With the Old Breed_ At Peleliu and Okinawa - E. B. Sledge [50]
“He's close. Get down,” said an officer. The rifle cracked again. “Sounds like he's right through there a little way,” the officer said.
“I'll get him,” said Howard Nease.
“OK, go ahead, but watch yourself.”
Nease, a Gloucester veteran, grabbed his rifle and took off into the scrub with the nonchalance of a hunter going after a rabbit in a bush. He angled to one side so as to steal up on the sniper from the rear. We waited a few anxious moments, then heard two M1 shots.
“Ole Howard got him,” confidently remarked one of the men.
Soon Howard reappeared wearing a triumphant grin and carrying a Japanese rifle and some personal effects. Everyone congratulated him on his skill, and he reacted with his usual modesty.
“Rack 'em up, boys,” he laughed.
We moved out in a few minutes through some knee-high bushes onto the open area at the edge of the airfield. The heat was terrific. When we halted again, we lay under the meager shade of the bushes. I held up each foot and let the sweat pour out of my boondockers. A man on the crew of the other weapon in our mortar section passed out. He was a Gloucester veteran, but Peleliu's heat proved too much for him. We evacuated him, but unlike some heat prostration cases, he never returned to the company.
Some men pulled the rear border of their camouflaged helmet cover out from between the steel and the liner so the cloth hung down over the backs of the necks. This gave them some protection against the blistering sun, but they looked like the French foreign legion in a desert.
After a brief rest, we continued in dispersed order. We could see Bloody Nose Ridge to our left front. Northward from that particular area, 2d Battalion, 1st Marines (2/1) was fighting desperately against Japanese hidden in well-protected caves. We were moving up to relieve 1st Battalion, 5th Marines (⅕) and would tie in with the 1st Marines. Then we were to attack northward along the eastern side of the ridges.
On this particular day, 17 September, the relief was slow and difficult. As ⅗ moved in and the men of ⅕ moved out, the Japanese in the ridges on our left front poured on the artillery and mortar fire. I pitied those tired men in ⅕ as they tried to extricate themselves without casualties. Their battalion, as with the others in the 5th Marines, had had a rough time crossing the airfield through the heavy fire the previous day. But once they got across they met heavy resistance from pillboxes on the eastern side. We had been more fortunate: after getting across the airfield, ⅗ moved into the swamp, which wasn't defended as heavily.
With the relief of ⅕ finally completed, we tied in with the 1st Marines on our left and ⅖ on our right. Our battalion was to attack during the afternoon through the low ground along the eastern side of Bloody Nose, while ⅖ was to clean out the jungle between our right flank and the eastern shore.
As soon as we moved forward, we came under heavy flanking fire from Bloody Nose Ridge on our left. Snafu delivered his latest communiqué on the tactical situation to me as we hugged the deck for protection: “They need to git some more damn troops up here,” he growled.
Our artillery was called in, but our mortars could fire only to the front of the company and not on the left flank area, because that was in the area of the 1st Marines. The Japanese observers on the ridge had a clear, unobstructed view of us. Their artillery shells whined and shrieked, accompanied by the deadly whispering of the mortar shells. Enemy fire grew more intense, until we were pinned down. We were getting the first bitter taste of Bloody Nose Ridge, and we had increasing compassion for the 1st Marines on our left who were battering squarely into it.
The Japanese ceased firing when our movement stopped. Yet as surely as three men grouped together, or anyone started moving, enemy mortars opened up on us. If a general movement occurred, their artillery joined in. The Japanese began to demonstrate the excellent