Company G when he received news from headquarters forbidding him to do so. It had planned an attack for the following morning. It would begin with an airstrike on the Triangle and was to be followed up by a ground offensive.
Colonel Smith asked for a postponement of the attack, during which time he hoped to reconnoiter the area. His request was denied. He was heartened, however, by the arrival of Major Smith’s 2nd Battalion.
The story of the friendly fire was told to me by Erwin Veneklase and soldiers of Company G. I also relied on Milner’s and Mayo’s accounts of the incident.
Lutjens’ story is from his diary and a series of lectures he delivered on the Papuan Campaign after returning to the United States. Other details are from Odell’s diary.
Details on the Japanese counterattack come from Milner, Mayo, Gailey, and Herbert Smith.
Chapter 14. If They Don’t Stink, Stick ’Em
Just a week before, six Japanese warships had landed a thousand men, including three hundred replacements from the 144th Infantry and the 229 Infantry’s 3rd battalion—a unit of crack troops. Along with Colonel Hiroshi Yamamoto, they were sent east of the Girua River.
Gailey, quoting John Hetherington’s Blamey biography, writes that Blamey wrote Curtin, saying, “My faith in the militia is growing, but my faith in the Americans has sunk to zero…. American troops cannot be classified as attack troops. They definitely are not equal to